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.

MAY 23rd

Tahir was beneath me, and I was trying so hard to hold onto his hand, but I saw him slipping away from me, saw him falling to earth. "How could you fail me like this, Jake?" said his accusing face as he moved fell to his death. I started to scream, but the screaming did no good.

And then the Badiya Ahmar palace faded away, and in its place was a canyon. Marutuk and I were both falling towards the earth. I screamed in terror as I fell and tried to get away from Marutuk, but he held onto me, and we slammed into the canyon floor together.

I woke up from the cruel nightmare, screaming. I sat up quickly.

Where was I? My surroundings were totally unfamiliar. I realized that I was in Big Horn's wickiup. It appeared to be morning, and I was still dressed in my clothes from the day before.

I saw Big Horn, who was about as far away from me in the wickiup as one could get, having made himself another sleeping area, wake up and sit up quickly. That's when I realized I was still screaming, and I stopped myself.

He pulled his wood staff out.

"Are we under attack by vampires?" he asked.

"No."

"A buffalo stampede? Is that what you're screaming about? If so, we'll need to get you out of here fast."

"Not a stampede." I wiped tears out of my eyes, trying to calm myself down. "I just had the worst nightmare. Marutuk held me and made me fall to my death. And Tahir. I couldn't hold onto him, and he fell down to his death, this time blaming me with his words."

"Wait a second, let me get this straight. You woke me up screaming just now not because we were under imminent danger, but because you had an unpleasant dream?"

"It wasn't a dream. It was a terrible nightmare."

"Is that some implication that this was one of your One visions like you had when you the previous One died? A vision of his death that feels totally real?"

"No, this wasn't a vision. It was just a bad dream."

He huffed. "And why are you crying like that? Are you in pain?"

"I do feel bruised and battered, but these tears are not because of physical pain. I was crying because my dream was so traumatic."

He crossed his arms. "You want to know the last time I woke up from a dream screaming and crying?"

"I'm guessing I don't."

"Well, I'll tell you anyway. I was six years old. And even then, I chastised myself for overreacting and not being mature enough to handle a little dream. I guess that second half of my moniker for you is more accurate than I ever knew."

"Wow Big Horn, maybe someday my balls will get as big as yours."

"I think that's pretty much a genetic impossibility."

"So do I. Is it really too much for me to ask for you to show me a little bit of sympathy for my trauma?"

"It is when it wakes me up in the morning after having one of the most trying physical days of my life. Oh yes, in this camp, physical trauma trumps emotional ones a thousand times over. Marutuk knocked me so hard, he turned my insides into pulp. And to make matters even direr, you were conveniently unconscious the rest of the day, and I had to heal all your wounds with my blood. And now, all I needed was to sleep in order to completely finish healing, and you've ruined that."

"Well, go back to sleep, then. I won't wake you again."

"Not only is that a promise you can't keep, with you already demonstrating just how much of a slave you are to your dreams, but I'm much too awake now to go back to sleep this morning. You see? This is exactly why I have never let anyone share my wickiup before."

"Well, I'm sorry to be the one to break your wickiup's virginity like that, but I don't remember you presenting me last night with an overwhelming number of alternative sleeping places last night."

"That's because I knew I had thrown away my powers, so I couldn't teleport you anywhere else. Otherwise, you would not have been sleeping here."

I pulled my shirt up and looked at my stomach. "You were able heal me?"

"I used my blood to completely heal your uterus. The only parts of you that aren't working just as they were before are your ovaries. Those wouldn't heal. But I guess that's more of a blessing in disguise, isn't it? Not being able to get pregnant means you will be that much less attractive to psychopaths like Marutuk."

I started to cry, and I walked towards him.

"What's the matter?" he asked me. "I forgot one of your wounds last night, didn't I? That's why you're in pain? I'll get it now."

I made my way to him and put my arms around him, putting my head into his muscled pecs. "You didn't miss anything, I'm just upset and need to feel your warmth."

"What? Even more emotional pain this morning? And now, in the name of emotional weakness, you have violated my personal space needlessly? Can't you see I made a separate bed for myself last night quite purposefully?"

"Well, too bad, right now I need your physical support."

"I can think of about a million chores and tasks I could and should and would be doing right now that would be far more productive than giving you physical support."

"Well, I cannot function until you give it to me, so in the name of you having any prayer of getting those chores done at some point today, you'll just have to suck it up and let me hold you."

"Hmmph. Hmmph."

"Wow, a rare double `hmmph' from you, you must be severely disapproving."

"Why are you so sad right now anyway? Is it because of what I said, that these maniacs who are trying to procreate with someone that will give them powerful offspring will stop finding you attractive?"

"No, that is a total positive."

"So this is about you being sad you lost Marutuk's baby?"

I rolled my eyes. "No. This is about me no longer being capable of having kids. I always wanted to be a father, and for a while, it had seemed like that's something that my future would hold. But now that future has been ripped out of me. Not that I expect you to understand any of this."

"No, I do not. I never understood why anyone would ever want children."

I sobbed into his chest. "Can you please just act like you care at least and put your arm around me?"

"I can't see what that will accomplish. Wait a second, is this some thinly veiled attempt to seduce me?"

"Forget it," I said, moving off him completely. "Oh, Pavlov is here, and Blackbeard!"

They were curled up together sleeping in a corner of the wickiup. The dog heard me say her name and came up and greeted me happily, licking me on the face. The mongoose heard me say his name, but only looked at me angrily for taking away his cuddling companion.

"Aww, how sad it is when your dog is more emotionally supportive to you than your close friend. Big Horn, I could be your shoulder to cry on, you know."

"The only thing I'll be crying over is how much I regret letting you sleep in my sacred personal space last night."

"What about you betraying your vow about not killing? Doesn't that eat you up?"

"It absolutely destroys everything I thought I was. I am devastated."

"Then where's the tears?"

"There's no point in crying about it."

"Wait a second, did you assume your powers were gone without even trying to use them?"

"I suppose. But I know for sure my powers are tied to my vow of not killing."

"But how can you be sure until you try?"

"I'm sure."

"Well, before, you seemed pretty sure that me seeing your penis would be a detriment to your powers. But I saw your dick all up close yesterday while Marutuk had you blacked out, and you ended up teleporting later on without any issue. So you must have been wrong about that."

"First of all, I never said that not letting anyone see my phallus would keep me my powers. I said I didn't know what would happen if someone did see it, and I never vowed or swore to keep it from being seen, like I did with the not killing. Second of all, you are disgusting."

"Me? What do you mean?"

"You eye-raped me when I was blacked out! How could you take advantage of me like that when you knew it could have killed my favorite power for life!"

"I didn't eye-rape you! In fact, if anyone raped me, it was you! Marutuk put you under his mind control, and I had no idea it he was in your head when you came out and showed me your penis, and then proceeded to top me."

"How much intelligence does it take for someone to see through the man who shows off his penis and forces you to bed as probably not being the genuine article?"

"Just try to open a portal, Big Horn. Just once. I bet you will be able to."

"I guess, for the first time, there's no need to do this behind the loincloth, since you are now sickeningly familiar with my naked phallus, as unpermitted as it was."

He stood back, and stuck his right hand underneath his loincloth. He grabbed his soft shaft and pulled it free of the loincloth. I gasped. He was so, so beautiful. His brown foreskin covered his large head completely. His shaft was enormous, fat and covered with dark veins.

With his right hand, he started to spin his dick around, at first slowly, then quickly. His soft, huge meat really had a lot of mass to it, so it swung around with a lot of real power. His dick was so long, even with his hand completely wrapped around the base, plenty of inches were left out in the open.

"See? That's nothing. Nothing is happening."

"Well, are you sure you're doing it right?" I asked. "You could be tired and sloppy."

"Oh, let me guess, you would be the first one to give me a hand and try it yourself, wouldn't you?"

"That's not what I was getting at."

"I think I've done this long enough to know exactly when the power has left me. And right now, it's just and empty shell of what it used to be."

"I'm really sorry about you losing your powers, Big Horn, especially since you lost them in order to save my life. I know you used to teleport to Fools Gold to get blood there. How are you going to survive here without blood without your teleportation powers?"

"I'm a fast walker, and Fools Gold is still just a two-day walk for me. I can get stock up on blood packets there and carry them back. There's also an unmanned ranger's station about an hour from here. It has electricity, first aid supplies, clean water, and blood packets, though not an endless supply."

"You can feed off me as long as I am here, Big Horn, and consider that an open invitation for as long as we are together."

"Hmmph. Much too awkward, I'll pass. I've got plenty of blood buried in the ground in the hole I built where I keep my perishables. Anyway, you may be worried about how losing my powers will affect me, but I can't stop thinking about how they will affect you."

"Oh, you mean Jericho? He banished me from the Territory. As soon as he decides to look up where I am with his power and finds me here, he'll come here to kill me."

"No, he won't. You see, this whole area is technically not the Territory. It's a reservation, set up for me by his father. He may still have the authority to give me orders, as my Blood leader, but he cannot claim you are in a breach of your agreement when you are here. Otherwise, I would have never brought you here in the first place."

"Oh, that's extremely reassuring, thanks."

"And I could get you back to modernity without ever stepping into the Territory. But without my portals, getting you to the other three Bloods is going to be so much more difficult. We'll be forced to take airplanes, I suppose, something I've never had to do."

"Big Horn, you'll need a passport to board an international flight."

"You do?"

"Yes!"

"Well, good thing Parker made me take a fake passport a couple years ago, when he was worried I might need it sometime."

"I'm pretty sure they will not let you board in just that loincloth. You'll have to wear one of my outfits."

"My ancestors' choice of clothing covers all the necessary parts of my body. They will let me board. If anything, you are ashamed to be scene with me in modern public."

"That is not the case."

"You may not admit it to even yourself, but I can see the way you look at me."

"How come I'm not allowed to be right about one little thing with you? Why am I always wrong?"

"You're not always wrong. You're right about things all the time."

"I am?"

"Sure. About everything you've ever said that I agree with. The major personality flaw you have is that you would ever, ever try to disagree with me. Because I am always right."

"The sad part is, you're not even kidding right now."

"I have never been more serious, Crazy Kid. Anytime you disagree with me, you are bound to be wrong."

"I can think of one thing you were completely wrong about."

"Oh, really?" he sounded suspicious.

"Yeah. Me being a bottom. I am so not a bottom."

He flexed his crossed arms. "You are too."

"Maybe you just don't have enough checkboxes to fit my category. Since I am not a top, but I am not a bottom either. I really just like oral at the most."

"I already have an oral only checkbox in my categorization. I have so many categories, you wouldn't have even fathomed they existed. And you are not oral only, Crazy Kid. You can keep telling yourself that but it's not true."

"You're wrong. Who are you to tell me what I like and what I don't like? It's my body, not yours."

"The sooner you'll accept that I am always right, the happier you'll be. And now that my powers have left me, there's no need to keep me from offering to prove it to you."

"You're suggesting topping me? Right now?"

"Why not? I think my body is still too sore right now to do my normal chores, but a couple hours could do wonders."

"Fine, but like I said, I'm not looking forward to this. I hate it. I'm just doing this to prove a point to you."

"As am I. I'm really in too much pain to enjoy myself this morning. My phallus is all too dead to feel anything you do to me. I'm not getting off here, I'm just proving my point."

"Shall we do it right here?"

"It's warn enough morning to go outside. Do you have any lube we could use?"

"Yes," I said, fishing into my backpack. "I also have some of Parker's anesthetic serum, should I put that inside me to lessen the pain?"

"No. I know your tactic well, and it's not going to work here."

"What is my tactic?"

"You always use stuff like that when you are topped to convince yourself the outside factor is the only reason why you might feel pleasure. You do the same thing with vampire bites, so I won't be biting you either. You'll just have to take me like a real bottom would."

"The chances of you winning this bet are getting less and less likely by the second."

I grabbed the lube and followed Big Horn out of the wickiup, and into the pleasant Texas morning light. He led me to the pretty stream nearby his camp.

"Let's get undressed," he said.

I laughed at him. "I wouldn't really call your choice in clothing as technically being dressed, Big Horn."

While I took off all of my shirt and shoes and folded them neatly, he took off his loincloth.

He used my lube all over his uncircumcised flesh-stick, making himself totally hard and scary to look at. He sat down cross-legged in the grass of the stream bank, with his hard penis pointing upwards.

He shut his eyes. "Okay, now that my eyes are firmly closed, you can finish getting undressed. I'll keep them shut throughout the whole endeavor."

I laughed. "Big Horn, you are about to be inside me. I don't care at all if you see me naked in the process."

"I do. You are just a friend to me, not a romantic partner. I am doing this not for any benefit of myself, but because I think you would be better off knowing yourself. As your friend, I am certainly not concerned about bringing you anymore sexual pleasure than is absolutely necessary to prove my point, that would be irresponsible. Also, as a friend, I promise you that what we are about to do will not bring me pleasure. You know that my phallus is too numb to feel pleasure right now, but I want you to be assured that I won't be taking pleasure in this act in any other fashion. That's why you will keep from touching my body as much as you can."

"So, I can't kiss you? And I can't hold you during this?"

"No."

"Well then, the odds of this working in your favor keep diminishing."

"In order to make this work, you have to do everything I ask of you, just as I ask you to do it. Do you promise you will?"

"Yes, I promise."

"Good. Now, I'm not going to do anything but sit here this whole time. You are going to put yourself down on me, as slowly as you need to go."

"As slow as I need to go, huh? You might be here until fall."

"I am in no hurry. Go ahead and get started."

Facing him, I straddled his body with my legs, lowering myself until my hole was against his tip. I pushed slowly down until he was a centimeter inside me. I let that settle for a moment, and then I pushed down.

His whole head slipped quickly inside me, and I shuddered in pain and shut my eyes.

"What is going through your head right now? Tell me."

"I'm having flashbacks to all the horrible times I've been forced to bottom and it's been painful like this. Jericho, Lucky, Edmund, Marutuk, Runihura."

"No. You cannot go to that place of hurt right now. You're letting those memories get in the way of your pleasure. Open your eyes. Crazy Kid, repeat after me, and let the words you are saying be real, just as you promised."

"I will."

"'I am too strong to let old pain and trauma impact my current sexual pleasure.' Say it!"

"I am too strong to let old pain and trauma impact my current sexual pleasure."

"'Horrible sexual atrocities have been forced on me in my past, and chances are, horrible sexual atrocities will be forced on me in my future. No matter what comes my way sexually, I will not let any of that trauma ever affect my sex life.' Say it and mean it!"

"Horrible sexual atrocities have been forced on me in my past, and chances are, horrible sexual atrocities will be forced on me in my future. No matter what comes my way sexually, I will not let any of that trauma ever affect my sex life."

"'From now on, a physically painful moment during what should be positive sex will be what it should be, just a physical pain, and not bring with it any bad sexual memories.' Say it!"

"From now on, a physically painful moment during what should be positive sex will be what it should be, just a physical pain, and not bring with it any bad sexual memories."

"'That's not to say those who commit sexual atrocities should be forgiven for their crimes. Only that I will keep my hatred and pain I feel for them and keep it out of all future sexual encounters.'"

I said the last part out loud as well. And as I finished saying his proclamations, I truly did feel the power of those promises. I felt my sexual traumas floating away, not gone completely, but banished to the back of my mind so that all I could focus on was this moment.

"How do you feel now?"

"Still in pain."

"But?"

"But, the pain is just the pain. All the visions have left me."

"Good, good! Now that all the distractions are gone, I still have to prove to you that you are a bottom. Now, I want you to move down on me so slowly, it won't cause you pain."

I kept an open mind and slowly moved down millimeter by millimeter.

It took me twenty minutes of sliding before I even made it to the point where his tip hit my prostate, sending pleasure through my body.

I reached the bottom a couple minutes later, and when I did, there was only more pleasure.

I started to move up and down on him, the movements even feeling good.

"Oh my goodness. Big Horn, you were right. I'm a bottom."

"I told you!"

"How did you know so soon after meeting me? Was there something I did that gave it away? Did you think I wasn't as masculine as the other tops?"

"Masculine?" he asked. "Wait a second, is there some social stigma in your world about bottoms?"

"I suppose there is."

"No, you seem just as masculine to me as anyone else, Crazy Kid."

"Then how did you realize?"

"Might as well come clean, now that my powers are gone. My portals do more than I ever told."

"What exactly do you mean?"

"They tell me some basic information about everyone who goes through them. Very specific sexual preferences included. If someone isn't sexually experienced, like you were the first time you went through my portal, it doesn't tell me what they prefer at that single moment. It tells me what they were meant to be, what they will become if their misfortunes don't affect their sex lives."

"So, what did it say for Parker?"

"He was a top, just like me. As was Tahir."

He pulled out of me and got to his feet, setting me down.

"What are you doing?!" I asked.

"We've established that I continue to have my record of being right unbroken, so what's the point in continuing?"

He turned away so he couldn't see me naked before opening his eyes again. He walked into the stream and washed his body off in the cool water, turning flaccid again as the water touched him.

I jumped in the cool stream water too, hoping he would let me touch him, but he quickly finished washing and left me alone, putting his loincloth on and walking out of sight. I finished bathing on my own, getting cold real fast, before putting my clothes back on.

By the time I got back to the wickiup, Big Horn was gone, off doing who knows what. He had left me food and water, which I started to go through. I put Pavlov and Blackbeard on chains outside of the wickiup, and fed them both dog food, got them watered.

Soon, I was drawn to my phone. I contacted the vizier, and told him Marutuk was dead, but Big Horn had lost his teleportation powers, and we were stuck in America.

Not even a blind man would have missed the thousands of anxious messages I had from Maxim. I messaged him, telling him that Marutuk was dead, but after killing him, Big Horn lost his teleportation powers and now we were stuck in the Territory, at Big Horn's camp.

Again, almost immediately, I got another message: "Tell me you're not hurt, my solnyshko."

"I'm bruised and battered, but still alive."

"You should have seen my fire dragon come out just then, bigger and angrier than ever. My only small solace is that Marutuk is dead, and I hope his death was long and horribly painful, for that is what he deserves for hurting you. Please, I'm begging you, give me your coordinates and I will fly straight there. I'll pick up your battered body, and I'll never let you go again. Please, let me take you home. This house yearns for your return, is lost without you. We'll bring Big Horn too if you want. I'll nurse you back to health, you know how much I love to do that for you. Please, you have to know you were meant to be loved by me. Once you are all better, we'll go to the other three Bloods together, with me there to protect you at all times. Wait a second, there's something you've left out, haven't you? In an effort to spare me the pain? Please, you have to tell me."

He knew me too well. I started to cry again. "In order to keep Marutuk from killing Big Horn, I had to damage my own body, Maxim. I had to kill his baby inside me, which was surprisingly easy emotionally, if not physically. But I also had to destroy my ovaries, and they are the one part of me that won't be nursed back to health. They are gone. Permanently."

"Oh no, my solnyshko. Now I'm absolutely sobbing for you. I know how much you wanted children of your own in your future. I'm so desperately sad. More reason than ever to give me your coordinates. I'll be there as soon as I can, be there to cry with you, together, with me holding you in my arms like I have so many other times."

"Very tempting, Maxim. I feel so horribly sad, but Big Horn, while an incredible guy who broke his vows to his ancestors in order to save my life, he's anything but sympathetic to my pain. I feel all too lonely here."

"Just give me those coordinates, and you'll never feel lonely again. I'll smother you with my love. And listen, this is not the end. After all of this Council mess is over, we'll go together in search of your mother's family, that you barely knew. We will find a woman who looks like you, someone who has your nature, your humor. We'll get her to donate her eggs to us and we'll freeze them until you're ready to have children. I know you look like your mother, not your father, and have no connection to his family, that's why it has to be hers. When you're ready, I'll use my sperm to fertilize the eggs, and we'll put the baby inside you. You may not have ovaries, but the rest of you will work just fine. We'll have our very own children, as many as you want."

I was crying. That whole scenario sounded amazingly sweet to me.

"Just come back to me, I'm begging you. If we can't find any woman who is passably as wonderful as you are, then we'll adopt. I don't want my sperm to ever touch an egg of a parent that cannot be a good stand in for you, even if it's you carrying that baby. It needs to be from both of us, or none of us at all. We will love an adopted baby just as much, I'm sure. Please let this happen."

I felt those old feelings of love start to fill me again.

"Just let me come rescue you. Please."

And then with those words, I remembered that why I left him in the first place: to prove to him and myself that I did not need him to rescue me.

"I'm sorry, Maxim. I'm sorry."

I turned off my phone.

The rest of the day was just brought more loneliness for me. Big Horn pretty much stayed quiet the entire time, busying himself one thing or another. I figured he was just in physical pain, and was being a grouch as a result.

But by the afternoon, I could see Big Horn's body was completely healed, a fact which he confirmed. I assumed that would bring an end to his grumpiness, but instead, he was unchanged. Clearly, he did not want me upsetting the stillness of his precious camp, but knew I was not healed enough yet for us to leave it behind. He looked for any excuse to put as much distance between us as he possibly could. Any attempt to get him talking and to draw him out was quickly squashed with either curt answers or only just grunts. I told myself he was still upset about breaking his vow and losing his powers, and this was just his way of dealing with it. But any attempt I made at getting him to open up to me went nowhere.

I felt so icily alone by the time I said my prayers and went to bed in my half of the wickiup.

Not too long into the night, I awoke again from horrible nightmares, wishing so badly for the days before I had become the One in which I never dreamed. At least that time, as I woke up sweating and terrified, I was able to tell myself it was just an illusion, and that kept myself from screaming.

But my heart kept on racing alone in my bed in the wickiup, and I knew I wouldn't be able to go back to sleep.

I jumped up from my lonely bed and ran over to Big Horn's bed. I jumped into his arms, feeling better as soon as I started to hold onto his strong muscles.

He woke up immediately. "Crazy Kid? Why?"

"I had another nightmare, Big Horn. I need to hold you tonight, need to share your bed. Please."

"My bed is only for my romantic partner to share. You are not him, so if you don't move back to your bed, I'll be forced to switch with you."

I looked down at him and put my hand on his strong jaw. "I could be that for you, Big Horn. Why not? I find you very attractive, and we now both know that I'm a bottom and you are a top. You told me before you found me attractive too. What's keeping us from having a go at it?"

"I'll tell you. I am so many more times your age, it's almost hard to fathom."

"I'm very mature for my age, Big Horn."

"Hmmph. You keep telling yourself that if it makes you feel better. I was mature for my age at your age as well, but let's get one thing straight. You may have the outer shell of a man, but looks are deceptive. If you were a man, your moniker would be `Crazy Man.' You are just a kid. Just a boy. Oh, I see now what you want from me. You are a boy who wants a handsome, stable daddy-figure to baby you. You want Daddy Big Horn to take care of the camp and all your needs all day while you stay home and play video-games. And then at night, for me to come home and top you all night long. Well, in case you've forgotten, I hate kids, I think they are pointless individuals that contribute nothing and just suck time and resources. And so, I'll say no thank you to your childish requests of me."

"Are you done yet? Yes? You've got me all wrong, Big Horn. If I was looking for someone to take care of my every need while I did nothing, I would have gone back to Maxim. I left him because I wanted to be an equal contributor in a relationship. I don't want someone to take care of me, Big Horn. I want us to be romantic and camp partners."

"You, you do?"

"I do."

"Wait a second. I know what this is really about. You may not be looking to be taken care of by me, but there's another motive completely behind your actions that I never considered."

"Oh no, out with it, please."

"The only reason why you are attracted to me is because you think I'm emotionally wounded from breaking my vow and losing my special ability. Don't you see? You get off on helping others in need."

I rolled my eyes. "I like to help people in need, that's true. But to say I get off on it is untrue. I would never be happy someone had some horrible misfortune just so I could get a high from rescuing them. I seek out a world that is free of people needing rescuing, and that's the world I'd be happiest in."

"Well, maybe you don't get off rescuing others, but let's not forget you have a long history of being attracted to physically strong, handsome men who prove to have some sort of vulnerability to them. Parker and his disability and his low self-esteem, needing you to heal him. Dr. Herzog and his repression of emotions, needing you to heal him. Maxim's overactive heart that made him unable to function correctly when you weren't with him. Alik, who you weren't even attracted to until he showed a vulnerable side to him. Tahir, who you needed to rescue from severe isolation and loneliness."

"How do you know all of these personal details? Because of your portals?"

"And now, you see Big Horn as being some wounded, emotional animal that needs you to save him from heartbreak. Well, get that whole scenario out of your head right now. I am not, and never will be, emotionally wounded or depressed or even lonely. I'm perfect just the way I am. And if I were wounded, like you're hoping I am, I would never, ever need you to heal me. Think about this. I am a billion times as old as you. And, likewise, I have about a billion times the maturity and life-wisdom that you do. So, you even thinking your comparatively tiny amount of maturity could ever heal any emotional wounds with its wisdom, that's nothing but condescending just to even listen to the possibility of."

"I'll admit that I am attracted to vulnerable men who are emotional softies. And I will further admit that, in full disclosure, I did think today that your moody silence was probably due to you being upset over your power leaving you."

"I was not being moodily silent today; I don't even DO that behavior. I was just being silent. If there's no need for words, why give them?"

"I accept now that you have no hidden vulnerability or sensitive side for me to discover."

"Good. And now your request for a relationship has been rescinded?"

"No. I accept who you are, and won't try to change you. But I still want to try to be your partner."

"There's no point in even trying that, Crazy Kid. You are too young to handle being the kind of partner I need here."

"You're wrong, Big Horn. I can handle true partnership. Your portals must not tell you this about me, but I'm a hard worker. And I'm begging you to give me the chance to prove myself. Remember, I saved your life twice yesterday, the second time cutting out my own ovaries to save you, which has huge negative repercussions for the rest of my life. I feel like you owe it to me to just give me a chance to prove I can be your partner."

"Hmmph. You know how I feel about this."

"Please, Big Horn? Just find a way to keep an open mind."

"Fine, I agree to let you try. Starting tomorrow, any day in which you proved yourself my partner in this camp, that evening, you can share my bed as a lover and a romantic partner."

"Thank you, thank you!"

I hugged him, even though he showed no sign of hugging me back, and started to shut my eyes.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"What? Just sharing your bed."

"You proved nothing today but that you have strong whining abilities, huge crying skills, and are excellent at needing me to take care of you in camp. Get out of my bed, Crazy Kid."

"Oh, alright."

I got up out of his bed and walked back to my own.

MAY 24th

"Do you have any large storage bags?" Big Horn asked me in the morning.

"Yes."

I handed him a box of plastic trash bags I had with me.

"This is beyond perfect because of the color of the bag. Alright, Crazy Kid. You say you want to be my partner? Well, the first step we need to make to accomplish that goal is to get rid of all of your White Man stuff. You'll place all of it in these bags. Starting with all your clothes."

"You want me to get rid of my clothes?"

"That's right. Off they come and into the White Man bag."

"But I like my clothes."

"Too bad. If you want to be my partner, you'll get rid of them."

I groaned and undressed, folding my clothes up and putting them in the bag. Big Horn turned his eyes away as soon as I stared to get naked.

"You don't have to look away, Big Horn."

"You are still no more than a friend until you get through this whole day of following my partnership needs. Only then will I look at you as a lover. And since it seems very unlikely that will ever come to pass, I'm going to look away. Here, put this on."

He tossed me one of his loincloths.

"Are you serious? I have to wear this ridiculous non-clothing item?"

"If it's been enough cloth to do me right for hundreds of years, it will work for you just fine. Put it on."

I looked at the thing in my hand. "I hope it's not this specific piece of underwear that has lasted you for hundreds of years. Because if so, first of all, gross. And second of all, I hoped you washed this off."

"I didn't mean that one specifically. It's clean and new, just like you're green, useless flesh, Crazy Kid. Is it on now?"

"It's on."

He opened his eyes and looked me over appreciatively.

A laughed at him. "What happened to you trying to protect my friendly-chivalry by not looking at me naked?"

"What? You're fully dressed!"

"How could I possibly be fully dressed when I'm wearing an outfit that has fewer square inches to its surface area than my handkerchief?"

"You can joke all you want, but this is such an improvement. For the first time when I look at you when you haven't been undressed, my phallus is starting to fill up with appreciation. You look beautiful!"

"I am not an ancient vampire like you, Big Horn. I do get cold."

"Before you know it, we will be in the Texas summer, and this garment will seem hot and restricting to you."

"And in the cold winter?"

"I have furs and hides for you."

"Can I at least keep my shoes?"

"No. All White Man things go into the bag."

"You're lucky I still have all my foot calluses intact from my time in forced slave labor naked."

He made me go through my pack and put all of my clothes into the white bags while he watched.

"Wait a second, you're not actually making me throw all of this away, are you? A lot of this is sentimental to me." I looked at Parker's watch and suits.

"No. It will all be safe in the bag. And maybe after we get it away from you, you'll be less prone to weak, sentimental fits of crying. And now, the next category of White Man's things."

"Even more to sacrifice?"

"Oh yes." He pulled my kit out of my bag. "These items must go."

"My toiletries?"

"You call them what you will. I call them White Man's things. And they go in the bag."

"Are you really telling me I can't bathe properly anymore?"

"White Man's soap goes in the bag. I have my own soap I make made out of yucca. You can use it to wash with, or clean your hair."

"The verb you are looking for is shampoo. What about my laundry soap? What will I use to wash all my clothes?"

"Weren't you the one who was just fatiguing my ear with your whining about how little our only pieces of clothing were? Another main advantage is laundry is the least of my worries here. I have soap that will clean my bone, stone, or wood food utensils."

"You're confiscating my deodorant?"

"You currently reek of White Man, Crazy Kid. Time to smell like yourself."

"That means I'll be taking stream baths several times a day to get my sweat stink off me."

"You do whatever makes you feel like a White Man. Here's what you can keep."

"My lube?"

"I could make my own out of plant oils, but it takes more time know than we have, and I certainly haven't had any need for any sexual items here."

"And my toothbrush, toothpaste, and floss?"

"If I needed to worry about teeth, I would have made a toothbrush from twigs. But I just don't need to."

"I know. You lucky vampires never get any plaque or bacteria that cause bad breath."

"Since that is not true for you, you are free to keep this stuff."

"And my scissors?"

"I just cut my hair with sharp stone or bone when it gets too long. Your hair is different than mine. You are free to keep your scissors to keep it short."

"Thank you. And my razor and shaving cream?"

"I have very fine whiskers that I can easily shave or pluck. Your whiskers are much thicker than mine."

"And my first aid kit?" I asked.

"As tempted as I may be to only administer the first aid and medicine my ancestors taught me, I'd be guilty if you were to die in spite of it. And since I never need first aid or medicine myself, I'll let you keep those items, and will use them on you if you are unable to."

"What if something really serious happens to me that can't be remedied by simple first aid?"

"I will take you to Della Logan."

"Oh no, you are not taking my phone away from me!"

"What is more White Man than that little gadget of yours?"

"You cannot do that, Big Horn. Listen to me. You do not know my mother. I keep her appeased only with regular contact with this phone. If I stopped contacting her, she would find a way to hunt me down. Do you really want your camp nvaded by an angry Southern Baptist White Woman? Because you will be ready to re-christen me "Totally Sane Man" after you get one taste of her crazy. And if she drags my brother along with her, even more so."

"Alright, no. You win. I'll let you have a half hour a day where you can use this thing to contact your relatives and friends. Other than that, nothing."

"That's fine, I can deal with that. Is that it for the cruel white bag?"

"No."

"What? There's nothing left of mine to put in there!"

"You're wrong."

He grabbed Pavlov and removed her collar. He tossed it into the bag, along with her leash and chain.

"Does that mean you are refusing to house my dog?" I asked, angrily.

"It means I refuse to enslave any creature. If I don't kill an animal to eat or for protection, I won't hold it captive like a White Man."

"She's not a human slave, Big Horn. She's a pet! Pets need to be contained!"

"I don't do pets here. If she's going to be here, I will not permit you to corral her."

"So, you're suggesting just letting her run free out there, anywhere she wants?"

"Exactly. Same goes for mongoose."

"What's keeping them from just running off then?"

"Nothing. If that's truly what they desire to do, then they will."

He grabbed my dog food and tossed it into the bag too.

"What are they supposed to eat?"

"They can both hunt. There's plenty of game here for her. And the mongoose can keep our camp clear of snakes."

"And what if something makes them prey?"

"Both of them have proven themselves extreme survivors in the face of killers. Pavlov especially was known for surviving multiple attacks by werebeasts when all other much stronger opponents could not. They will be fine."

We stepped outside the wickiup, and Big Horn let the two animals just run out. Pavlov went to the bathroom but then promptly came back, but Blackbeard just ran off and showed no sign of returning. I sighed unhappily, but didn't stop it.

He took my white bags and carried them over to his storage pit, which was concealed under branches. While we were over there, he grabbed some dried meat and fruit and had us eat them as breakfast. Luckily, neither one of us could get stomach illness from not having clean water, so we were able to just drink straight creek water, which tasted refreshing. He told me the food needed replenishing, and that's what we would need to work on that day.

He gave me baskets, and led me off of camp to an area where he had a small garden growing, all with native foods. We spent several hours maintaining his crops and harvesting what was ready to harvest and put them in our baskets. Pavlov tagged along as well. Though his gardening tools were totally unfamiliar to me, it felt great to be able to throw myself into a task that was beneficial like that, considering the previous day I had been too weak to help much at all. I hoped Big Horn saw how much I was helping him. We had some of what we were collecting for lunch.

After we got back to camp and loaded up the storage pit with the fruits and vegetables, I washed all of the sweat and dirt off me in the stream, and then rejoined Big Horn in camp in the afternoon.

"You've done surprisingly well today, Crazy Kid."

"See? I told you I could hack it as your partner here. Does that mean you'll let me share a bed with you tonight?"

"I will, if you just do one more task for me."

"Yes?"

"We need a fire started to cook our dinner and keep us warm tonight. Can you do that?"

"I'm an excellent fire starter. I use the perfect mixture of logs and tinder."

"You'll find all of that in my wood pile right over there. And you know where my firepit is. Go to work."

I collected large branches for firewood, as well as a number of small twigs and even dried up moss and brush. I arranged them all in the firepit, and then I looked around.

"Wait a second. Big Horn, where did you leave the matches?"

"Matches are from White Man," he said to me with a certain amount of hidden glee at my torment.

"What about flint?"

"Nope. You'll just have to build it the way of my people. With friction."

"Big Horn, come on here!"

"You were the one who just boasted at your fire-making skills. I want to see those skills in action."

"Ugh, fine."

The first thing I tried was knocking two rocks together over and over in order to try and make a spark that would light the fire. But no matter how many times I struck the rocks, a spark would not come. Perhaps that was really only feasible if one had a metal tool to strike the rock with, which I did not have.

And then I started to create a little zone for myself where I was trying to twist a stick between both of my palms with the end beneath me stuck against a piece of wood.

I rubbed and rubbed that stick endlessly, but all I could ever feel was a little warmth on that wood.

Two hours later, when my hands were so worn out I didn't know how I could go on, Big Horn came over to me. "How's that fire going? Sure doesn't smell as good as it usually does by this time on the days when I'm in charge of starting it."

"I hate you, Big Horn."

"Does that mean you are giving up on being my partner, Crazy Kid?"

"No. I am NOT giving up on this."

After the sun had set, as the last usable light in the sky was dwindling, and I knew I would have to give up, that's when I finally saw my first spark.

I was almost so shocked that I had actually made one that I didn't respond.

But as the spark started to light up the moss I was working on, I quickly blew on it, making it glow red and come to life. I moved it to some small, dried twigs in the pit, and got them lit.

"Yes, yes, thank you!"

I suddenly had some real flames in front of me, and then it was only a matter of getting the actual logs burning, which I already was a pro at. I didn't care in the slightest that my hands were all bloody by that point.

"Big Horn, I did it, I have fire!"

He came out of the wickiup and looked. "This is quite a shock. I never expected you to complete that one, Crazy Kid. Nice work."

"That means you and I are romantic partners for the night."

"I suppose that's what I promised, wasn't it?"

"Yes."

I ran over to him excitedly, put my arms around his strong back muscles, and kissed his handsome lips. He awkwardly kissed me back.

"Big Horn, you are officially the worst kisser I have ever kissed. Even worse than Dr. Herzog was before he got his emotions back, so back when he was basically a robot. And that means you're even a worse kisser than Hero, the king of the werebeasts."

"Well, I haven't exactly had much practice at it. I can't see the appeal, personally. I mean, what is your mouth but just another component of your handsome face? It's your rear that brings me pleasure, your rear and the blood that courses through it."

"Speaking of blood, my hands are covered. Think now that you are officially my romantic partner--"

"—for the night, that is."

"For the night. Do you think you could do your vampire partner duty and lick my hands healed? Just call it a hors d'oeuvre if you need to."

He licked at the blood on my palm. "Oh, your blood." He moaned in pleasure as he continued to lap away the blood on my hands with his tongue, his fangs out.

"I'm a little insulted that you gave my hands a far more passionate kiss than you gave my lips and my mouth," I joked as he healed the cuts and burns.

"As I told you, it's your rear and your blood that gets my juices flowing."

"As evidenced by this juice right here," I said, grabbing his dick, which had turned completely hard and alluring, poking out of his loincloth when he got his blood in my mouth. I put my finger to a large spot of precum on the end of his pissslit and stuck it in my mouth, loving the taste.

"You cannot have that until all of the camp chores are well and done," he scolded me.

Even though I was technically done with my labor for the day, I wanted to stay in Big Horn's favor by keeping on helping him. We used the fire to cook dinner together. While we were eating, Big Horn didn't stop me this time from being close to him. I sat on his knee, liking the contact of his body, even though he showed little or no sign of enjoying mine. Once again, Pavlov, who was curled around his feet, showed more of a pleasant reaction to my physical proximity than Big Horn ever did. I could see his cut, manly jaw muscles clench for a moment when I leaned against his upper body, giving away his slight unease at the contact.

After all the night chores were done and we were both ready for bed, I asked about the fire, and he told me to just let it burn out on its own. Even though the Smoky The Bear sitting on my shoulder told me to put out the fire, his claim that he had never once caused an unwanted fire in all his many years made me do as he wished, even if it seemed to me like he was just looking for another excuse to remind me how much older he was than me.

But that meant when he went to sleep in the wickiup, what had the day before been cold and filled with dark shadows that night felt warm and homey.

"Blackbeard, you came back!" I said as I saw the mongoose curled up with Pavlov. "And with all your appendages intact."

"What did I tell you?" asked Big Horn.

"I was wrong and you were right, Big Horn. Why do I feel like that phrase brings you far more pleasure than my embrace ever would?"

"I don't take pleasure in you being wrong, Crazy Kid. I'd far rather you just agree with me at all times and therefore always be right. Come on, let's get this sex going so we can get to bed at a decent hour." We both took off our loincloths.

"That statement was so overflowing with sweet romance, I almost confused you for Parker for a moment."

"If it's really some replacement for Parker you are looking for in me, we should end this right now."

"I was just kidding with you, Big Horn. I do not expect you to ever replace Parker's sweetness. I just need you to be yourself."

He sat down over in the sleep portion of the wickiup and I got out my lube.

"That is not an endless supply," he said. "We should be stretching it by supplementing as much as we can with natural methods of lubrication. Here."

He pushed me down face first into the furs so that my rear was in the air. He licked his fingers and slowly used them to open me up, which felt great.

When he started to add in his tongue as well, it felt even better. He moaned then as he licked away at my hole. I could even feel the telltale sign that he was enjoying himself all too well: being tickled by his sharp fangs.

"I'm trying not to be insulted that you're kissing my hole far more passionately than you kissed my mouth."

"I told you, your mouth does not please me in that way."

"That sounds almost like a challenge, Big Horn."

I flipped over on the bed so I was facing him and I rubbed his wonderful, uncut dick in my hands, which was already semi-hard by that point.

I licked at the wonderful head, loving his manly flavor. I could have licked him for hours, but I had a point to prove, so I put his stick into my mouth and devoured it.

Instantly, his dick went from semi-hard to absolute steel, and my mouth went farther and farther down, getting Big Horn to stand on his tiptoes as he moaned in pleasure.

"Whoa, I didn't even know this existed on the menu," he said. He rubbed my mouth with his fingers as he looked into my eyes. "I am starting to look at that mouth of yours with a newfound respect."

I pulled away my mouth from him when I noticed Pavlov was looking at me.

"Big Horn, mind if we take it outside? It feels wrong somehow to be doing this in front of the dog. I feel like she's ashamed at us."

He frowned at me and crossed his muscled arms. "Ashamed? Please don't project your own Christian-Victorian sexual-guilt onto your dog. I assure you, she is not capable of ever being ashamed of our nudity or sex, as it's completely natural. There's nothing the least bit shameful about your sexuality."

"That's a bit hypocritical coming from someone who never got even a blowjob before just now and has been fastidiously hiding his nudity from the entire world for centuries."

"That has nothing to do with me being ashamed of sex or nudity. I had believed that others seeing my phallus might make me lose my powers, keeping me from letting others see me. And even before I got my special power, I believed that sex should not be casual, but that it should be about actual partnership. Since I never found anyone I wanted to share my camp, I never had sex with anyone. Now that I am having sex, I don't feel any shame in the act, I think it's a wonderful thing. I wouldn't care who else knew about it either, whether your dog was here or your mother."

"Oh goodness, mentioning my mother is the ultimate mood killer."

I noticed that his dick just didn't look wet enough, so I got my lube and moistened it. He sat in his furs and once again let me mount him as slowly as I needed to.

I stuck him inside me. I felt pain, but I focused on not letting that pain trigger any bad emotions. I just stopped for a moment and the pain went away. I waited again as I went all the way down, with him all the way inside me. I breathed, letting the pain leave me.

I started to move up and down on him, and that's when the pleasure really started to hit me.

"Outside!" he said suddenly, lifting me up and carrying me out of the wickiup without pulling out.

"See? I told you it was embarrassing to have the dog watching us in there."

"That is not why we're outside. I realized how spiritual this act was, and I thought we needed to be outside, under the stars."

He carried me to a tree, and sat down in the grass with his back against the trunk. And then he held me tightly as I bounced up and down.

"This feels better than I ever dreamed," he said. "Thank you, thank you."

"You're welcome."

He furrowed his brow. "I wasn't talking to you. I was thanking the spirits for giving us this magical gift."

He shut his eyes and opened his mouth. I took that as an invitation to kiss him, which I did. But he pulled away from my mouth. Instead, out came words I didn't understand. He started to chant in a Native language.

I realized as the chanting went on and on that the sex was bringing him a religious experience. He was completely in some other world, on cloud nine as he moved his hips up and down, plunging in and out of me.

His strokes were bringing me so much pleasure, that I could sympathize with him going to a religious place, as I was religious too. But I would never believe in his spirits. I thought about praying to God, but I felt it was just a little strange to do so during sex, so I kept myself from doing it.

He wasn't holding me more than he needed to in order to keep thrusting in me, but when I ran my hands all over his studly body, he did not protest. Any part of his body that I could reach with my hands was fair game, and soon they all had been squeezed by me.

The only thing that I did not have were his kisses, and as the sex went on longer and longer through the night, I was determined to change that. But every time I kissed him, he just pulled away.

I bit my tongue until I could taste blood, and then I kissed him, sticking my wounded tongue into his mouth. His eyes opened excitedly, and he made a sharp moan. For the first time, he actually kissed me back with his tongue, licking my tongue clean. Once the pain was gone and just the kiss lingered, I realized how much that pleased me physically.

I pulled away from his kiss. "Big Horn, feed." I pushed his mouth against my throat.

He bit into me, and his bite felt very distinct. I felt his venom hit my throat wound first, numbing it, before sending sexual waves from there through my whole body, inch by inch. He drank me down eagerly, moaning in pleasure.

His thrusts beneath me were getting more and more powerful, hitting my prostate each time, and I was going nuts.

For the first time, Big Horn totally squeezed my body tight, humping me faster and faster and groaning.

I felt him unload his seed inside me, and at the same time, felt mine erupt. I was so proud of myself that I was able to enjoy bottoming so much without the aid of any painkillers.

After we were both spent, he held me there, still inside me, for a long time, his eyes shut and his body not moving, so long I thought he had fallen asleep.

But then he finally stirred, and pulled out of me. We both wordlessly walked back into the wickiup.

The best part was getting to share his bed, sleeping on top of him as we drifted off. As he slept, I kept on trying to wrap his arms around me, but every time I woke back up in the night, they ended up crossed in front of him.

MAY 25th

"I'll light the fire today."

So while I took my twenty minutes that day of being able to use my phone to message my friends and family, I watched as Big Horn arranged the logs.

Once again, Ahmad was asking how I was holding up, so I told him I was starting to date a Native American named Big Horn who was seriously into living as his ancestors did, and was only letting me hang around him if I lived that way as well. I told him that living in such austere methods was actually having a healing effect on my troubled soul.

Big Horn twisted one branch into another quickly between his hands. I gasped as he made the spark appear almost as soon as he started trying, and blew on it to make it bigger, creating his flame.

"Do you always do it as quickly as you just did?"

"Sometimes faster. It helps so much that I have hands that move faster than any man's can."

This time, it was me crossing my arms for a change. "You made me work on lighting that fire yesterday for hours when you could have just done it with almost no effort so easily like this at any time? Please tell me that was a character building exercise, which I could get behind, and now you won't ask me to do that again here."

"We will trade off days. I got today, and you'll do it tomorrow."

"You expect me to spend hours on that every other day?"

"Before I was a vampire, I spent just as much time sometimes making fire. That's why, once we had it lit, we did everything we could not to extinguish it."

"Big Horn, come on now. Think about all the hours I spent yesterday doing that, while you worked on other things. If you had started the fire in ten minutes, I could have been with you that while time, cutting your other work in half. Can't you see now that making me do exactly half of every task is just going to kill the overall camp work time?"

"I suppose so."

"If there's something we come across that I'm better at than you--"

"—fat chance."

"Then I'll be the first one to volunteer to always do that task."

"I already agreed to your demands. How about stopping talking about these tasks and actually doing them for a change. We depleted my garden of food yesterday, but our food supply is still dwindling. Time to start collecting from the wild. Here, carry this."

He gave me a basket and he picked up one of his long, wooden staffs. He led me down to the creek and we hiked along its bank for some time, with Pavlov following us.

I looked at him walking with that staff, and I said, "Oh, I see it all too clearly now. Your motto is, `speak softly and carry a big stick.'"

"Sounds like true advice to me."

"Well, perhaps you should trade your current partner for the man who coined that phrase. Teddy Roosevelt."

"If you complain about one more task, I will bring this Teddy person on board."

"You go right ahead. I'm guessing he doesn't smell the best these days, but I could be wrong."

We came to a place where wild blackberry brambles grew close to the stream, clearly this was our destination. Most of the blackberries were still too new and green, but some were ripe enough to eat, and I realized what the basket was for.

When I cut my shoulder on the thorns as I was picking berries, I showed it to him. "Gee, I bet these cuts would have never happened if I had been allowed to keep my old clothes."

"Those cuts wouldn't have happened if you had been using your head and used this staff to help you pull the branches towards you."

He licked my wound clean.

"It seems a bit suspect that each day of following your orders has brought me so many cuts on my hands that you've had to lick my wounds healed, Big Horn. I spent enough time with Syd to be wise to those sorts of scenarios."

"You know, I think I have found something in this camp that you are far better at than me."

"Oh?"

"You are the best tongue wagger this camp has ever seen. Amazingly, your tongue wagging skills even put Syd's to shame. So maybe it's you that has more in common with him, not me."

"That's the cruelest thing you've ever said to me. And we both know you've turned saying cruel things to me from just a fun pastime into actually a pro sport."

"Cruelty mixed with truth is sometimes the kindest things one can say."

He showed me how to use his staff to pull the branches close enough to easily pick the berries so I didn't have to move my whole body into the brambles anymore, and the two of us worked, filling up the basket.

We were walking back to camp later, walking through some bushes along the stream, when Big Horn stopped suddenly.

"Set that basket down," he said to me, and I did. "And hold this. And wait right here."

He handed me his staff, and then ran off through the bushes, out of sight of me.

I stood there by myself, wondering what he was getting into, for a couple minutes.

Just when I started to wonder if I should follow him, something came out of the bushes, right where he had gone. I thought it was him for only an instant, as it became clear the creature I was looking at was all too small to be human.

A duck. A duck was running scared right in my direction.

"Kill it with the staff!" I heard Big Horn shout from somewhere between the bushes.

"Eew, really?" It was the first time I noticed how sharp the bottom of the staff was.

"Do it!:

As the duck ran right through my feet, I plunged the staff down, and impaled the creature all through its body, killing it.

When the blood started to come, I passed out.

"Wake up, you useless partner!"

"Mmmm, just give me a second."

"Imagine my shock to come through the bushes and see both my partner and duck lying dead on the ground. `Was my partner so terribly weak that the duck managed to kill him before he died?' I asked myself. But when I looked closely and found no sign of struggle on him, I realized that my partner just died of fright, terrified to death of the fearsome duck. This is, until I realized you were breathing still."

"I don't like how that last sentence almost sounds tinged with a bit of disappointment to it. For someone who just thought I was dead, you seem depressingly free of any signs of grief, Big Horn. I suffer from fainting when I see or ever worse, am a part of acts of violence."

"Even violence of the duck variety?"

"I suppose so. But I'll be fine."

Right then, Pavlov appeared through the bushes, impossibly managing to drag two duck carcasses of her own. She put them down at our feet and wagged.

"Oh, good girl!" I said.

"It's sad when even the dog doubles your camp-partner's kills," said Big Horn. "And, I guess I can't be sure, but I'm almost positive she managed to do that without one measly fainting spell."

"I'd be threatened if I wasn't so darn sure you would never be as sexually satisfied with her as you are with me," I said to him.

We took our carcasses and walked back to camp. We spent the rest of the day cleaning the ducks. We started on feathering one of the ducks. When he finished his first, I was somehow able to make him agree to let me keep plucking all the birds while he removed the heads and organs and feet, which he fed to the dog, and cut up them, preparing the meat to be cooked.

We cooked all the duck that night, though we ate only a piece of it, and saved the rest for later. It was delicious duck, and we had blackberries for dessert.

That night, sex was very similar to the previous night. He insisted on having it outside, and he once again went all chant-y during the act, both of us getting so much pleasure out of the act. I felt a bit guilty that it was by far my favorite part of the day.

MAY 26th

"We are going hunting again today, Crazy Kid. Just like yesterday." He had one of his staffs in hand, but this time, he handed one to me as well.

"I get my very own stick this time? Wow, I must be in the major leagues now. And no, I don't expect you to understand that one, but I'm very proud of myself."

But as soon as I saw, an hour later, that we were tracking a group of deer, not a family of ducks, I shook my head. "Wait a second. Are you seriously expecting me to kill a huge giant deer?"

"It's actually on the smallish size for a deer."

"It's still a deer. This is no duck, Big Horn. I can't kill a deer."

"I'm sorry, are you a non-mammal meat eater?"

"No, I'll eat venison."

"Then how come you can't hunt the deer if you'll eat it?"

"It disturbs me too much."

"It's just the same as that duck you killed yesterday."

"Which made me faint after I did it, remember?"

"I don't care if you faint again, as long as it's after you make the kill, just like yesterday."

"There's about a hundred times more blood and guts inside the deer's body than there was inside the duck!"

"That's exactly why we need to kill it!"

"No, I just can't do this. Choke it up to my fatal flaw of disagreeing with you if you want."

"What happened to you being proud about being in the serious leagues?"

"Major leagues. I'll shamefully hand back my stick and go back to the minors, but I will not kill a deer."

"I'm killing this deer, right now."

"Pavlov can help you again. I'll be more help to you doing other tasks today, as I certainly can't be around for this or the cleaning this time."

"There's nothing else for you to do! I need you to hunt with me!"

"Nope. Listen, you and your ancestors were hunters and gatherers, right?"

"I suppose."

"Well, you can hunt. That means I get to do the gathering."

"You won't know where to find any of that on your own."

"I'll make do."

When I got back to camp that day, in the late afternoon, I could smell the cooked venison in the air long before I could see it, making my mouth water. I figured that was a good sign I was safe to go back to camp without seeing some bloody mess.

I found Big Horn, and he nodded at my basket. "You'd better have something in there that proves you're more of a help than a burden to me in there. Otherwise, there will be no sex tonight and you will be sleeping on your own."

I reached into the basket and handed him a large amount of round, red berries. "I found these."

"Oh, great work, Crazy Kid. Pavlov, look at what wonderful treat our camp-partner has brought us today!"

He gave some of the berries to her, putting them in front of her nose to sniff. She smelled them and then looked disinterested.

"See? Even the dog is smart enough to know that these berries don't just taste putrid, they are poisonous. She won't even touch these, which is smart of her, otherwise she'd be a dead dog in less than an hour."

"Well, I wasn't sure about those. I have these as well, to compensate."

I handed him my mushrooms.

"Ah yes. These are actually quite tasty. But once again, they are totally poisonous. Which makes them an actual liability, as the dog or the mongoose might kill themselves over this. My stomach can handle poisons, but I'm not sure yours can. Which means instead of helping me today with my hunt, you ended up bringing in objects that are so much a liability, I'll have to dispose of them properly. You could just manage to not be of any help today, you actually managed to create MORE work for me."

"I can dispose of these myself. I wasn't sure if they were edible, which is why I didn't sample any of these today."

"Still, you haven't contributed anything."

"Now I have," I said, handing him what was left in my basket, a huge amount of blackberries that I had found.

He looked them over. "You've managed to earn the right to be my partner by the skin of your teeth."

I happily ate my dinner of venison and blackberries with Big Horn that night.

MAY 27th

"What fun tasks are we partaking today, Big Horn?" I asked in the morning, outside our tent.

"We are going deer hunting again."

"Again? How much venison can we possibly eat so fast? No, I'm not going with you, then. I'll just have to gather once more."

"It's senseless for you to do that! I know where all the food sources are already, and just have to show you where to go on a day in which we need to go. This is not one of those days. We need to hunt."

"There must be something else I can do today, Big Horn."

"Fishing. You can fish the stream, I suppose."

"I love fishing! Just give me your rod and I'll get us fish."

He handed me one of his staffs with the pointy end.

"No, you didn't hear me. I'm not going deer hunting with you, I'm going fishing."

"I heard you! It's impossible not to hear your flapping lips all day long! This IS your fishing rod, Crazy Kid. What, did you really think I would hand you a White Man's rod?"

"You expect me to catch a fish by spearing one? That's insane!"

"Do it, or you'll be sleeping alone again tonight!"

"The way you always use that as a negotiation tactic, it makes it sound like you can't stand sleeping with me, and that it's only me who will benefit from us being together. Is that true? Do you hate it so much?"

"I suppose I do enjoy having you sharing my bed and having the smell of your blood run through my nose all night, and the closeness of your skin. But all the clutching and grabbing you do to me during the night I can do without."

"It's called `cuddling,' Big Horn. Somehow, you make it sound like assault."

I grabbed my pointy stick and I walked towards the creek.

A half hour later, I walked back without a single fish to my name, absolutely certain that it was impossible to catch anything with that approach.

Knowing I was going to end the day empty handed, and not wanting to just sit around waiting for Big Horn to return with nothing getting done, I decided, instead of bringing back food, I would put my organizing skills to work. The whole camp was totally unorganized, thing just being set around at random, setting off my need to de-clutter. On top of that, there was a layer of dust on everything, both inside and outside the wickiup, that had been irking me since I arrived.

I spent half the day cleaning until I felt like I had really accomplished something. And then, sitting there looking at the clean camp again with nothing else to grab my attention, I decided to take my spear back to the stream and keep trying.

I took me an hour to catch my first fish, and what I came away with was nothing larger than a goldfish.

It took me two more hours before I caught a fish worth keeping, a very small trout. But I felt like I had a system down that was working for me, and I was all too elated.

I had five small trout in hand when I saw the sun was darkening and knew I needed to get back to camp.

I got back just as Big Horn and Pavlov were, with the already carved deer meat in his arms. He looked at the camp and a gasp escaped his lips.

"What did you do, Crazy Kid?"

"I cleaned and organized the camp when you were gone. Now, everything is in its proper place. Do you like it?"

"Tell me you didn't go and get your cleaning supplies from storage!"

"No, I did it all the proper way, Big Horn. I made my own tools, including a broom. You would have been proud of me."

"Look at my face! Does it look like there is any trace of pride there?"

"Not the kind of pride that is about being happy for someone else. Maybe a large amount of egotistical pride, though. What is the problem?"

"The problem is, you brought your White Man definition of what's clean and unclean, of what's organized and disorganized, and threw it all over my camp without even asking me. Never again. If you want to so much as remove a spider from inside the wickiup, you get my permission first."

"Okay, I promise."

"And you are so not getting sex tonight. You can sleep in your own, newly made bed without me."

"Even after you see this?" I asked, showing him my fish. "I speared these all today. I think I'm really getting the hang of it."

"Fine. But this is even a narrower save than yesterday!"

That night, we were having more of his chant-serenaded sex outside when I felt something was wrong.

"Big Horn, pull out."

"Hmm?" he asked, coming out of his chanting trance and opening his eyes.

"Pull out of me!"

He pulled his dick out, and I could see it was lit up and bright red, joltingly bright in the dark camp.

"Holy crap Big Horn, does that mean what I think it does?"

"The spirits have given me back my power!" He was so excited.

He pulled completely away from me, and as he did, a huge amount of blood poured out of my hole. That's when I noticed his dick was completely covered in my blood.

The pain inside hit me sickeningly fast.

I passed out.

MAY 28th

"Mmm."

When I opened my eyes, it was morning. I was in Big Horn's arms in the wickiup.

"Hmm?" Big Horn woke up too.

"Am I okay?"

"Crazy Kid, you're awake! I healed your internal wounds last night with my blood, and you slept through the night."

"That's sort of becoming a nighttime tradition of ours, isn't it?"

"I'm so sorry for hurting you. I never thought my powers would just come back like that. I promise you, now that they are back; I have total control over when they turn on and off. We can resume our sex, and I will never hurt you again like that, I assure you."

"It's okay, Big Horn, I'm just happy you got your powers back. You have to admit, I was right about this one little thing."

He gave me a hmmph, but no words.

"Oh come on."

"Why is this so important to you?"

"Because you always get to be right about everything! This is the one time I get to be right about something, and you're denying me the pleasure!"

"Fine. I admit, you were right. Okay? But only because I'm still feeling a bit guilty about hurting you last night."

"If I could literally wallow in this moment, I'd be on the floor right now. I am so pleased."

"Now that my powers are back, you probably want me to teleport you into a better living situation. I'm guessing you probably are sick of me and my camp."

"No. I'm just feeling like I'm really getting everything down now. I'm not going anywhere. I am here to help with the camp just like before."

"But you have more important things to do with your days than spend them in camp with me."

"I'm not in any rush. If we could make some teleportations today, that will last me for a while."

I convinced Big Horn to let me change into my normal clothes again before we went.

The first place we teleported was the palace of Badiya Ahmar. We left the empty clinic and found a maid in the hall. She bowed down at the sight of us.

"Thank you both for saving us."

"Stand up, please," I told her. "You saved yourself. We all worked on this together."

She stood up and ran off. Moments later, Butler Ajam came and gave us both teary-eyed hugs. "Thanks so much for all you did."

"And you," I said.

Mr. Tawfeek appeared, and he smiled big at the sight of us. "You got your powers back!" he said to Big Horn. He told me that the Egyptian soldiers ended up keeping their word and killing the doctor.

"One less snake in Badiya Ahmar," I said. "I hope they did it painlessly like I asked."

"They did. And speaking of snakes, watch yourselves."

"Are Marutuk's children taking their revenge on your guys here?"

"No. They've been acting just like normal snakes since he died, actually. But still, there were just so many of them, that they are hard to get rid of completely."

The Vizier appeared then, and even he couldn't stifle the pleased smile. "This palace awaits their people. We have been wondering how long we would have to suffer living in an abandoned city."

"Let's go bring your people home," I said.

Big Horn opened his portal to The Raajya East, and all five of us stepped through. Boy, were those lost Badiya Ahmar citizens happy to see us. They had set up a makeshift camp there, but they did not look happy to be homeless and displaced.

"Marutuk is dead!" I yelled to them.

They almost all started to cheer.

"Thanks to Jake Groves and Big Horn!" said Butler Ajam.

"No, thanks to all of us in the palace. A much kinder city awaits your return. Big Horn, will you do the honors, please?"

He switched his portal to the city of Badiya Ahmar, and everyone started to clap at the sight of it. As the people went through the portal, they gave teary hugs to the five of us. Well, all except Big Horn, who told them all he was perfectly fine without them grabbing him, but thanked them for their sentiment. The rest of us accepted the hugs gratefully.

They even had some people in ropes or chains that I recognized as the Marutuk supporters who they pushed through the portal. "Please, let these people go free. They've been so long afraid of Marutuk that it warped their brains. Give them another chance now that we've proven there is such a thing as a Badiya Ahmar that is free of its evil Cobra God."

"We will," said the Vizier.

The three palace leaders were the last through the portal, and they thanked us again as the portal closed.

Big Horn then teleported us to the Mahal Aranya, and I asked him to wait for me outside.

When I went into the palace entry room with the stream, I was grabbed by guards there. "I need to see Raani Devanshi Shankar."

One of the guards disappeared for a while, then returned. "She'll allow it. But first we'll need to search you."

"Can I have Admiral Sajan Devar do that for me, please?"

"He's been sent on a special assignment by Her Grace just a bit ago."

And so, I had to go through my body search without Sajan, and the guards who did it were much more rough and rude than he had been. I was happy when it was over and I could go see the queen.

When I stepped into the statue room, once again I thought I saw a shadow disappearing out of the corner of my eye, but once more, I could not figure out the source of the shadow.

Salahakara Ogra came out and looked at me sternly.

As soon as Devanshi Shankar and her mother appeared in their chamber above the giant statue, Chunni Menon said, "Guards, leave us."

The bowing guards both departed, leaving me alone with the three women.

"Hello, Raani Devanshi Shankar and Lady Chunni Menon. I come to let you know that I killed Shah Jibril Bahar, or Marutuk."

"We already know your deeds," said Chunni Menon.

"Then I assume that you will vote for me to live one the Vampire Council convenes, as you agreed to?"

"Assume nothing," said Chunni.

"But you made an agreement with me!" I said, angrily.

"You may have killed the Shah, but not in a manner that impresses the Raani. You've made public items that you never should have shared. Furthermore, when we thought your friend lost his ability to teleport, we had an entire city of people on our hands. Do you know how difficult it would be to move and entire city so far across the world?"

"But I've teleported them back already."

"We know that. But that doesn't excuse your other actions. We know exactly how you've behaved in the other two Bloods you've visited. You've made bold actions there without thought as to the consequences of your changes. And Her Grace will gladly see you killed for your disrespect."

"I've already torn up your original contract, as it no longer applies," said Salahakara Ogra.

"This is outrageous, I did everything you wanted!"

"Guards, throw this man out!"

The rough guards came back in and forcibly carried me from the room, and then tossing me into the street.

"Something tells me the way you just got tossed out of the palace like that is a bad omen to your plans," said Big Horn, helping me to my feet.

"I cannot believe this. They aren't holding up their end of our bargain at all. They are voting to kill me at the Vampire Council. Which means, as of now, that's the winning side, two to one."

"This is why you cannot trust almost everyone you meet, Crazy Kid. I've learned that the hard way."

"What about me?" I asked. "Do you trust me?"

"With my life. Otherwise, I'd never have brought you to my camp in the first place."

"Thanks Big Horn, I feel the same way about you."

And we went teleported back to said camp.

MAY 29th

"Crazy Kid, look at yourself!"

He pulled me out of the wickiup in the morning and pushed towards a still section of the stream, pointing at my reflection.

"This is very Narcissus, isn't it? Good thing I'm not Syd or I'd likely drown myself. Ah yes, there I am. What exactly is the purpose of this looksee? I hope it's not your way of telling me I have a booger hanging out of my nose or something equally mortifying."

"Look at your skin. Your dark marks. They are starting to fade!"

"Oh yeah," I said. "I guess with the evil baby gone, there's nothing keeping them on me anymore, and so they are starting to go away. I am all too pleased."

"In a couple days, those and your bruises will be just a faded memory. See? My ancestors ways were just what you needed to heal yourself."

That night, we were outside having sex again as Big Horn chanted when he suddenly stopped the chanting, opened his eyes, and kissed me.

"Whoa, what was that?"

"A kiss. Was I so bad at it you couldn't tell?"

"It was uncharacteristically loving, Big Horn. You've never actually been the one to kiss me this whole time."

"So, you enjoyed it? Otherwise I wouldn't have done it."

"I loved it! What brought it on?"

"It was just my way of telling you I accept you as my partner. No more having the days be romance free, and then nights only being when we are together if you prove yourself that day. You've proven yourself worthy, Crazy Kid."

"I have?" I asked excitedly, putting my arms around his neck as I continued to ride him.

"You have. I know exactly what I'm getting."

"And you aren't mad that I won't go hunting with you?"

"How could I be with all the fish you have caught lately? Listen, I know now that you aren't going to be my equal out there. But you bring just as much into our partnership as you are taking, and that's all that matters to me. I don't need you to do everything I do."

"I feel so accomplished! Does this mean we can actually have sex for once in the daytime instead of always doing it at night?"

"As long as it doesn't interfere with our chores, I'm fine with that."

"Our first time having real sex in the light of the sun! I can't wait."

I kissed him again.

"And the best part? I'm rechristening you because of your accomplishments. I will now call you Crazy Man."

"Aww, thanks Big Horn."

JUNE 2nd

"Big Horn, can I talk to you?"

It was four days spent at the camp later, and we had just gotten ready in the morning. By that time, the marks and bruises on my body were totally gone.

"Hmm?"

"Listen, I hate to say this because I'm so happy here sharing a camp with you like this, but there's something I have to tell you."

"Spit it out already. Enough of the tongue-wagging."

"I've been thinking hard about this, and I've realized something. I might be able to handle several months just as we've done it, but I know I can't do this life forever."

"I knew this day would come from the very start. I told you you wouldn't be able to do this from the beginning. I was shocked when you got through that very first day."

"I'm not saying I can't do this anymore or I need to break up, Big Horn. I'm just telling you that I need some rule changes here if I'm going to be able to stick it out for the long haul."

"Here's the part where you spit all over my ancestors."

"I have all the respect for your ancestors and their traditions, Big Horn. But they aren't my ancestors. My mother and father don't have any Native American in them. Even my birth mother, as far as I know. I don't relate to these ways. I'm not here because of your ancestors. I'm here because of you. We may argue a lot, but I still feel like we are very compatible. And the sex is amazing. Don't you feel the same way?"

"I do. What are you asking for?"

"I'm not asking much here. I want more time with my phone, so I can keep up with world events and play my fantasy sports. I want to be able to read books again. After this Council business is behind me, I might want to be able to attend school again. If so, I'd need you to teleport me there, with my other clothes on, and I'd need to be able to bring my supplies back and study here. And I want to be able to bring my family and friends here without requiring that they adapt to this lifestyle too."

"I can't do that."

"Please Big Horn, won't you please just meet me halfway?"

"No! I need someone who will uphold the ways of my ancestors just as I am. I will not compromise. So, if you think you cannot stand in the long run to maintain this lifestyle in the long run, even if there is even the slightest bit of doubt, you have to tell me now and leave me alone. It's the right thing to do."

I started to feel sad, but I made myself not cry in front of him. "Then I need to leave. I'm sorry."

"It is what it is. Pack up your things right now and I'll teleport you wherever you need me to. You can share my wickiup only in a pinch, but you will not be sharing my bed ever again."

"I'll let you keep the animals for now. I don't know if I have a safe place for them."

He nodded.

I retrieved my belongings from the storage pit and packed up my backpack. I sadly took my loincloth and handed it back to him.

"Keep it," he said. "To mark all you accomplished here, and to remember your transition from kid to man, Crazy Man."

"Aww, thanks, I will cherish this Big Horn."

"Where can I teleport you to? The African Blood?"

"I did want to thank them for giving us that Ebola sample. But there's something else that's been gnawing at me first. I keep thinking about the Shankar Blood voting for me to die. I want you to teleport me back there. I want to see if there's anything else I can do, besides talking to the queen and her mother, to get them to change their mind. Some other strategy that I would only learn by doing some exploring, as I've barely stepped foot in there."

He opened up his portal to the outside of the Mahal Aranya, and I went through. It was night over there.

"Just let me know when you need me to open the portal again. Keep in mind that this is the only portal I have in the The Raajya East, so this will have to be our meeting place where I teleport you back."

"I'll be sure to come back here, thanks again for all you've done for me, Big Horn."

He nodded at me, and closed the portal between us. And I couldn't be sure, but I swore I saw his eyes were moist for the very first time.

The first thing I noticed was that, even at night, the air was hot and sticky, making me sweat immediately. I walked away from the queen's palace and out into the neighborhood, trying to find some hotel or something where I could get a room. The absolutely gorgeous city, all Indian architecture, was even more beautiful lit up in torch and lantern light.

The streets were mostly deserted, but soon I passed a woman who seemed like a vampire dressed in a fine Indian dress, and nodded hello to her. The woman looked me over carefully, not liking the looks of me at all.

"Do you have a permit to be here?" she asked me.

"A permit?"

That was the wrong answer. I felt her grab onto my arm.

"Police, police, come quick!"

Amazingly fast, an old fashioned, handsome police officer came running from around the corner, dressed in a very Indian uniform. He grabbed me.

"What seems to be the problem, ma'am?" he said, proving that even this Blood's police could follow their own clichés.

"He doesn't have a permit, Officer Wali."

The Indian man looked me over. "Thanks ma'am, I'll take it from here."

She let me go and wiped her hands off with disgust as she walked way, in a very Rose-like manner, making me realize she knew I was human.

His uniform was so tight, that I could see he was definitely a vampire, as he was loaded with taut muscles. And his handsome face confirmed that. Which meant I knew trying to outrun the guy wasn't going to happen, so I just let him grab me. I just prayed he wouldn't turn out to be as nasty as the Decency Police.

"ID, please," he told me.

"I have both American ID and one from the Petrov Blood. Would those help?"

"I only can use one from The Raajya East," he said.

"I'm sorry, I don't have one. I really just got here. I was just walking around, trying to fine somewhere to pay for a room for the night. I wasn't trying to frighten anyone."

"Oh, I see," he said. "A new process." He pulled out a blank card and a pen, as well as a paper in which all these questions were listed. "I'll just create your ID right here and now. Name?"

"Jacob Groves."

"Never heard that one before. Can you spell that for me?"

I did, and he wrote it down on my card.

"Sex?"

"I hope you can tell I'm a male. If not, I really need to rethink my clothing choices."

"Alright, fella, alright. Sometimes with you outsiders, it's hard to tell. I didn't want to assume and then offend you. You aren't a vampire, so I'm going to put that you are a human."

That did not sound good to me. "What happened to you not assuming?"

"Well, you're too skinny to be a vampire. And if you really insist on it, I'll need to see your fangs in order to believe you."

"Fine, I'm not a vampire."

"Putting you down as human." He wrote it. "You're clearly an adult."

"Yes."

He wrote that down. "Are you heterosexual, bisexual, or homosexual?"

"That's pretty personal! Is that really on the list?"

"It's on here! I need you to answer it."

"Fine. Homosexual."

He wrote that down. "And follow up question to that one. Are you a top or a bottom."

"Why on earth is that relevant at all?"

"I didn't invent these questions. Just please answer me. Honestly!"

"Fine. I'm a bottom."

"Really? I wouldn't have guessed that. See, it pays never to assume." He wrote that down.

"Why is that so hard to believe?"

"You just seem like a normal guy. And human male bottoms are pretty unusual here. Now, this next question, I don't need your help on. I can smell your AB negative blood type all over you. You smell great." He wrote that down.

"Uh, thanks."

"Do you have a job here?"

"I already told you I'm new to this city. Of course not."

"Hey, I'm just going through these questions as they are written. I appreciate if you don't give me sass." He wrote that down.

"I'll try to behave myself."

"Because that was still sort of sassy. Okay, I put you down for jobless. Do you have any important contact here you might be staying with or helping out?"

"Yes, Admiral Sajan Devar. Can you take me to him, please? He is expecting me."

"Oh, Admiral Devar, of course. I can take you to him, no problem. Let me guess, you have a date with the guy?"

"That's right."

"Sure. I'm already going that way anyway. You see, I'm sort of dating Aarya Chunni Menon, and he's always close in proximity to her."

"Oh, really?" I asked, feeling a little sorry for the guy. I had no fondness for the mother of the queen.

"No, not really, you fool. Do you know how many guys like you claim to know important figures like them? I'll tell you what I tell all of them. If Admiral Devar really is expecting you like you claim, he'll let us know he's looking for you. I'm never going to take you to him on your word alone. And the last person he would ever date is you. Everyone in this city knows he is totally heterosexual, as he constantly turns down every hot bottom like you that hits on him, and clearly only has eyes for the ladies. He's pretty much the most heterosexual guy in this city."

"But--"

"—Next question! Are you related to anyone important here? Since you just tried to lie to me on the last question, and you are so non-Shankar Blood it's almost sad, I'm going to answer that question for you."

He filled that answer on my badge.

"Anything else unusual about you I should know about?"

"Well, I'm, um. I'm a special sort of human than can get old or get sick ever, not even get parasites."

He wrote that down. "That will potentially help you get a job. Okay, that's the last question. Now I just have to add up your numbers to find out which district you've been assigned to. Ah yes, District Y1." He wrote that down on my badge, and pinned it to my shirt. "You are legally required to wear this, in prominent display, every time you are in public here."

"Does that mean I'm free to go now?"

"No. Don't you see the signs on these buildings? This is District X20. This is so not your District. And you are only allowed to leave your District if you have some proof of official business in another, higher District."

"Fine. How do I find this District?"

"I'll take you there." He lifted me up and pulled me into his arms, with me barely holding onto my pack.

"What on earth are you doing?"

"I'm carrying you. It's much faster than you can walk."

"Fine," I said, even though I felt like part of it was just that he was worried about me trying to escape.

He stopped running and set me down as we reached a huge brick wall, looking extremely secure and filled with guards. There was a District Y1 sign on the gate.

"Are these walls to protect us on the inside or keep us contained?"

"Both."

He pushed me through the gate, and I realized District Y1 was anywhere were I wanted to be assigned. It looked like the proletariat slums of the Petrov Blood. The architecture was still nice here, but not well maintained, and covered with filth. People were just lying in the streets, totally homeless. There was such a stench here. Only, unlike in this slum, the outside of the whole District was walled in with a lot of security, giving this the feeling of a Jewish ghetto or something where the people were actually forced to be inside.

"I'm not going to lie to you and tell you this place is going to be pleasant for you, doubly so coming from District X20 like you were. But there's nothing I can do for you, this is where you belong. I advise you to keep your head down in there and watch your back. Don't let yourself become prey."

"I can't stay here," I said to the officer. "Look, I have a bourgeoisie card from the Petrov Blood proving I'm a part of the middle class. Does that help me get out of here?"

"It means nothing here."

"There has to be some other option that this for me. I have money, and I'm vampire friendly. Please, Officer."

"Nope. This is where you belong. Now stop bugging me. Listen, if you need me to, I can stick with you for a bit to make sure nobody attacks you."

I looked around at all the obviously human denizens looking like they could barely move. "If you can't help get me out of here, then you might as well just let me be."

He nodded and left.

I walked alone into the ghetto. Everyone on the street was looking at me, reading all the details of my badge, and no one looked the least bit friendly. I felt anything but safe there, and the longer I lingered here at night, the worst it was for me, I knew.

I went up to one old guy who spat at my feet as I walked up to him.

"Do you know where I can find a hotel?"

He laughed. "Which District did you think you just got locked into, son? We don't got no hotels."

"Where can I pay for a room, then?"

"There's tenements where you can rent rooms. Those tall buildings over there."

"Thanks." I gave the man a rupee.

I gave more rupees to a group of children in the street, also covered in dirt.

"Don't you have parents to look after you?"

"That's our dad, over there passed out over there by the market."

"If your dad is homeless, isn't there some shelter you all can go to?"

"Shelter?"

"Where they feed and house families?"

"Not in this District," the boy said. "Only food and shelter for those who can afford it."

"Not even at your schools?"

"Schools? We can't afford that either. Way too expensive."

"I'm really disgusted by all this, kids," I said. "I'm sorry you have to live like this."

"Thanks."

I left them alone, feeling more and more outraged by the way these Bloods treated their humans. It was even worse here for them than it had been in the Petrov Blood.

I was almost to the tenement building closest to me when a door opened suddenly to my right, scaring me, and someone pulled me inside, into an old, abandoned stable, slamming the door behind us, leaving us alone. He pushed me to the ground.

I looked at my attacker, and I could see he was a fit man in torn up rags of clothing. He had pulled what looked like a cloth meant to be a turban and pulled it over his face, making it a mask that only let me see his eyes and his mouth.

I tried to fight him off, but he was surprisingly strong for a homeless guy, and quickly subdued me.

"Please don't hurt me," I said. "I have rupees. Please just take them and go."

"I'm not such a fool to risk everything for a pocketful of rupees." He pulled my backpack off me and tossed it out of the way.

"Then what could you possibly want from me?"

"I want this," he said, licking my throat, surprising me as sharp fangs came out.

"Wait a second, you are a vampire?"

"Of course."

"How did you even get in this District?"

"I live here. This has been my District for decades."

"Vampires live in this District, just like humans?"

"Of course we do. But it's even harder for us to get by because we always need to find blood. Some of those kids you saw out in the street were vampires."

"What is your planned endgame with me, here? Kill me and drink up my blood?"

"If that was my plan, do you really think I would ever stop and bother to answer all your questions? I'm not going to kill you."

"Oh, you'd be surprised just how many vampires feel compelled to explain all their killing plans of me before they get to the deed. Listen to me. Because I feel bad at the condition you've had to live in for so long here, I'm going to make you a deal. I'll let you bite me and taste my blood, drink just enough to get your daily fill, and then that's it. I'll forget you ever attacked me. But I don't just have AB negative blood. My blood tastes even better than that. I'm not trying to brag about the deal I'm about to offer you. I'm telling you that to warn you ahead of time to keep yourself under control after you taste it."

"It sounds wonderful, and I will taste it, yes. And I won't kill you, I promise."

"Is that a yes to my offer?"

"No. Because there's something else I need far more than your blood."

He pulled my pants down around my ankles, and flipped me over onto my stomach.

"This," he said, sticking a wet finger inside me. "I haven't had sex for over ten years. Ten years! And vampire males are built with such huge libidos. When I saw you there, and it said on your badge that you couldn't get sick, since I don't have any condoms, I can't afford them. And you are so beautiful and so clean. I just couldn't stop myself from taking what I need."

I felt him push his hard dick inside me, hurting me so bad that I screamed.

"I saw too that you were the rare bottom here. So maybe you want this just as much as I do. If so, I'll take off the mask and screw you like I want to, because it would no longer be rape."

"I may be a bottom, but I most certainly don't want this and it IS rape! Stop it this second!"

He stuck a piece of tape over my mouth, stopping my screams. "Sorry, can't have you screaming like that."

He kept screwing me faster and faster.

"If it's any consolation, you are the best sex I've ever had."

"No," I managed to say through my tape, shaking my head angrily at him.

I could see someone's feet walking by on the street through the gaps between the wooden planks of the stable door. He had my arms pinned in front of me, so I pulled a Helina and I pounded my head against the wood over and over again.

I felt so happy when the stable door opened from the outside.

"What's this?" asked a man's voice, and unlike everyone else here, he had an Arabic accent and looked like he was from Pradhaan Desh. "Is this consensual?" he asked the vampire.

"Oh, it is, I assure you."

I shook my head violently.

The Arabian man came over and pulled my tape off. "Sir, are you being forced?"

"Yes, he's raping me, please help me!"

"You stop this right this second!"

The Arabian man pulled the vampire off of me. It felt so good to have the violator stop touching me and to not have his unit inside me any longer. My only consolation was that my rapist had not yet blown his load, so at least there wasn't some raping jerk's seed inside me I'd have to clean out. He then started to get into a fist fight with the guy.

Soon, my attacker was on the ground, knocked unconscious.

"It's almost scary how easy that was for me, just how much older and stronger I am."

And that's when I knew he was another vampire. He ran out of the stable and waved his arms. "Officers, arrest this vampire!"

Soon enough, Officer Wali came running in.

"Officer, this vampire raped me. Please arrest him."

"See? I this is exactly why I offered to keep watch over you tonight, Jacob. Are there two witnesses? There have to be at least two witnesses to all rapes here."

"I witnessed it," said the vampire.

The officer put handcuffs around the unconscious vampire's hands. "You are under arrest for rape." He pulled the man's mask off, showing his face, and fished out an ID badge labelled Y1, just like mine. "Alright, Kush Poddar, you are heading to jail."

The officer dragged him out, and I put my pants back on and got to my feet.

"Are you going to be okay now, Mr, um..."

The stranger looked at my ID badge.

"Mr., um, homosexual bottom human male with AB negative blood and unable to get sick. Sorry, it's impossible for me to find the actual names on these things, there's just too much info. What is your name?"

"Jake Groves," I said.

His eyes went wide. "Jake Groves? Is this some sort of cruel joke?"

"No joke."

"Jake! It's me! Rasheed Farhat. Tahir's father! The man you helped save!"

"Oh right, now I see the similarity to Tahir," I said, smiling happily.

He had Tahir's mouth and jaw, even if the eyes and nose weren't the same. He had short hair where Tahir's had been long. Rasheed was dressed in rather fancy Arabian clothes, nothing like Tahir's clothes.

"Hello, Mr. Farhat."

I shook his hand.

"Nice to meet you, Jake. I'm even more sorry now the way I actually had to meet you for the first time."

"I know. First impressions are so lasting, and having you meet me in that way was not how I pictured it would be either. But you saved me from that man, so I'm grateful that's how it happened. Otherwise my pain would have been much greater than just emotional."

"Did you just get here or something?" he asked me.

"Just tonight. And got assigned to this horrible District."

"Come back with me," he said. "You can stay in my room."

"How long have you been here?"

"Jake, I'm sorry, but this is neither the time or place for us to catch up. Both of us are in extreme danger just being put here, doubly so at night."

He pulled out his Arabian sword out of his sheathe and held it out at the ready, demonstrating to me just how much danger we were in.

I kept my mouth shut and followed him out of the stable. We walked towards one of the tenement buildings. As we went, he held out his sword to every single shadowy corridor we passed, or hard to see places, obviously expecting horrible people to attack us at any moment. Given that he was the one who knew the area while I was the newbie, I took his fear and caution very seriously, trying to move with as much stealth as I possibly could.

I thought Mr. Farhat's disposition would change when we reached what I thought would be the safety of the tenement entrance, but when Mr. Farhat seemed even more nervous and alert at every single creepy door we passed, I figured that he must have about as bad an opinion about his tenement neighbors as I could conceive. I used my phone to light our path as we went through the halls and up the staircases, us going to a rather high up room.

When we finally reached his door, he pulled out his keys and quickly unlocked them all. He opened the door.

I started to walk in, but Mr. Farhat grabbed me and pulled me back. "Don't just go in there!" he yelled at me. "They could be waiting!"

"I'm sorry, I thought the door was locked."

"But that doesn't mean they couldn't have snuck into the room with secret passages, ready to waylay us. I know all about secret passages because I'm an architect."

He went sword-tip first into the room and lit up a lantern, illuminating the dirty, unpleasant interior of a tiny "hotel" room. There was just a bed, a small closet, a kitchenette area that had a frig, sink, and a tiny stove, and a small bathroom that looked in bad shape. It looked like something a very cheap serial killer might stay, and felt very creepy. I shut the door behind me.

Mr. Farhat carefully searched out every nook and cranny, every shadowy corner of the room with his sword until he was satisfied. And then he put so many locks on the door, he obviously had brought his own with him, as there was no way a hotel would issue that many on their own as standard issue. At least, I hoped for our sake that they didn't.

Only after that did he set the sword down and let some of the tension of his body go. He folded up his bed, and I realized it was sort of an Indian-style futon, as he turned it into a sitting place. "You are welcome to stay here with me as long as you need to, Jake. At least, until I run out of money and can't afford this place anymore. And just in case you are wondering, yes, this WAS the best tenement tower, and yes this IS the best room here. My frig is stocked with food if you need it. I don't even leave the room unless I absolutely have to. Tonight, I ran out of blood packets, so I braved the city to get more, since I needed one to get through the night. But those plans fell apart when I needed to bring you home safely. So, I'll need to get more blood."

"Is that why these windows are boarded up?" I asked, pointing at the windows that had been boarded as best as one could with limited materials. "To keep the sun from burring you?"

"No. The sun still comes through the cracks in boards there. They are boarded to keep anyone from coming in from the outside."

"You mean, through the windows? Even though we are so high up?"

"We vampires can climb, Jake. Don't forget that."

"That's' true."

"There's no non-awkward way to offer this, Mr. Farhat, so I'll just say it. You can drink my blood. Well, as long as you can handle the flavor of my One blood without trying to kill me or anything."

"I am very much in control of my actions, you need not worry. Thanks for that."

"Mr. Farhat, I think you should sit down. I have some bad news for you about Tahir."

Instead of him taking a seat, he tackled me onto the couch and held me there against him, starting to cry.

"I've heard all about his death, Jake. Vizier Bazzi was friends with my wife, and called her as soon as it happened. Me and her had been grieving ever since. I'm still in shambles."

I started to cry as well. "Did he tell you two that it was my fault?"

"Because you failed to save him in Marutuk's twisted death games? You did not kill him, regardless of the circumstances of his actual death. Marutuk did."

I started to cry even more. "But it was me who got him to impregnate me in the first place."

"He knew full well the risk he was taking, Jake. He made his own choices. You cannot blame yourself, seriously. Just cry with me and let us remember him."

I started to gush then, and held onto Mr. Farhat tightly as we both cried and cried, covering each other in tears. I got out all the crying that I had needed to do since I was with Big Horn.

After a half hour of crying, stories, and holding each other, Mr. Farhat said, "I'm finding it difficult being so close to you while I'm this hungry."

"Do you want to bite me now? Might as well."

"I'd love that, thanks."

I pushed my shirt collar away from my throat, and showed it to him.

His fangs came out, but he looked down at me awkwardly. "Do you need a countdown or something before I pierce you?"

"Nope, just go ahead, Mr. Farhat."

"I'd feel a little less weird about this if you called me by my first name. I feel like we are close enough now for that, don't you?"

"Sure, Rasheed."

"Yes, that's better."

He bit into my throat, and I tried not let him see the erection that soon hit me inside my pants.

"Ah yes, I can see what the fuss is about. But no worry, I am not one to lose control."

He drank my blood down, licked my wound shut and thanked me.

"Please, have some food from my frig. It's full of good sustenance. I won't eat it because I hate the strong flavors of Indian food, it makes me gag. So I've just been living off blood packets and water."

After I ate some, and the food wasn't as bad as I was expecting, he said, "Uh oh, I just have a urinal in the bathroom, not a full toilet. That won't work for you human males, will it?"

"Ah, actually, Marutuk used my One magic to give me the same digestive and reproductive systems of a male vampire. Otherwise, how did you think I was pregnant twice?"

"Tahir told us the dirty details about how you were able to get pregnant with his sperm, but I honestly didn't want to hear it. It was too graphic for an architect."

"Well, bottom line is, I only need to urinate like you, and I've got a lot of female parts inside me. But that's beside the point now, since my ovaries have been permanently destroyed, so I'm just as infertile as I ever was."

"I'm sorry. I have unlimited clean water, so use as much of it as you need to. The shower works fine."

"What happened to Mrs. Farhat?"

"I'll tell you if you sit here with me again and let me cry with you."

I moved back to the sofa, and he wrapped his arms around me again.

"When we first arrived here through Big Horn's portal, we had no idea about any of these Districts, total nonsense. We actually found a nice place to stay together. We were together the day Tahir died, and a couple days after, as we were both grieving together. But then someone saw us together on the street, and the police came for us. They stuck me here, but they put her under arrest, and took her away by force as she kicked and screamed. That was the last I ever saw of her. I was told by the folks here that she was executed for her crimes, and so, now I have two loved ones to grieve." He stopped talking and just cried and cried.

"I'm so, unbelievably sorry for your loss, Rasheed. None of this is the least bit fair."

"Halah was my rock. I am lost without her."

He sobbed and sobbed, and I just held him for what seemed like forever, letting him get it out.

"The one consolation in all of this is that Marutuk is dead."

"Oh he is? Excellent news! Does that mean I can go back to Badiya Ahmar and away from this insanity?"

"Big Horn can teleport you back, but the problem is, he told me his only portal was the one by the palace. We'll have to find a way to get you there so he can teleport you back."

Finally, he pulled himself away. "You must be tired. It is quite late."

Rasheed pulled down the sofa, making it a bed again.

"You probably noticed we just have one bed here. I'd love if you let me share it with you, Jake."

"There's really no other option," I said.

I grabbed my things and went into the bathroom. I took a quick shower and got ready for bed. I changed into a pair of sleeping shorts.

When I went back into the living room, I noticed that Rasheed had changed into sort of Arabian smallclothes that covered most of his body.

We both got into the bed, and it was small enough for two that there was really no extra room, meaning he was right there against my side.

Just as I said my nightly prayers internally and shut my eyes to go to sleep, I felt his lips on mine, giving me a kiss that was anything but friendly.

"Whoa!" I said. "I did not expect that."

"Listen to me. The only way I'm going to survive this night is if I'm inside you. I know you are a bottom. Please, won't you let me inside?"

"What about Tahir and Halah? Don't you feel the least bit guilty about this?"

"No. They are both dead. They would both want us both to move on."

"I'm still not sure. I just got raped out there from someone who couldn't keep his hands off me."

"I'm not one of those ruffians on the street who can't control themselves. I am in full control, I promise you. I will not hurt you." He grabbed me on the butt. "Please, this is the only way I can get not having Halah to hold anymore."

"Look, Rasheed. I really feel for you. I know how horrible grief like yours can sting, and I'm still stinging from Tahir's loss. But you barely know me. I'm just someone to warm your bed, and that's all. If I'm going to sleep with someone, I want it there to be at least the chance that something serious will develop."

"No, you don't understand. I would have never invited you up if I didn't want you to be the next Halah. I already have such feelings for you, Jake."

"But you only just met me! You just have feelings for me because I saved you from getting killed by Marutuk."

"That's not true. I knew and loved Tahir as well as anyone else in this world. And Tahir told me just how much he knew and loved you. I know he takes after his father in romantic selections, and since he fell in love with you so quickly, I knew you must have been a real class act. And so, I may not know all of your details, but I'm positive I will love you just as much as he did. Please, please let me in. I need you tonight, oh how I need you."

"Wait a second," I said. "How do I know this isn't just some pathetic attempt to manipulate my feelings in order to get me to bed?"

"I swear on Tahir's memory and Halah's that my words and intentions are just as I've stated them."

I could tell he was being honest with me.

"Alright, okay, you've convinced me."

"Yes, yes! I can't carry on without you."

He pulled my shorts off and threw them off the bed. And then he took his smallclothes off and did the same, leaving us both naked.

Once I saw him nude, it made me desire him more. His face had its similarities to Tahir, but it wasn't quite right. But from his mouth down, he was the same man. His same tight muscles, covered with veins, same tan skin. Same naturally hairless body save for his small pubic bush and pit hair. And same wonderful cut dick, with its smooth stalk and purple-tan head. In fact, it made me sad to look at him and touch him.

He kissed me for a while, and though his mouth looked the same as Tahir's his kiss wasn't the same. With Tahir, there had always been that danger in his mind, his fear of losing control. There wasn't any of that in Rasheed's kiss, it was all gentle.

He didn't want to kiss my mouth for long, clearly, as he wan straight for my hole. He licked me there, and he licked me, giving me pleasure.

Soon, he was pushing inside me. He didn't go too quickly to cause me pain, he entered me nice and easy. And once I got used to his size inside me, I realized just how good he felt.

He pushed my button over and over again, and I came first, shooting onto the bed. He shot inside me soon after, and then stayed inside me.

He clutched onto me hard as he fell asleep, and I fell asleep thinking about Big Horn's words to me. That I was a sucker for physically strong, handsome men that had a vulnerable side and needed me.