Evil Is a Man

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

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

JANUARY 23rd

When I woke up the next morning, Syd looked like he was in a coma. I reconnected his monitors and the IV, notified the nurse that she should go in and look after him, then left. I grabbed some oatmeal at the mess hall, which was about all my nervous stomach would allow me to consume, and then I was in our apartment. There were signs that Parker had slept in our bed, but he wasn't in the room when I got there. I got in the shower and washed every part of me, even going so far as to rubbing disinfectant all over myself, inside and out. I couldn't get infected by Syd, I knew, but there's no way I'd led any of his germs somehow infect Parker. I dressed for the rodeo, and headed out to the stables.

I noticed Abderhalden was already gone, which was a good sign. Patches was again happy to see me, and I got him fed, cleaned up, and saddled.

As I rode out towards the rodeo corral, visions of my family and friends flashed through my mind, each one of them pleading with me to save them. This was what it all came down to. I prayed for God to see me through this, and I prayed for Parker's safety too. I'd be just as despondent and guilty if I won the rodeo match but lost Parker in the process. Heck, he was as much family to me as my flesh and blood.

When I rode into the corral, all of the spectators were already in the stands, and this time, the stands were totally packed. The only seats not used were the ones in Jericho's box.

I saw Parker was on the far side of the arena, standing on the ground with Abderhalden all ready to go. I rode past Jericho and Donnie, I could hear Donnie pleading, "Mr. Governor, if I do well on my events, can I please, please, please give you a just one lil' blowjob?"

"We'll see, Donnie. We'll see." Then Jericho noticed me crossing their path. "Oh, look who it is," he said as he spat in my direction. I was too nervous to react to him.

I past Cornelius as well and finally arrived at where Parker was standing. He was facing the crowds, turned away from me, and the noise was so deafening, he didn't hear me approach.

I got off Patches and crept behind Parker and tapped him on the shoulder. He spun around, saw who I was, and then hugged me right away, kissing me on the lips. "I missed you so much last night, my love," he said.

"Parker, I know the audience isn't exactly focused, but if you kiss me in front of everyone, someone is bound to see."

He put his arms around me. "We're playing a couples competition, my dear. This is not like ballroom dancing. Here, a `couple' refers to a romantic pairing. Which means, they expect to see this type of affection between us today."

"Even if one member of our team is technically still married, and another technically still engaged?"

"Yes. I'm not breaking any vows because fanged vampires aren't required to be monogamous. And you haven't said any vows yet that you can break here."

"Well then, in that case," I said as I kissed him back passionately. "It's all done now, with Syd" I said as I pulled away from him. "Just as I promised. I belong to you now, Parker, not to anyone else."

He put his hand on his cheeks and got a bit misty eyed. "I'm so in love with you, my dear. If we were under any other circumstances, I'd whisk you away and show you the celebration you deserve. But I'm afraid we're about to spend our morning in a far less rewarding manner."

"I'm so nervous, Parker! Feel my heart!" I put his hand on my chest.

"So am I, my love." He placed my hand over his left pec, and beneath all the muscle I could feel his heart beating fast. "I almost couldn't sleep last night, I was worried sick. Then I reminded myself that being tired today was only bound to make my performance worse, and only then was I able to coax myself to sleep through guilt."

"Parker, are we going to be okay?"

He gave me a quick kiss on the lips. "You're going to be wonderful, as always. The real question is how I will be? I still think you should have picked Boyd. Picking me was delightfully sweet of you, my love, but it might not have been the smartest choice. If we lose today because of my disability, do you know how that would make me feel?"

"Athletes, approach!" Cornelius yelled in his megaphone.

Parker gave me an anxious look, and let me towards Cornelius with his arm around my back. Jericho and Donnie came too.

"Champions select the first event," Cornelius told them.

"We don't give a fuck what order we go in," Jericho said. "We're gonna win no matter what anyone picks. Let the cripple his lover pick the whole way through, we don't give a slave's ass."

"Champions waive the right to select the event sequencing," Cornelius yelled to the crowd. "Mr. Logan? Mr. Groves?"

Parker pulled me aside. "Let's go in reverse order in terms of events that are the most physically dangerous to you. So, I'm putting axe throwing last."

"For sure," I said.

"And with those added wild horses, Flag Pulling sixth."

"Sounds good. I like to start with Pole Bending, as it's relatively tame."

"Normally I'd agree, my dear, but now that they have some twist involved, I'm suspicious. I want to put that one later on."

"Well, same would go for Bull Riding as well," I said.

"That one doesn't involve you; therefore it's the least dangerous in my scale. I was going to tell them to do that one first."

"No, we're measuring safety to you in this mix too," I said. "I want that one later. So that leaves us to decide between three. No, two. Bull wrestling is going to make me nervous for your safety, so it will go third."

"How about Calf Roping, since last time you were somehow able to win that one by yourself?"

"Calf Roping," I told Cornelius.

"Calf Roping!" he yelled. The workers started bringing calves into the pen from the underground shafts.

"I promise selecting this event was not just an attempt to get your clothes off," Parker said as he undid his bowtie. "In fact, the idea of you being forced to get naked just to feed the perverse desires of this crowd makes me sick. It was all I could do not to break down with anger the last time I had to watch you be exploited in this way, but this time I feel like my participation and my desire for you somehow makes me responsible as well."

"That's crazy," I said as I took off my shirt. Luckily, it was another oddly hot morning, so stripping wasn't making me cold. "I hate stripping in front of all these people as well, but there's no way I'd ever blame you for any of this. This is the last time I'll have to strip in public like this, thank goodness."

While Parker and I were undressing with care, Jericho and Donnie were just ripping off their clothes much more hastily. I noticed Donnie's eyes as Jericho pulled down his jeans and Donnie saw he wasn't wearing underwear; his eyes went wide and his mouth dropped at the sight of Jericho's huge, soft unit.

"Oh my god!" Donnie exclaimed at the site of it. "Mr. Governor, please tell me you won't mind me feelin' on yer studly body some while we do this event."

"I don't give a flyin' fuck, ya do what you have to do," he said.

Once we were totally undressed save for our shoes, Parker got up on Patches and sat in the front, then helped me up into the saddle behind him. He asked if I was ready, and what he really meant is if it was safe for him to ride, but I almost told him I didn't feel the least bit ready for this event or any of the others, that's how unsure and nervous I was. We were facing the two best rodeo competitors in Mareshead. But I kept my mouth shut, knowing he'd only worry even more if I said anything, and with my hand on his naked chest I could feel his heart pounding in time with mine.

"I'm ready."

He rode Patches towards the east gate, and Jericho and Donnie lined up against the west one.

"Is there anything different I should do to help with your disability, Parker?" I asked.

"This event shouldn't matter much in that respect, because just riding a horse isn't a problem for me. But I want you to take special care about your own safety now, you understand?"

"Of course," I said.

"I'm not sure you get how ruthless Jericho is," Parker said. "He'll opportunistically find a way to legally murder us both during this game if he can. Please don't consider him a reasonable, rational competitor in these events."

"I won't," I said, but the truth was, I was willing to die here if necessary as long as it meant I was saving my family.

"Competitors ready?" Cornelius yelled through his megaphone. "Go!"

The gates flew open, and both horses moved into the enclosure. From the second I saw Jericho's giant Clydesdale in a full out sprint towards their nearest calf, I knew we were in the big leagues now. Their horse was much bigger and better than the others I'd gone against, and they were nothing but business. I knew this event would ultimately come down to which side made the least number of mistakes.

I noticed Parker wasn't barreling towards our nearest calf like Jericho was, or like Boyd and Syd had always done. "Parker, if you're concerned about riding Patches at top speed because you think I'll fall off or something, don't worry, I'm holding on tight." I wrapped my hands tightly around his body and grabbed his pecs and held on there, to demonstrate.

"I am concerned for your safety at all times, my dear, but my slowness is motivated not by caution but by strategy. Jericho and most of the others chase down the calves at full speed on their giant horses. See? That's what he's doing right this instant. But look at that, like most calves, the one he's approaching is skittish and afraid, and what do you know, it's already running away at top speed, and Jericho will have to take extra time to chase it down. I find that if I approach the calves at this less intimidating velocity, the calves are less likely to run."

We moved towards our calf at a mild pace, and Parker even aimed for us to approach it from the side, not charge straight at it like Jericho was doing. It worked beautifully: I was able to pull out my rope and get my loop around the head of the calf before it even realized we were there.

I handed the rope to Parker, and he quickly tied it to saddle horn, then actually turned and helped me down off the horse. I grabbed a rope, ran towards the calf, and started to tie it.

"Challengers have their first!" yelled Cornelius through his megaphone, and the crowd gave some limited applause. Already it was clear that the crowd no longer had my loyalty now that their favorite Syd was no longer my partner, but I didn't care about that.

As soon as I was heading back to the horse, I heard, "Champions have their first," and I knew they were just on our heels.

Instead of me struggling to climb up when Syd had been in the saddle, Parker kept the horse stationary and helped me up, pulling me safely in behind him before he would move the horse again. I was worried that might slow us down, and I looked towards our opponents. Jericho was the total opposite of his son: as Donnie ran towards their horse, Jericho didn't concern himself with helping the guy up; in fact, he started moving the horse towards their next calf, meaning Donnie had to absolutely scramble on, barely keeping himself from falling off. It ultimately used just as much time as Parker's cautious approach.

Patches sidled up to our second calf, and as soon as we were in range, I had a loop around its neck. Soon, I was on the ground, running towards the animal. I noticed as I was on the ground that Parker handled the horse completely differently than Syd had been doing during this time. Syd had used the lull to show off to the crowd, while Parker never took a moment of rest, he was constantly keeping himself in the game. Instead of having Patches just stay put, waiting, he was moving with me, keeping him in between me and any possible danger he could assess, and his focus on the entirety of the playing field was impressive.

"Challengers have their second!"

I raced back towards the horse, with Parker again pulling me into my seat.

"Champions have their second!"

I got into my seat a few moments before Donnie was in his, and Parker moved us towards the next closest calf. There were only three claves left, and everyone expected that Jericho would ride towards the one closest to them but farthest away from us. Instead, he started racing his horse towards our calf.

I realized he must have figured out Parker's strategy and was attempting counter it. Just before I could rope it, Jericho had scared the calf we had been approaching into running off across the field. He didn't even bother chasing it, instead, he switched course for the next nearest calf, and scared that one too, before finally chasing down the farthest calf.

"Holy crap," I said as I saw all three remaining calves running around separately in a common panic. "Parker, you can't go slowly now."

"No, clearly not. Are you holding onto me?"

I tightened my arms around his naked body.

"Yes!"

Parker shot Patches at full speed towards one of the running calves.

As we went, I looked over at the other horse as Jericho also rode towards the calves. I noticed that while Donnie had been riding behind Jericho, he had been using the opportunity to feel on his unit as they were riding, his fingers playing with the prince-albert especially. In fact, it looked like he was trying to make him firm, and Jericho was letting him do it. I realized that Donnie wasn't quite ready with his rope when Jericho rode them into range of their calf, arriving a bit sooner than we did, taking the lead. He was too distracted by the treasure in his hands, clearly, and only noticed he should be taking action with a delayed response.

Because of this, Parker and I once again ended up roping the calf we had to chase down before Donnie had done the same to his. I ran towards my calf on the ground and finished tying it down.

"Challengers have three!"

As I ran back towards Patches, I could see Donnie on the ground tying his calf, clearly sporting an erection of his own. Like Syd, he had let his sexual pleasure take precedence over their win, and it was hurting his team.

"Champions have three!"

We had the lead going into the last calf, so we raced towards it. Again, it was already running, so we had to chase this one down, which was taking longer than before.

By the time I roped the calf, I could see Jericho and Donnie were racing towards us. I grabbed my rope and began running towards the last calf on foot.

I noticed in my peripheral vision that Jericho wasn't coming to a stop at the calf, he was racing forward, clearly set on pulling the same maneuver that Arlene had done, racing into the rope holding the calf to Patches, requiring us to re-rope this one.

But I got to the calf and started tying it down before he reached the rope and I knew we would win.

Jericho made a sudden course of change and I realized that he was barreling right for me, a ruthless smile on his face. I had a choice: finish roping the calf and win while at the same time getting plowed down by Jericho's humongous horse, or jump aside and lose the calf.

I stayed put, and right before Jericho's horse slammed into me, I saw Patches running in from the side, colliding into Jericho's horse and forcing both of their courses to just miss me.

I finished tying the calf down.

"Challengers win!" Cornelius yelled, and the crowd gave some pitiful applause.

"Damn them! Damn them!" Jericho yelled, absolutely furious.

Parker climbed down off of Patches, and in a second I jumped into his arms, kissing him madly. "We did it!"

"Oh yeah, celebrate now," Jericho yelled at us from his horse. "That event didn't even require the cripple to walk anywhere. As soon as he has to use his leg, I'll be laughing as I watch the gimp limp all over the ground."

"Don't listen to him," I said, walking towards the gate. "You were brilliant back there, Parker."

He followed behind me, Patches in tow. "So much for starting with the event that seemed the safest to you," he said. "I should have known that any event that involves you getting on the ground would become terrifyingly dangerous with Jericho at the reins. And you! Why didn't you run out of the way when you had a chance to? I just about had a heart attack when I realized you were about to get hit."

"I knew we would lose the event if I didn't hold my ground."

"You could have died right then, you know that." He was furious. I remember how Syd had urged me into taking more and more dangerous risks to myself, and he certainly never scolded me for putting my life in danger.

"I'm willing to die for my family, Parker."

"That's very noble, I'm willing to die for your family too. But we if you die in the first events, there's no way we can win this rodeo, and that will mean your family's death in the end anyway."

"You're right," I said. "I need to be more cautious." But in my head, I figured I only needed to be cautious until the winning event was played. If I died at the end, as long as we won our last event, my family would be saved.

After we left the calf pen, Cornelius approached us quickly. "Next event?"

"Heading and Heeling," the two of us said simultaneously.

"Heading and Heeling!" Cornelius announced. Workers began removing the calves and replacing them with their fathers.

Immediately, Parker and I started to put our clothes back on. We noticed that Jericho announced he was staying just in his boots and hat, clearly as some sort of attempt to intimidate us, and Donnie followed suit.

Parker brought Abderhalden forward. "Are you sure you want to ride one of the big horses for this one, my dear?" he asked, motioning towards Patches.

"I'd rather ride a horse that knows and responds to my instructions better than a strange horse any day," I replied. "And anyway, Jericho is riding his big horse for this one."

While Parker looked to watch his father mount his large Clydesdale, I quickly jumped up into Abderhalden's saddle.

"I hope that you took my horse accidentally," he said when he turned to see just which animal I had mounted

"Purposefully," I said. "Since you will be the leader in this event, in the position of offense, it seems smarter to me that you would have the big horse, just like Jericho and Donnie have things. I have no need for muscle, the smaller horse is fine for me."

"I'd feel better if you were riding on Patches, because it would be safer for you."

"That's sweet, but too bad," I said. "I'll be fine on this horse, all I have to do is just stay out of the way."

"Just promise me you won't make any foolish, dangerous moves this time." He was still very angry with me.

"I promise to try."

We headed towards our gate once again.

"Competitors ready! Go!"

The gates were released, and this time, four horses headed through. I noticed that once again, Jericho had his horse moving at full speed right off the bat, flying at a pace that I didn't think Patches was capable of. Donnie did his best to keep his small horse as close to Jericho as he could, and it was clear right away just how much better a rider Donnie was compared to any of the other human halves of the couples I'd faced. I wasn't sure if we could beat them, especially not at the much more moderate pace Parker was setting for us. Unlike the last event, this one really had no sexual interest to Donnie, so he wasn't bound to be delayed needlessly like before.

What was interesting to see was that the bulls responded totally differently to these two giant horses then they had when it was just the smaller horses approaching them. Before, many of them had turned feisty when the riders came close, and often tried to gore one horse or another. This time, the two huge specimens of horses were setting them all on edge, making them chose flight over fight as the horses came near.

Jericho got to his first bull first, and aggressively roped it around the head. "Donnie, stop fuckin' around and get the damn thing!" he snapped, even though by my eyes, Donnie was doing the very best Jericho could have hoped for.

"Yes, Mr. Governor," he said, obeying.

Meanwhile, Parker had somehow managed to keep our first bull relatively calm when he approached it, making it all the easier for him to ensnare it. When I saw he had a good hold on it, I grabbed my rope, swung it to my side, and charged Abderhalden in close. Just like I'd been taught, I waited for the bull to kick, and then I threw my rope around the feet, tightened it, and the two of us pulled our ropes together.

"Challengers and champions each have one!" Cornelius said.

As both sets of partners geared up for round two, I realized something: Jericho and Donnie seemed to be moving faster than us, but they had a clear disadvantage. While Parker and I were always keeping a two-way line of communication with each other and making decisions jointly, Jericho was strictly barking orders and demanding obedience from his partner, which was actually leading them into blindly making mistakes.

Parker roped his second bull, and I quickly moved in to heel it. Once again, Cornelius shouted, "Challengers and champions both have two!" I sighed, knowing we still had not managed to pull ahead.

The third bull we went for that was standing near the fence threw us for a loop when Parker's techniques didn't keep the animal from bolting away from Patches as he got close. It was such a sudden move, Parker didn't even have a chance to turn course; the animal bounded off in the other direction. I thought for sure that little error would cost us.

I noticed that the errant bull was coming right towards me, and instead of getting out of the way, I charged towards it. It was a gamble, as I could have incited it into anger, but it actually turned around at my aggression and started back towards Parker again. In this way, we were able to herd it cooperatively.

"Risky move!" Parker said as he roped the horse around the head.

Once again, when I heeled the bull, I heard, "Challengers and champions have three," and I knew they hadn't lost any ground.

All four horses pivoted their horses towards the lone remaining bull in the center of the pen, and we all raced for it. I was so angry when Jericho reached it first, but he was going so fast, the bull heard and felt him coming from a long ways away, and ran hard away from him.

Jericho ended up mistakenly herding the bull in Parker's general direction, and though he seemed to be way out of roping range, Parker miraculously sent out the longest, most accurate loop flying towards the bull that I had ever seen or would have even thought possible. Everyone in the audience gasped upon seeing this, and when it landed and he pulled the rope taught, everyone applauded. It was that moment that I was sure I had made the right decision in partner.

I was so amazed, I almost forgot I still had work to do. I shook myself out of my stupor and drove my horse fast towards the bull he was holding, getting my rope out and holding it on my right side.

Abderhalden reached the bull, and just before I could rope its feet together, Jericho came blazing at me, and I had no doubts this time that he meant to have a head on collision with me to keep me from finishing the event. His Hulk horse running full steam into poor, relatively little Abderhalden and I would surely injure us both, and possibly end up fatally.

I tried to move out of the way, but I knew it was too little too late, and there was nothing I could do to stop him.

Thank God Patches and Parker came in out of nowhere, and stood in front of me, blocking them. Jericho's stallion was as furious at this as his owner, and he actually started a fight with Patches, the two horses kicking and biting each other.

In the meantime, my attempt to get out of the way had put me just out of range of heeling the animal, and the scuffle between the horses was pulling the roped bull away from me.

Thank God Parker had the sudden sense to bail ship, and I saw him leaping off his horse and onto the ground, the rope still in his hand. Syd would have landed such a jump flawlessly, but Parker tripped on his false leg, but then recovered to his feet almost immediately. He quickly ran towards me, the rope in his hand dragging the bull my way.

My heart was pounding away at my rib cage, but I didn't let my anxiety take over. In three seconds, I had the bull by the heel, just as I saw Donnie coming towards us on his horse with mischief on his mind.

"Challengers win!" Cornelius shouted. "They're ahead by two!"

"Patches, stop!" I yelled, getting the horse to pull away from the fight before there was any clear victor.

Jericho looked absolutely incensed. "This is your fault," he said, pointing at Donnie. "If you were half as fast as that outsider, we'd have won that."

"Yes, Mr. Governor," Donnie said limply, even though I knew Donnie was not to blame for losing that event, it was all on Jericho.

I got off Abderhalden and once again jumped into Parker's arms and kissed him excitedly. "You were so, so amazing! I couldn't believe my eyes!"

He was absolutely glowing. "Well, we wouldn't have won the event if you hadn't herded that bull towards me, or been so quick to heel."

We led our horses out of the enclosure.

"So, should we do Bull Wrestling next?" he asked me. "As long as they are still in the pen?"

"Yes."

We told Cornelius our selection, and the workers began untying all the bulls in the enclosure.

"Oooo, this is my second favorite event!" Donnie said excitedly to Jericho. "Mr. Governor, I'll betcha five dollars rubbin' against my pleasure hole here'll have ya hard and leakin' by the time we finish the event. " He grabbed some lube from a bottle he had nearby, bent over with his butt totally in Jericho's view, and started to finger himself with a greased up finger. "You can do this for me, if ya want."

"I'll do whatever I want whenever I want," Jericho said. "And right now, I don't give a damn what ya do as long as we win."

Parker and I put Abderhalden aside and approached Patches. Parker helped me into the front part of the saddle and then got up behind me.

"My leg's going to be a serious liability in this one, I fear," he said. "I'll do my absolute best, I swear. But by the end of this event, you'll be wishing you had Boyd."

"You'll be great, I know you will."

I rode us towards the eastern gate, while Jericho and Donnie waited on Jericho's angry horse on the opposite side.

"Competitors ready! Go!"

The gates opened, and I took Patches flying towards the nearest bull.

"Whoa!" Parker said behind me, as I felt him lose his balance.

"I'm going to take this event as fast as possible," I said. "So if you're in the saddle, it's best to hold on tight."

"Indeed."

I felt him hug me from behind, being comforted by the warmth of his muscled body's skin against my naked body. In particular, I noticed his huge, soft unit pushed into my crack, and it felt darn good to me.

"Sorry, this event really forces us into a really provocative position, doesn't it? I apologize in advance if I get physically aroused."

And in fact, just after he said it, I felt his dick pulse to life with blood, teasing my crack.

"Don't worry about that, just take down these bulls."

Across the enclosure, I could see Donnie leading Jericho's stallion towards the first bull. Jericho's eyes were scanning the arena, watching the bulls and keeping tabs on our progress. I wasn't sure if he was aware at the pace Donnie was setting, which was just a medium level speed for a horse that was capable of moving frighteningly fast. Donnie was supposed to be a skilled rider, so it was puzzling to me why he wouldn't be moving nearly as fast towards their first bull as I was towards ours.

I realized quite quickly that Donnie didn't exactly have his full attention on his part of the event. In fact, he seemed much more focused on the man behind him, and specifically, that man's penis.

Jericho was naturally sitting just as close to his partner in front as Parker was to me, and that position was putting Jericho's soft dick in Donnie's crack. But unlike me, who wouldn't let something like that get in the way of the event, Donnie was trying hard to prove his irresistibility by actively rubbing his butthole up and down onto Jericho's unit. I could see Donnie's work was starting to pay off, as Jericho's cock looked a bit fuller than before, which of course brought a smile to Donnie's face and made him try all the more, slowing his pace.

Donnie's sexual proclivities were my advantage, as far as I was concerned, and though before while competing in high school athletic events I always wanted to feel like I was playing my opponent at their absolute best, free of injuries or outside distractions, so I knew if I beat them that would be a true, honorable win; with my family's lives on the line, I would gladly take a win in any form it came in.

As I took us near our bull, I realized that with Parker's disability, I needed to get much closer to the animal than I ever had to playing with Syd or Boyd. Unlike those two, who could make phenomenal leaps from the saddle onto the bulls, Parker had a much shorter range. I worked hard on keeping up with the fleeing bull, making sure to avoid any attempts it made to sideswipe Patches, until finally we were close enough.

"Here goes nothing," Parker said, clearly anxious.

He used my shoulders to help him put his feet on the back of the saddle, and then he leapt into the air. His jump was much shorter and far less graceful than Syd's had been. His landing was even worse, as his false leg gave out when he came down on the bull, and he almost fell off the side of the animal right there. Thankfully, he somehow managed to hold on and climb back up to the top.

He then did something very peculiar, he leaned down, hugged the bull beneath him, resting his head on the bull's neck, and he began speaking to the bull. I had no idea what he was saying because he was speaking in a low tone of voice, but he was attempting to communicate with it instead of just outright knocking it to the ground, like Syd and Boyd had done.

At that moment, Jericho made a ridiculously huge jump from his horse to the bull Donnie had finally tracked down, the longest jump I had ever seen a vampire make. It was incredible to see his athleticism, even if it came with a bitter taste in my mouth. He effortlessly landed perfectly on top of the bull, his powerful naked body already starting to dominate the animal.

I was absolutely astonished when Parker's whispering and petting led to his bull to stop running. Parker gently and slowly pulled the bull to the ground, and it seemed like the bull barely put up a fight. It was as if Parker had somehow hypnotized the animal.

"Challengers have their first!" Cornelius announced with his megaphone.

Parker looked at me, smiled happily, and then started to run back towards the horse, in spite of the limp his leg was creating.

Across the pen, I saw Jericho turn his fist to steel and start to totally punch the head of the bull he was riding. Jericho's hits were so unbelievably strong; the poor bull was either dead or unconscious on the ground in seconds. I reminded myself that Jericho and Big Horn were the two oldest, most powerful Logan vampires alive, and the incredibly efficient, heartless way he took down that bull was proof of his inconceivable athletic prowess.

Parker got up on the horse behind me, not nearly as fast with his disability than Syd or Boyd had done. Across the pen from us, I saw Jericho again use his incredible leaping ability to jump from the ground back into his seat in the saddle behind Donnie, quickly skewering most of the lead we had managed to get.

"How did you get the bull to go down like that?" I asked Parker as I started towards our next target.

"Sometimes, if I can just soothe the animals, I can convince them that letting me push them down is really in their best option." He talked about the bulls as if they were English speaking, reasonable gentlemen, instead of crazed animals.

As I raced as fast as Patches could go towards the next bull, I saw Donnie again waste time carrying on his shenanigans with Jericho. His slid his sloppy hole over and over Jericho's hard dickhead, squeezing it between his buttcheeks. And very quickly, Jericho's dick got fully aroused, though Jericho didn't seem to pay what Donnie was doing any attention. It was purely a mechanical reaction to Donnie's administrations.

I got close enough to our second bull for Parker to jump, and this time, he managed not to almost fall as he landed, though by no means did the landing look the least bit graceful. He started working his same magic on that bull as well.

Jericho made another mighty leap from his horse to his target bull, this time flying through the air with a full hardon. He landed smoothly, turned his fists to steel, and began pummeling the life out of the animal underneath him.

Parker convinced his animal to go down once more, and began limp-running towards the horse.

"Challengers have two!"

By the time Parker had got himself back in the saddle, I heard, "Champions have two!" I turned to see Jericho do his incredible leap onto the saddle, and I knew just like that he had erased any small lead we had once more.

I raced out towards the next closest bull, bringing us to the center of the arena, while Donnie locked onto a bull also in the center of the arena. At first, I thought maybe Donnie was through with his distractions, and knew we would lose. But like clockwork, Donnie started rubbing his butt against Jericho's hard manhood. This time, he even managed to Jericho's mushroom tip inside his hole, and as he finally did, Donnie let out a huge moan of pleasure that was heard through the whole stands. His own unit was rock hard. He started to move back and forth, milking that penis, and I wondered if perhaps Jericho's penile piercing was causing him more pleasure than normal.

As such, we were the first ones to reach the bulls in the center of the pen. Parker again leapt onto his bull and started soothing it.

I was surprised when Jericho pulled away from Donnie and jumped the longest leap yet onto a bull nearby the one Parker was on. Oddly enough, instead of turning his fists to steel, he seemed content to waste time riding this one.

"Challengers have three!" Cornelius announced just after Parker managed to bring the bull down. "One more and they win!"

I smiled excitedly at Parker as he ran towards the horse, and he returned my smile.

I didn't even notice Jericho's bull running right past Parker, seemingly being steered in that direction by his rider. I at fist was worried Jericho was trying to run him over with the bull, but when I saw the bull was clearly passing just to the side of him, I knew he'd be safe.

That's when I noticed Jericho had slid his body to the right and was hanging off the bull's side. He lifted his hand up, grabbed Parker's false leg as the bull passed him, and violently yanked the prosthetic free of Parker's leg.

Parker's excited smile disappeared as he fell down to his knees, unable to walk.

"Let's see ya get that last bull without this!" Jericho taunted as he threw the prosthetic all the way out of the fence of the enclosure. Anger absolutely pulsed through me as I prayed Cornelius would intervene with a rule break, but when he failed to do so, I realized that this must have not been against the rules.

Everyone in the stands was laughing at Parker, or booing and throwing trash at him. Donnie, who had been laughing evilly ever since Jericho made the move, started to get them started on a chant, "CRIPPLE, CRIPPLE, CRIPPLE, CRIPPLE!" It was all so, so juvenilely cruel.

Parker tried to crawl towards me, and his difficulty just made Donnie and the crowd all the more mocking.

Jericho finally took the bull down with his steel fists and leapt onto the saddle.

"Champions have three! One left," Cornelius tried to announce, but Donnie's continuous chant was deafening.

"Stay where you are," I said, and rode over to him. With my help, he was able to climb up on the horse behind me, mainly using his incredible upper body strength to do so.

I raced towards the last bull, but Donnie and Jericho were there first, and before I was even in range, Jericho had jumped onto the animal and was beating it with both his steel fists until it stopped moving.

"Champions win!"

The crowds erupted into applause, the first time they had shown any real excitement in the competition. Donnie looked thrilled, and even Jericho cracked a smile.

Behind me, I heard Parker tell me, "I'm so, so sorry, my love. I screwed it all up." His voice sounded shaky, like he was on the verge of tears.

"That was not your fault, Parker. You could have never predicted what he was going to do. He should have been disqualified for that move, for goodness sake."

He said nothing as I rode us out of the fenced enclosure to where his prosthetic limb lay. I jumped off the horse, picked it up, and handed it back to him. He carefully fastened it back on before dismounting his horse. I had never seen the look of self-hatred that was on his face before that point, and I didn't know what to do about it. The event by itself would have been bad enough by itself, but when you added in the crowd's cruel reaction, it was too much weight to bear.

I reached over and hugged him, not knowing what else to do.

"I'm so sorry," he said. "I told you you'd wish Boyd was your partner instead of Parker, the good for nothing cripple, as they've so aptly denominated me."

"Don't even repeat those ridiculous words. Really, Lewis has more maturity than the vast majority of the people here. I still do not wish Boyd was my partner, and you have nothing to apologize for. I thought you were an absolute hero out there, and we almost beat them. We're still ahead, don't forget that."

"Did I ever tell you were the sweetest person I've ever known?" he asked, a smile finally breaking his sad face.

One of the bulls regained consciousness, but three others were dead, and they had to get a bunch of vampires to carry them out of the corral. Meanwhile, Parker and I used the opportunity to get dressed again.

I chose Pole Bending next, even though Parker wanted to pick Bull Riding because he didn't want me to be in any danger, but I overruled him, and he didn't argue when I told Cornelius our choice.

"Pole Bending!"

The workers began setting up the twelve poles that made up the course.

"At least we get to keep our clothes on for a while longer," Parker said as he helped me mount Abderhalden. He smiled and raised an eyebrow. "I see you're getting real used to my horse."

"If he helps me win this event, I might have to keep him for myself," I joked.

"You should know I'm not in the habit of giving away my horses to my lovers."

"Oh really? What about Annie and Curie?" I asked, teasingly.

"I had to part way with both due to irreconcilable differences, I'm afraid. There's no way that's going to happen with you. Or Abderhalden." Parker turned towards our opponents. "My dear, why on earth would Donnie be mounting Jericho's horse?"

I turned to see Donnie getting on Jerry, with Jericho standing there, soothing his horse.

"And why is there so much instruction going on between Jericho and Donnie, do you see that?"

"Yes, it's very suspicious."

"They're planning to hit you again with his huge stallion, I know it," Parker said, gasping. "And this time, I won't be there to do anything to stop them. Jake, I want you to get off the horse and tell Cornelius we forfeit this one."

"No, out of the question."

"Then please, please at least ride Patches instead of Abderhalden. He won't be able to mow you down if you're on the big horse."

I wanted time to think about this. What disadvantages would the big horse bring me? But Cornelius yelled, "Competitors are needed right away at the starting line."

"Yes, okay," I said, quickly jumping off Abderhalden and getting on Patches with Parker's help.

"Good luck, my love. Be safe!"

I thanked him and rode into the pole course. I noticed that while Parker and I had been talking, the workers had set up a steel gate along the starting/finish line. Now, two decorative steel poles stuck up on the two outside edges of the finish line, and I noticed these poles were connected by a steel grill that was about two inches tall. This grill covered and took the place of the old white line they had drew in the dirt. One might trip over the thing if they were walking over it, but anyone riding over it would have barely noticed it. I figured this must have been the new, purely aesthetic change to the event.

I lined up Patches facing the metal grill starting line, looking at the pole course to south. Donnie took his position on the opposite side, facing the six poles to the north. "Tell me, how does it feel to get fucked by a cripple?" he asked, sneering at me.

I didn't even reply, I would not let his head games make me lose my focus.

"Competitors ready! Go!"

I squeezed Patches ribs, and he took off right at the start, shooting over the metal grill with a loud clank, and then racing past those six poles as they whooshed past me on my left. The straight-aways were the easiest part, and here was my first one.

When I reached that last pole, I had Patches spin around it, and then start to weave through the other five poles. I felt immediately how much more difficult it was to maneuver such a big horse, especially since I had just been practicing the day before with Abderhalden. But I thanked God that I did have experience running through this course with the Clydesdales, as I was able to compensate for Patches's extra volume, and move through the poles with much efficiency.

As I was almost to the pole the closest to the start line, I looked over at the other six poles, and saw Donnie moving through his poles with just as much comfort. It was quite clear that he was just as experienced using the larger horses in the Pole Bending course as I was, and my anxiety level increased.

I turned back around the pole the closest to the starting line, and I tore through the other five poles, weaving in and out as I moved away from the start line towards the south. I wasn't making a single error, and the speed at which I was getting Patches to move through these poles with precise steering amazed me. But I knew Donnie matched my pace, and it would probably come down to whoever could keep enough mental focus to maintain their quick direction changes.

I spun around the last pole and faced down to the start/finish line. This was the long straight away, and I got Patches moving fast as soon as we pulled out of the curve. I zoomed past the six poles I had just been weaving through on my left. Ahead of me, across the start grill, I could see Donnie flying through his straightaway, and it seemed like we were matched.

Indeed, I passed over the start line, making a loud noise as Patches's hooves hit the metal grill underneath, and I could hear Jericho's horse making the exact same noise at the exact same time as he passed me on the left. I tried to make Patches go faster as we passed the six poles on the north course now, but he was already moving his fastest.

"You're doing amazing, keep it up!" I heard Parker shout.

I spun around the farthest pole, turned to face the start/finish line, and began weaving through the five poles in front of me. I could see Donnie on the other course, in the exact same position as I was, until, God be thanked, he finally made an error. He hit one of the poles instead of moving through it, and the error brought his momentum to a stop.

It would have been just a split second mistake, but at that point, Jericho's stallion seemed to reconsider Donnie as his rider, and reared up, neighing angrily, trying to throw Donnie. It took him as long as it took me to weave through the poles until I reached the one closest to the finish line. I spun around it to face away from his side of the course before he got control again and resumed riding.

As I weaved through the five poles for what I knew was the last time, I went even faster as my certain win made me less anxious and therefore more focused.

I heard Jericho yell, "Fire it up, boys!" I heard an odd sound nearby, but didn't know what was going on until I turned around that farthest pole, moving into my last straight away towards the finish line.

I could now see that the metal grate covering the finish line hadn't been merely decorative, as I saw flames coming out of it, creating a wall of fire twenty fifteen feet high.

"Just run through the finish line as usual!" I heard Jericho yell. "Just a little fire."

"No, that's not fair, that's dangerous!" Parker argued as I started racing towards the flames.

"It's absolutely fair, the fire looks fierce, but it's only decorative," Jericho said. "There's no danger at all in riding through it."

"No Jake, absolutely not, he's lying to us, you are in no way going to ride through the fire, is that clear?" Parker's concerned tone of voice made it sound like he was ready to march onto the field and stand between me and the finish line, if need be.

Something told me Jericho wasn't lying, and in any case, I was willing to risk it for the win. "Sorry, Parker," I said, as I made my choice and sped Patches up towards the fiery finish line.

Just before we were about to cross it, Patches pulled to an abrupt stop, neighing angrily and pulling back onto his hind legs, staying away from the fire.

"Patches, go!" I said, but the horse absolutely would not budge.

"Don't you see, Jake?" Parker asked. "He's afraid of the fire. He almost burned to death."

And then it hit me: Jericho and Donnie had set his up just as a weakness for Patches. They had known if Donnie rode Jericho's big horse, Parker would make me switch to Patches for safety reasons, and I'd lose.

I saw Donnie move through his final poles as quickly as he could, clearly set on going through the fire. I had no doubt Jericho's horse would have no problem with the flames. In all likelihood, they had been getting him used to the fire for days now.

I decided to try Parker's approach, bent forward close to Patches's face, and put my hands on his muzzle. "Please, take me through the fire."

I saw Donnie enter his final straightaway, shooting towards the fire finish line, and it became clear I just had seconds to get Patches through.

"Please, you have to trust me," I said to him.

I could not believe it when Patches's confidence surged back, and he suddenly moved towards the fire, his muzzle going through, then the rest of his body, and me along with it.

At the exact same time, Jericho's stallion passed through the fire as well, and I could see him pass me on my left.

"It was very close, but Donnie won by about an inch!" Cornelius announced to the crowd, and they cheered happily. "Champions are tied with challengers, two two."

"Yeah!" Donnie yelled excitedly, sticking his arms up and waving to crowds.

I rode Patches out of the course, dismounted, and thanked him as I pat his muzzle for being so brave in the end, even if it wasn't quite enough to win.

"You gave me a seizure when you went through those flames, my love," Parker said angrily. "You shouldn't have risked it."

"I knew there was no way Cornelius would have let Jericho get away with making additions that endangered me," I said.

"Cornelius could have been fooled, just like everyone else."

"Well, I'm okay, Parker."

"And that's what's important." He reached over and gave me a hug, and I could feel his concerned tension slowly releasing.

"What's the next event?" Cornelius asked us.

"Bull Riding," Parker said.

"No, Flag Pulling, Cornelius."

"Flag Pulling!" Cornelius announced. The workers started erecting the poles, ropes, and flags that made up the course.

"Why that one?" Parker asked me. "I thought we were going to do that one sixth?"

"After the pole bending change turned out to be exactly what Jericho would know would be my worst weakness, keeping me from a win, I'm really nervous about whatever change he's made to the Bull Riding event." I was all too concerned about Parker's safety. "The only thing we have to worry about in Flag Pulling is falling off the horse."

"If you start to fall, just give in and grab the saddle," he said, as both of us began taking off our clothes once again. "I know that will disqualify us, but I'd rather you'd play it safe instead of you needlessly falling to the ground. I wish I could reach out and grab you, stop you from falling with my hands, but my wrists will be infuriatingly tied behind me."

"I understand."

The workers had put two new, non-broken-in horses in the 4-sided cages, holding them in place. Parker and I walked over to our randomly selected Clydesdale and climbed up on the mounting platform. They tied Parker's hands behind his back with rope, and then Parker hopped down onto the back of double saddle. Once he was firmly seated, I sat down in front of the saddle facing him, not yet ready to start. Besides, they were sill stringing up the flags.

"You know," I said, "I hate to admit it, but it really did help me to have Syd get hard. It puts a barrier between me and the saddle."

"Whatever makes you safer, my dear."

"Are you able to get hard, Parker? I know it's not the most romantic of circumstances."

"Your naked body is pressed against me in an extremely alluring position," he said. "I'll have no problem in that category, my love."

As if to prove himself, I could see his beautiful dick start to harden right away.

"See how easily you make me rise to the occasion, sweetness?"

I laughed as I climbed up on top of him, my legs squeezing his hips, my chest leaning against his, and his hard dick holding up my crack.

"My love, I can feel your heart pounding when you put your chest against mine. Try not to let yourself get too anxious."

"It's just that I feel like we have to win this one, or we're out. There's no way we can win both of the last two events."

"We will win because we're on equal ground this time," Parker said. "No new surprises for this event."

"I wish I could know that for sure."

I looked over at Jericho and Donnie. Jericho was on their horse, with his hands tied behind him. Donnie was sitting on Jericho, just like I was on my partner.

Only, I could see Donnie's face had a look of total sexual pleasure on it, and I could hear his familiar moaning through the crowd noise. I looked real close, then I felt sick to my stomach.

"Holy crap, they're using the same technique Boyd and his wife used," I said.

"You mean, he's inside him?" Parker asked, shocked. "You can't be serious."

"I'm serious. And it's going to mean Donnie won't even have to worry about balance, just like how it was for Clara. We're going to lose."

"That doesn't mean we'll lose necessarily," Parker said. "We're smarter than they are, we have better communication. We could still win."

"No, Parker, I have to have a level playing field. I want you to get inside me, real quick before we have to start."

"No, sweetie. I'm not Jericho, and I can't hurt you like that in the name of winning a sporting event at all costs. I promised you I wouldn't top you, ever again."

"It's not going to hurt, I got used to you just two days ago."

"If it did hurt would you tell me?"

I couldn't answer, I just bit my lip.

"I didn't think so. And regardless of how much it does or doesn't hurt you, it's just sexually exploitive and wrong, especially forcing you to do that with all these people watching."

"Parker, you just told me you'd do anything to improve my safety. Well, this would make me a whole lot more stable, less likely to fall. I'd far rather be sexually exploited for a short time instead of falling off the giant, crazy horse, where I will likely be trampled to death."

"Well, when you put it like that, how can I possibly refuse? But if it hurts too much, I want you to tell me, and we'll just have to forfeit this one."

"Parker, you're the best."

"Wait a second, Donnie had lube," Parker said. "You don't have any, and there's no way you're going to convince me to ever try to get inside you dry. We should throw in the towel, I'm afraid."

"I can fix that problem. Just hold still."

I climbed back off of Parker, put my knees on the horse's mane, put my hands on the back of the saddle, and leaned my head down until my face was at the level of his dick. I eagerly took in my mouth, and bobbed up and down on that huge pipe until I had him soaking wet.

He groaned from the unexpected move, and then made deep noises of pleasure as his fangs came out.

"Oh lord, my sweet, this is not what I had in mind when I told you it was a no go because of no lube. Syd would have manipulated you into doing something like this, but I never would. You don't have to do this."

"I want to do this," I said, pulling off him. "There, now you're all wet. And look, a lot of this is precum, which I've noticed you produce a lot of when you're excited."

I climbed back on him with my thighs resting on his hips, my feet over the horse's tail, and my upper body resting against his. Now there was just one thing left to do.

"If you can't get it in easily and painlessly, I want you to pull it out, do you understand?"

I nodded.

With his hands tied behind his back, I knew he wouldn't be any help. Last time we had made love, he had been the one to insert himself inside me. But this time, I'd need to do the job without his help.

I wrapped my thighs around his ribs, clasping my ankles together behind his back, and he used his tied hands to rub my feet lovingly. By squeezing my legs against his upper body, I was able to anchor myself as I sat down until I felt Parker's mushroom tip hit my hole, his precum kissing it.

I used my right hand to grab onto that head and guide it towards me, not because his dick was facing anywhere but straight up, but simply to force my hole open to allow for such a large intrusion. I sat down until I found his whole glorious head inside me, taking his breath away.

"Sweetie, whoa, that's way too fast!" he scolded me. "I'm going to hurt you."

I did feel pain as his hard head stretched out my hole, but I wasn't about to admit that to him. It was the first time he had entered me without the aid of him biting me, which had been the only way I had gotten him inside me the first time. I felt a lost more stretched out after my wonderful birthday night, but it still hurt some now when I put him inside me, and he was so very large, I wondered if that was always a price I would pay.

"Just kiss me," I said, drowning out his protests by putting my lips to his and putting my tongue inside his sweet mouth.

He tried to fight me at first, but soon my kiss had coaxed him into passion, and I felt him lick my tongue back and then put his tongue inside my mouth as well.

As his love poured into me through his mouth, I forgot about the pain in my nether regions, putting both my hands around his gorgeous face, shutting my eyes, and melting into him, as he moaned in pleasure. And by the time I had checked back in, I realized the pain had passed me by, and all that remained was a delicious full sensation.

"Oh, my love, this feels so, so good, I just want to hold you forever. Why do we have to go through with this awful event?"

I knew we didn't have all the time in the world, so I pushed myself down hard until he was halfway inside me. There was just a little burst of pain, and then it was gone.

He broke free from kiss at that. "Oh my god!" he screamed in surprise pleasure as he felt his huge cock halfway to home. But then he got over the incredible physical bliss he felt and reason returned to him. "My sweet, once again, that was recklessly too fast. I can't abide by the callousness with which I am being forced to treat you. I think we should end this foolishness now, I want you to pull off me."

"No, Parker," I said. "Now that I've got you inside me, I'm not letting you go. And seeing as how you have your hands tied behind you, I can't see any way for you to willingly escape me."

"I could buck you off of me," he said.

"And risk having me fall off and get trampled? I don't think so. Nope, the only way you could conceivably pull out of me without injuring me is to make yourself go soft, get flaccid."

He narrowed his eyes at me. "You know I'm incapable of that, not when each second I'm inside you brings me such incredible bliss."

"Well then, I'm staying inside of you, and you don't have a choice in the matter. I'm sorry to be so forceful, but this is really, really serious. Please just accept me, don't make this harder than it needs to be for me, and trust me when I assure you the pleasure you're giving me is so much greater than any pain."

He sighed. "Oh, alright, you win."

"Just enjoy yourself, Parker, and let me take care of you."

I kissed him again as I pushed myself down again, sliding more and more of his many inches into me.

"Oh, oh, oh, I love you way, way too much to ever argue with you, you know that?" he asked me, cooing with sharp pleasure as he went into me.

I moaned as his head hit my prostate, and said, "We can't delay anymore, the event is starting. I'm totally ready for this."

"Competitors ready? Go!"

The gates flew open, and our horse broke into the flag course, jumping and bucking. I was bounced up and down on his monster phallus, knocking me from down almost all the way to the hilt, up almost to the point of falling out, and back down again, all in split second's time, and the violence made me hurt anew.

"Ah!" I said in pain.

"Oh, my love, I'm so, so sorry," Parker said. "I never meant to hurt you. See, I knew this was a bad idea."

"I'm okay, Parker, it's just that all the bucking is hurting me on the inside. Any chance you can use your magic to calm this horse down?"

"It'll be hard in the position I'm in with my hands behind my back, but I can try."

"Hey, got a flag!" I said, just after we whizzed under a flag totally at random, and I acted quickly.

"Nice work, my dear!" He looked from me down to the horse. "Now, sir, I'd be so happy if you stopping bouncing so much, on account of my partner's safety and comfort."

Somehow, he got the horse to stop somewhat, and the bumps became more manageable to me. "Good. Now, see if you can steer us to the right, there's a flag real close!"

"Alright, let's see what I can do."

I could feel his legs underneath me, squeezing and shifting his weight, trying to send a message to the horse.

"That's it, sir, don't fight me, just go with it, just give in."

Somehow, he got the horse to turn to the right, though not quite enough for me to reach it easily. Thinking fast, I pushed myself a few inches up, grabbed the flag, and then let my body fall down again.

"Ow," I said as my balls hit his pubes and his huge bat plummeted all the way inside me, hurting with it's incredible length, even if only temporarily.

"Jake, please don't impale yourself like that. If I do permanent damage to you, I'll never forgive myself."

"I'm fine, really. And we have two flags."

While Parker steered us towards the next flag, I heard Jericho yelling. I looked over to see Donnie's pleasured face, clearly loving the bouncing the horse was doing as he rode Jericho's dick, suddenly go serious as Jericho snapped at him.

"You could have had that last one, you goddamned stable moron," he said.

"Sorry, Mr. Governor."

"Got a third one!" I said, pulling down the flag.

Parker smiled at me. "God, I love you so much, you know that?"

As the event went on, Parker was slowly able to convince our horse to listen to his instructions, while every time I looked over at Jericho, the same could not be said. I could see that Jericho was not going to fall off his bucking stallion; his legs were absolutely crushing the poor animal. And I didn't think Donnie would fall off of Jericho as long as Jericho stayed hard, as he was perfectly fine with the bumps. But Jericho just could not control his animal. If his hands hadn't been tied, I was sure he would have punched the animal into submission, but without that option, they were pretty much at the mercy of going where the horse led them, and trying to grab any random flags they passed.

Parker led the horse pretty close to the fourth flag, which I was able to reach and grab. The fifth flag was almost dead on, and then by the time we got to our sixth flag, he was able to control the horse to its precise location, making it easy for me to grab as well.

"Challengers have six flags, halfway there!" yelled Cornelius. "Mr. Groves, please assume the final position."

"Let me slow the horse down, hold on." In a few moments, Parker had gotten the horse under his control.

"Parker, I've never done this with you before, but you should know that this is the part of the event where I'd be most likely to fall."

"What can I do to help, my dear?"

"Just stay totally still."

"I can do that."

I decided to spin around counter clockwise, starting by grabbing my right leg, pulling it over Parker, and setting it down on Parker's left side, until I was sitting on his lap perpendicular to his body, my right side supported by his upper body. I stopped for a moment to make sure I was steady, then lifted up my left leg over the front of the horse and onto the other side as I finished my turn, sitting forward in Parker's lap. It was a good thing he was leaning back, because it was the low angle of his upper body that cradled my body. His huge stick really helped keep me steady as well, making it easier than ever to pivot into this new position. I reached my arms back and wrapped them around his neck and head, holding on there for further support.

"Okay, I'm good," I said to him.

"Resuming the riding, then, hold on tight, sweetie."

I reached my hands behind me and held onto his back and sides, and he took his new horse friend towards another nearby low-hanging flag. As we passed under it, I let go of his body with my right hand, reached up, and grabbed it.

"Beautiful!" Parker said.

Just a couple minutes later, right after we had our second flag in this new position, I heard Cornelius yell, "Champions have six flags. Please assume the final position."

I looked to see Donnie spin around, quicker and with more confidence than I had been able to do. Before I could even start to worry about a late game comeback, Parker had me under another flag, and I reached up and grabbed it.

"That's the last of the low hangers, and we need three more still," I said. "Do you think you're up to attempt boosting me up?"

"I think so," he said. He had the horse move below another flag, one that was a few inches out of my reach. "Could you help me put my foot in place?"

He lifted both his knees and put them in the saddle under him. He tried to tuck both feet under his butt, but his false leg wasn't pulling in correctly, so I grabbed it and pushed it under him.

"You're the best," he told me.

Already, him sitting on his knees instead of his butt gave me some extra inches to work with, but it still wasn't enough to grab the flag. "Can you lean up some more?" I asked him.

"I think so, but tell me if this hurts you." He set his tied hands on the horse's butt behind him, using shifting his weight there. Then he was free to lift his butt off the back of his calves and feet, and over his hips forward and up.

In essence, he was thrusting upwards, and was boosted a couple more inches, while at the same time I felt his huge dick thrust into me from behind. This time his huge head scraped at my prostate, sending sexual shivers through my body, making my own dick pulse excitedly.

"That didn't hurt?" he asked me.

"No, I'm still okay," I said, reaching up and grabbing the flag with the tips of my fingers. "Got it!"

"Great! Uh, my sweet, I'm afraid this position isn't the best for me," Parker said.

"Oh no, I'm not hurting you now, am I? Sorry, I'm new at this bottoming thing."

"No, that's not it at all. The problem I'm having is that this is feeling TOO good for me. I'm afraid I'm going to prematurely, you know..."

"Orgasm?"

"Well, yes."

"That wouldn't be so bad, would it?"

"Well, aside from the embarrassment it would cause me, I wouldn't be able to stay as erect long after."

"That's right. No, no, you can't come. Tell me what I need to stop doing."

"Well, actually, you've stopped. I'm going to lower you so I can put my legs back down; otherwise I'm afraid I won't be able to move the horse."

"Okay."

He stuck his legs down again so he was sitting on his butt, and then warned me before he rode us towards the next flag.

We had stopped again, put him in his position on his knees, and he was thrusting me up towards the flag when he said, "Ah, right there!"

"What?"

"When you do that, it almost makes me go over the edge, it feels so good."

"What, this?" I squeezed my butt muscles around him again, and felt him shivering with ecstasy behind me.

"Yes, that! Please, please stop!"

I grabbed the flag, and then stopped holding him with my insides, trying to go loose.

"Challengers need just one more flag to win!" Cornelius shouted.

That's when I heard Jericho's brutal voice shout, "You should have had that! A midget would have more reach than you, you fuckin' idiot!"

"Sorry, Mr. Governor."

This time, I had seen the flag Jericho had been so sure Donnie should have gotten. It was one of those flags so high it would have been impossible for anyone to pull. He was totally off base with his complaint.

Parker had us under our last flag, stopped us, and set his knees under his body again with my assistance. Jericho and Donnie's horse was only a few yards away.

"Come on, you stupid animal, hit those bastards!" Jericho shouted at the horse.

"My sweet, we could be in for a collision here," Parker said. "He knows he's going to lose, and he's willing to do anything to keep us from finishing. I want you to stop grabbing, and hold on tight."

I looked over at Jericho and Donnie. Jericho was trying with all his might to make the horse submit to his instructions to collide with us. He squeezed his legs so hard I heard the poor animal's ribs break, but even then, all the horse did was fight more.

I let go of Parker, reached up, and grabbed the last flag.

"Challengers win!" Cornelius announced, and the crowd booed at us. "They are winning the rodeo three to two!"

"Get the fuck off of me, you worthless fuck!" Jericho snapped, knocking Donnie off of his dick and onto the ground. Luckily, Donnie knew how to fall as well as I did, and landed unharmed.

Amazingly, Parker was able to undo his hand bindings on his own. I felt his muscled arms encircle my body, then felt him cover the back of my head with his kisses. "Once again, you were magnificent," he said. "Your family would be so, so proud of you if they could see you now."

"Let's be thankful they can't see me right at this precise moment," I laughed, thinking of him being inside me.

"No, of course not. Sweetie, I'm sorry about my leg, about needing you to help me put it where it needed to go. I ate up a lot of time because of that, I'm sure."

"Who cares? Parker, we just had our first event that wasn't even close. We totally ruled, and that was mostly due to you being able to communicate with the horse."

"I think it was mostly due to the two of us communicating like partners. Not just in the competition, but in life."

"Yes, that too. I've never regretted picking you today Parker, not for a second."

"Mmm, you make my heart swell, my love. And now, it's clear we have to get off this horse, yet I'm so sad to have to pull out of you."

"Me too, Parker, me too."

I wanted to badly to continue our lovemaking, but this obviously was neither the time nor the place, so I pulled up off of him, sad again when his dick finally popped out of me.

Parker helped me to the ground before dismounting the horse himself.

"What event is next?" Cornelius asked us.

"Bull Riding," Parker said without hesitating.

"Bull Riding!"

People scrambled around, moving the horses away, as well as taking down the poles, ropes, and flags from the area. Parker and I walked over to our clothes and got dressed as the giant, boosted bulls were readied for Parker and Jericho.

"Well, wish me luck, my sweet," Parker said, kissing me on the lips.

"Remember, this is the event that Jericho modified," I said. "If it does end up turning out that he's endangering your life, I want you to bow out early, got it?"

"Got it."

My heart raced as I watched him walk towards the bull pen. He got up on the same mounting platform above his bull that we had just used to get on the Clydesdale, and mounted his animal. Jericho was also mounting his bull.

"Bring `em out, boys!" Jericho yelled.

Next thing I knew, a bunch of cowboy vampires came into view from under the stand, dragging in naked, human slaves, seven of them in total, and already, I did not like this. The slaves yelled and fought against the vampires, but to no avail.

"What are they for?" Parker demanded of Jericho.

"They are the superficial change I've made to this event, just to give it more of a zip. Don't worry, as I promised, my addition won't make the event any more dangerous for YOU."

The vampires spread the seven poor men and women around the large pen, and forcibly tied them down by nailing restraints into the ground. When they were done, all of them were lying face up, unable to move, and the vampires left, leaving the poor humans in a panic.

"Competitors ready! GO!"

The gates flew open, and the bucking bulls headed into the arena.

"Parker, I'd like to introduce you to my new friends," Jericho said, adopting the same fake- friendly/evil tone of voice he used on his victims before eviscerating them. "Do try not to trample them to death. As you sissy city boys say, that would be a major faux pas."

"This is just wrong, Jericho. Once again, you prove yourself to be an absolute fiend."

Jericho showed far more ability to hold onto a rampaging bull than I had seen from Syd, Boyd, or Arlene. No matter how much the animal bucked, he stayed firmly in place with his thickly muscled legs. I couldn't imagine how Parker would ever be able to beat him, especially with his disability.

When Parker's bull seemed to be moving slowly in a direction that would pass him over one of the slaves, an older man who started screaming in terror, my stomach churned.

But Parker amazed even me as he bent forward, put his face against the bull's neck and his hands gently on his head, and started speaking to it. Just before the bull was about to step on the man, the animal stopped. Not just his horizontal movement, but his vertical as well, until the animal remained just standing in place, frozen and totally calm. The crowd gasped along with me as they saw it, and I knew from the shocked looks on everyone's face that no one had ever done this before.

"Thank you, thank you!" said the older man who Parker had just saved.

"Contestants are now allowed to use their ropes!" Cornelius said, looking at his watch.

Both father and son grabbed for the ropes at their sides, and Jericho came up with his right away. Parker was annoyed as his rope was not where it should have been.

"That's cheating!" I yelled.

As it turned out, his rope was there after all, it was just on the left side, as if the person who loaded it had been incorrectly told he was left handed. Parker pulled it out and swung it over his head, but by the time he threw it, Jericho's rope had landed around Parker's bull's neck.

Parker performed another amazing throw, making the hoop fly with astounding speed before it landed perfectly around Jericho's body. Parker pulled it tight, and he trapped Jericho's arms against his body. Sadly, Jericho was still able to hold the spoke of his own rope in his right hand, not dropping it.

Jericho fought against Parker with his tied up body, trying to snap the rope out of Parker's hands by moving his body, but Parker's grip was steady. Parker started to pull on his rope, trying to get Jericho knocked off his bucking bull.

I was shocked when Jericho used his arms and chest muscles to rip through the rope, breaking through it as if it was made of paper. Again, judging by the looks of awe on the faces of the crowd, no one had done that move before either. I guess Jericho's strength was in a league of its own.

With Parker's rope gone and broken, Jericho grabbed the spoke of his own rope firmly in two hands. He tightened his hold on Parker's bull. If he had been as good a roper as Parker, he would have been able to get the man with his rope instead of just the animal, but you could see Jericho trying to process his next move.

He began rolling the free rope around his arm, in the process, slowly dragging Parker's bull in his direction with all of his potent might. At first, I didn't realize what he was trying to accomplish. Then I heard a woman yell, "Please, don't hurt me!"

I realized that Jericho was pulling Parker's bull right for one of the slaves on the ground. Parker realized this as well, because he started to desperately attempt to pry the rope away from his bull's neck.

But Jericho was pulling the rope so tightly, Parker wasn't able to get his hands in, and the bull was getting closer and closer.

"How about it, gimp?" Jericho asked him. "Is winning this event worth the life of this woman? You decide."

"Please, no!" the woman yelled, and I froze up with anxiety,

Parker still tried to get the rope loose, all the way until his bull was almost upon the woman.

"Fine, you chose for her to die, I guess ya have more balls than I always thought," Jericho said, and he went to make that final yank that would kill the woman.

"No, stop, I yield!" Parker said, jumping off his bull, with me finally able to breathe. "Stop this!"

Jericho let the rope go right before the woman was trampled. "On second thought, yer just as dickless as ever."

"Champions win!" Cornelius shouted, and the crowd gave applause. "Last event, Axe Throwing!"

The vampires started to break the slaves loose and drag them away, along with the bulls.

"I'm sorry, my sweet, I've failed you," Parker said as soon as I came over to him.

"No," I said.

"I thought perhaps it was a good trade off, the life of the one slave for the lives of your family. But I couldn't bring myself to hurt her."

"No, Parker, I wouldn't have wanted to win that way," I said. "Jericho knew you'd never be able to win that event after he made his change, because he knows you're one of the only people around with a soul."

"That's not quite what he calls my strong conscience," Parker said.

"He calls you dickless. Well, I've had quite a bit of familiarity with your dick, and guess what? Yours is just as big as his is." The three Logan men had identical penises, just as their bodies, faces, and voices seemed identical.

As they set up the four targets for the Axe Throwing event, Parker and I undressed, this time removing our shoes as well.

"I have an idea," Parker said. "Though it's not something I would ever suggest under normal circumstances. A way to get an unfair advantage in this event."

"What's that?" I asked, hopeful.

"I saw the trick Syd used that helped you score so high when you threw last time," he said. "We can do the same here. I'll just get aroused again, and it should be golden."

I winced. "You are not the same as Syd," I said.

"What's the difference?"

"With Syd, I obviously wasn't trying to hurt him. But I wasn't THAT concerned about accidentally injuring him. With you, I'm terrified of that."

"But with my equipment vertical and out of the way, there's no risk to me."

"Your balls are huge, Parker, and they hang far down. I don't want to hit those."

"That's why I brought this," he said, pulling out a roll of double sided tape. "It might be cheating, but it should do the trick. Here, keep standing in front of me like that while I put this on."

Parker used the tape to secure his balls tightly to his body, and none of the tape was visible at all.

"That looks good now," I said. "But still, even with your balls no longer hanging down, they still are huge."

"Sweetie, I've had my balls damaged before. No need to worry about them now."

"That's not reassuring me at all, Parker."

"Oh, I just thought of another angle we could use instead. My prosthetic leg. Why don't you go for that section? It won't hurt anything but the leg, and I have more of those back at the mansion. But that would be in the five point zone."

"Brilliant! I knew we could outsmart them."

"In random order selection," Cornelius said, "Donnie will throw first at the Governor. Please take your places."

Jericho walled out to his target and pressed his back against his silhouetted bulls-eye as Donnie walked over to the fifteen foot line and picked up an axe in his left hand. He appraised his target before him. "Mr. Governor, we might want to have you get a stiffy. It'd make it easier for me to get more points."

Jericho looked down at his soft, dangling penis. "I'm not gonna get hard right now, boy."

"Well, Mr. Governor, I could come over there and give you a BJ."

"Maybe some other time, Donnie. Just throw the goddamn axe."

Donnie, who apparently was left-handed, took a moment to plan out his shot, and then sent the axe flying towards Jericho. I prayed for Donnie to end up accidentally hitting his partner, but the axe ended up just to the left of Jericho's waist. It was a solid if overly safe shot.

"Three points," Cornelius announced. "Next random selection is... Parker. Parker, you'll be throwing at Mr. Groves. Both of you, please come forward."

Parker sighed. "Why did it have to be me throwing first?" he asked, clearly anxious.

"You'll be great," I told him before I headed over to the target that I knew all too well, and lined myself up against it.

I saw Parker walk to the thirty foot line and take an axe in his hand. His face was ghostly white as he looked towards me.

"Parker, I think I could get hard, hold on a second. You can throw at my crotch."

"I'd rather not even get my shot close to you, my dear," he said. "After all, I don't think we need to bother with the risk." I knew he was referring to me getting five points for every shot I threw at his fake leg.

"Why are you arguing when everyone knows Jake ain't gonna get through the throw without jumpin' no how?" Donnie yelled. "Just throw the damned thing."

Parker began lining up his shot, methodically and carefully. He even made a couple of practice swings, just to be sure.

"You only have fifteen seconds left to throw, Parker," Cornelius said after much time was used.

"Ugh, alright, alright. Are you ready, my dear?" he asked me.

"Yes."

Parker looked me in the eyes, and I locked onto his beautiful green irises, feeling his love for me pouring out of his soul as I did. Parker threw the axe, it flew towards me, and it landed to the left of my body, without my eyes ever leaving Parker's.

"Three points!" Cornelius announced, and I jumped off the target and ran over to Parker.

"I did it! That's the first time I ever got through a throw without flinching in the competitions!"

"Must be all the practice," he said, hugging me happily as we walked to the side.

"That's not what it was," I said to Parker in a low voice. "It's because for the first time, you were throwing at me, and I absolutely and completely trust you with my life, Parker. I didn't even come close to blinking."

"That's sweet," Parker said, clearly moved.

"Next up, the Governor will be throwing at his partner," Cornelius said. "Please take your places."

Donnie went to his target for the first time, and Jericho walked out to the line Parker had just vacated, grabbing an axe in his right hand.

"Mr. Governor, do you want me to get a stiffy?" Donnie asked.

"Nope, I like goin' for the left hand," Jericho said as he started line up his shot to Donnie's left.

"Mr. Governor, would it be a might safer to throw at my right hand, since my left is my throwing hand?"

"Ain't gonna happen," he said. "Not unless I throw with my left hand for the first time, and I don't think ya want that."

"No, Mr. Governor."

Jericho took almost no time and didn't announce his throw before launching his axe at an incredible speed towards his partner. I gasped as he did it, feeling oddly anxious about Donnie's safety, perhaps because I saw he had tilted his axe clockwise before throwing it, which I figured must have been an error.

In fact, he had turned the axe totally on purpose. The blade ended up landing almost perpendicular to the ground, sticking in between Donnie's left pinky and ring fingers. I had never seen anyone able to turn the axe to the side like he had.

"Four points!" Cornelius said, and I saw he had just the smallest amount of red paint against the axe blade.

Jericho did not look pleased with that as the two of them made their way back to the side.

"Mr. Groves will now throw will throw at his partner," Cornelius announced.

Both of us were a lot more confident as we took our places. I grabbed an axe and went to my seventeen foot sweet spot, while Parker walked over to his target. I began lining up my shot for Parker's false leg, fairly confident that I'd be able to hit it without hurting him.

"Cornelius, this is flagrantly against the rules," Jericho yelled.

"What is?"

"Parker's not allowed to wear a stick of clothing, just like the rest of us. He still ain't taken off his peg leg."

"He needs to be able to stand against the target," I argued.

"He can stand just fine with one leg," Jericho argued. "And anyway, I had the target modified for him now that he went all crippley."

Parker moved away from his target, and we all noticed that where his calf and foot shout have been outlined in black, they had been painted over with the other colors of the target, making it impossible for me to get five points with our approach.

"He's right," Cornelius said after consulting his rulebook. "The rules state athletes must not wear anything, functional or decorative. Parker, if you could remove it, please."

Parker frowned as he pulled the prosthetic and laid it to the side, standing up again against the board, this time his stump in view.

"See, isn't that better, Cripple?" Jericho asked him. "Now there ain't no way in hell yer partner will ever be able to look at yer ugly fucking legless self without puking. He'll have to shut his eyes just to throw at you, and soon you'll be down two legs."

"You shut your mouth, Jericho," I barked angrily.

"Ugly cripple, ugly cripple, ugly cripple!" Donnie again got the crowd to chant along with him, and I felt so, so angry at all these moronic people in the stands.

"Sweetie, I'm losing you," Parker said. "Forget all of them and just focus on your shot."

I tried to do as he asked, remembering again that my family was on the line. "Since I can't throw at your leg, it would help if we went back to our first plan."

"I agree."

"But do you really think you could get hard, Parker?"

"My dear, did you forget that I am staring at your angelically beautiful naked body? Do you really think I would have any problem at all? Truth be told, I've been trying not to get hard ever since you took your clothes off."

I felt extremely flattered as I watched Parker's manhood twitch quickly to life, going from soft to pointing straight up amazingly fast, without him ever even laying a hand on it.

It left the black area between his thighs unobstructed, but I still was a lot more nervous about hurting him than I was with Syd, and that made me even more cautious. I took almost as long lining up my shot as Parker had, before knowing that I was about as confident as I was going to get.

"Ready?" I asked him.

"Ready."

I said a silent prayer to God, and then I threw my axe. I saw the weapon fly through the air towards his legs. When I heard the sharp sound of the blade hitting wood, I flinched, but Parker's focus never wavered. He looked at me with just as much trust as I had with him.

"Four points!" Cornelius said, and I saw that instead of all black, my blade was a centimeter in the red. I had thrown it too low, but at least I hadn't put Parker at risk.

I ran over to Parker and gave him a hug, grabbed his fake leg, and handed it to him. Even after he had put it back on, the audience was still chanting rudely for a time.

"Challengers and champions both tied at seven points after the first round!" Cornelius announced. "Donnie's turn to throw."

Jericho returned to his spot on his target, while Donnie grabbed and axe and went to the close line. He threw the axe with his left hand, and the blade landed right where it had the last time, just to the outside of Jericho's right side.

"Three points again!" Cornelius said, and the two of them quickly moved to the side. "Parker's turn to throw."

I took my spot on the target again, while Parker again looked terribly nervous, walking to the thirty foot line as if he was walking to his own execution. When he picked up an axe, I could see him lining up his shot in the same spot, to my left.

I shook my head. "I think you should try for my crotch this time, Parker. We aren't going to win if you keep just getting three points."

"I'd rather not risk it, my sweet."

"Parker, I'd rather you put me at risk than risk my family dying," I said.

"And what if I were to accidentally cut you?"

"Well, you could lick my wound healed. I'll be fine." I started to look at Parker's hot, naked body, and made myself hard in no time.

I saw Parker readjust his aim to below my legs. Again, he spent every last second planning his shot, before he said, "Ready, my sweet?"

"Yes."

I looked into his eyes, felt nothing but total trust from him, and he threw the axe. It wasn't even unnerving to have the axe flying towards my junk. It landed between my thighs with a loud "thunk."

"Four points!" Cornelius said, and this time when I ran over to Parker it was to praise his skills.

"See? I don't know why you are so nervous, Parker. Your throws land with unbelievable accuracy." We walked off to the side, holding hands.

"Mr. Governor, please take your spot at the line," Jericho said.

Donnie walked back to his target, and Jericho quickly picked up an axe, tossed it up and caught it as he got behind his line, and then lined up the same shot around Donnie's left hand. Once again, I felt oddly tense as I saw him pull his arm back and release the axe from his fingers.

I saw the blade land once again in the wood around Donnie's fingers, though this time, there was something subtly different about the sound it made.

I heard Donnie scream in pain as he left his left hand up on the board even as he pulled the rest of his body off.

"Look away, my sweet," Parker said to me, but my eyes were glues to the proceedings.

"Five points!" Cornelius announced.

The axe seemed to have cut into the tip of Donnie's pinky finger, as I could see a bit of red around the axe blade. Donnie reached over and grabbed the axe with his right hand, trying to pull it away. He couldn't make it budge.

"Would someone help me?" he asked.

"It's just a tiny cut, just pull yer hand free," Jericho offered, seemingly in place of physically helping him.

Donnie seemed to summon his courage, then he yanked his hand away from that blade with all of his strength. Blood splattered the second he finished, making me feel dizzy, especially as I saw that there was a little bit of flesh left stuck into the board on the other side of the blade.

I started to get wobbly, and my body began to fold. Parker reached over and grabbed me, picking me up off the ground and holding me against his chest. "I know how you get with blood," he said, not the slightest trace of ridicule in his words, just concern. "I've got you, and I want you to look away and think about something else."

"Thanks, Parker."

"My finger's cut off!" Donnie said, mystified.

"Ah, it's just the very tip of yer smallest finger," Jericho said. "What use is yer pinky to you anyway? What, won't be able to use four fingers when you're finger-screwin' yer hole?"

"It's bleeding everywhere," Donnie said as the blood poured all over his hand.

"Lemme give it a lick, and I'll make it better," Jericho said.

Jericho didn't wait for Donnie's consent; he grabbed the man's hand, lifted it to his face, and looked at the bloody stump of his pinky with erotic longing. His teeth popped out, and he licked up the stray blood on Donnie's hand before taking the wound in his mouth, sucking on it.

In the process, he went from totally soft to brutally hard, his huge cock dripping precum.

Jericho pulled off finally, and Donnie looked unhappily at his finger. "Mr. Governor, it's still bleedin.'"

"Well, `course it is, the top of the fucker's clean cut off, and ain't no amount of lickin' gonna make it reappear. But it was goddamn worth it for five goddamn points, am I right?" He walked over to the target, pulled out the axe that Donnie hadn't been able to, and grabbed the bloody severed piece and stuck it in his mouth.

"Jericho, that's sick," Parker said.

"What? No need to waste a perfectly good morsel," he managed to say while presenting to Parker the finger he was holding between his teeth.

On the sideline, Donnie stuck his injured finger into a cloth.

"Mr. Groves turn to throw," Cornelius said. "Please take your spot on the line."

"He needs a moment," Parker said.

"No, I'm okay," I said.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Parker asked. "I'm not going to let you go unless you're positive you won't fall."

"I'm fine."

He set me down, and I made my way towards the line.

I focused my attention away from Donnie's hand and Jericho's mouth, and my mind started to clear right away. I grabbed my axe and went to my sweet spot, and only then did Parker stop hovering around me just in case I fell, and went to his spot on his bull's-eye.

This time when Parker removed his false leg, the chanting didn't make an appearance again, it seemed people were still too shocked from the last throw.

"Parker, I see your dick went down," I said. "Can't you smell Donnie's blood?"

"Of course."

"Don't you find it the least bit arousing?"

"The smell of the blood may be physically titillating, but the violence is equally off putting. Also, I'm someone who focuses on just one person's blood so much that I get to the point that it's the only blood that can arouse me." I knew of course he was speaking of me when he spoke of a single person, and I felt flattered.

"Well, I hope it doesn't take me getting my finger cut off for you to get hard again now."

"Sweetie, I hope you know that if that happened to you, I would be as shriveled as I ever get."

"I was just kidding, Parker," I said.

"And once again, all I have to do it to look at you, and I can remedy the problem at once." He didn't even need to look over my nudity, he kept his eyes right on my face, and he was able to do as he said, his sweet dick going totally erect.

Once he did, I shook off the last bits of light-headedness and focused on lining up the perfect shot. But I still noticed that my grip wasn't quite as strong as before, and that troubled me.

I warned Parker, and then threw the axe between Parker's legs one more time. I hit it exactly in the same spot as the last time.

"Four points!" Cornelius said.

Parker grabbed his prosthetic leg and put it on quickly, then gave me a congratulatory hug and complimented my excellent throwing ability.

"At the end of the second round, both pairs are tied again, fifteen to fifteen. I'll remind participants that a tie at the conclusion of the Axe Throwing event results in the champions winning."

I made a face at Parker, finding that rule to be totally unfair. It meant we would have to end up winning by a point at the end of this round or my family was dead.

"Time for the final round of the competition," Cornelius said. "Donnie, you're up."

Jericho walked to his target as Donnie took his spot on the line. "Can I leave this on?" Donnie asked about the cloth wrapped around his finger.

"I'm afraid not," Cornelius said. "But it's fine to forfeit your turn for zero points." His tone of voice made it clear he was hoping for that choice.

"No fuckin' way," Jericho said. "Take it off."

Donnie pulled his cloth away, and it made me dizzy anew to see it soaked with blood. As soon as he threw it aside, the blood once more started running down his hand.

"Now that I got as fuckin' hard as iron, I want ya to throw this one between my legs, like Jake's been doin.' We can't lose this one, we need a fiver. But you put once tiny knick on my balls, and I'll cut yers clean off, ya hear me?"

"Okay, Mr. Governor," Donnie said.

"Mr. Governor, I'm afraid I'll have to ask you to empty your mouth, it's a breach of the rules," Cornelius said.

"What? Who gives a fuck if I'm sucking on this treat?"

"You might be using it to arouse yourself unfairly, Mr. Governor."

"I don't need this to get aroused when I'm starin' straight at Donnie's blood, and I'm downwind of him too." Jericho turned to the closest person to him, me, and spit the severed finger straight for my face. Before I could move out of the way, I felt it hit my forehead and stick to it. I freaked out, jumping back and knocking it away.

"Jericho, you'll pay for that!" Parker threatened, anger on his face. It was so unusual to see him angry, but when someone messed with me, I knew that was the one time he would lose his cool.

Jericho paid no attention to Parker, he just stared at Donnie. "Come on, what's the holdup?"

"I'm tryin,' Mr. Governor," Donnie said. "I just can't get a grip on this handle no more, it hurts too much."

"Don't make the poor boy throw with a wounded hand, that's just cruel," Parker said.

"He'll do it, and he'll get a five, just like he promised me he would when I picked him."

I could see Donnie, normally so cool, was sweaty and pale. "Okay, okay, okay. I'm throwin' now."

Donnie took a deep breath, looked at his target, pulled the axe back, and released.

The blade landed dead center in between Jericho's thighs, and my first reaction was that Donnie had done it.

"Three points!" Cornelius said, and as soon as he did, I too saw that the blade ended up much too low. "Champions are up by three!"

"Three points?!" Jericho screamed, scaring everyone.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Governor, it was the best I could do with a missing digit."

"Parker's last turn to throw," Cornelius said, moving the event right along.

I looked down at myself. "Uh-oh, I've gone totally soft," I said to Parker. "But I know how to fix that."

I grabbed him, pulled him towards me, and stole a wonderful kiss, closing my eyes and trying to pull myself away from the rodeo. Parker caressed me warmly, and the feel of his ripped naked body against mine set me off quickly, restoring my libido.

"Yes, that'll do it every time," I said to him with a smile as I pulled away and walked towards the target.

Parker looked just as nervous as he walked back to his far line, and took an axe in hand. "Do I have to do another close shot again, sweetie?"

"Yes," I said. "At least another four points, Parker. You're unbelievable with the axe, Parker. If there wasn't a person on this bull's-eye, you wouldn't be the least bit nervous, and you'd get five points with every throw."

"You're right, I would," he said. "Or even if someone was on that board that I didn't love, I'd be less nervous. But that doesn't make this any easier."

Once again, he lined up and obsessed over his shot until Cornelius warned him that his time was soon up. He told me he was going to throw, and I looked into his eyes, feeling nothing but safe in his hands.

He threw the axe, and it went between my legs, the blade not so much as touching any skin.

"Four points again," Cornelius said. "Challengers are up by one.

I went over and hugged Parker, and walked with my arm around his neck back to the sidelines.

"Mr. Governor, please take your place at the line for your team's final throw," Cornelius said.

Jericho quickly walked out to the thirty-foot line, while Donnie threw aside his bloody cloth once more and walked over to the target, which was caked with drying blood around the silhouette of his left hand.

Again, I felt that nervous feeling now that Jericho had an axe in his hand. I figured Donnie would have not been able to avoid flinching after losing his finger in the last round, but he bravely stayed totally focused.

Jericho threw his axe, and I almost looked away to save myself from having to watch Donnie lose another finger. Everyone gasped as the axe went a couple feet to the left of his left hand.

"Oh, Lord, please no," I said as saw the axe blade hit in Donnie's throat.

When it stuck into the wood of the bull's-eye behind him, I realized that he must have gotten his blade just to the side of Donnie's spine.

I felt my heard spinning and my knees go weak when I saw Donnie, still alive somehow, trying to pull the axe out unsuccessfully as blood absolutely poured out of his throat and all over his naked body below.

Parker swept in right then and took me in his arms, keeping me from falling to the ground. He lifted me off the ground again, holding my side against his chest, one arm under my knees and another supporting my back. He spun me around, facing me away from Donnie. "Don't look," he said. "It's far too awful, and there's nothing you can do." It was so sweet of him to want to protect me from psychological damage like that. Syd wouldn't have cared in the slightest if it had been him there instead of Parker.

"How many points?" Jericho demanded as if nothing out of the ordinary had occurred.

"Um, well, five, five points," Cornelius stammered. "Champions are up by four."

"Well, they can't just stand there, hugging each other," Jericho said. "They only have a couple minutes to throw their last shot, ain't I right?"

"Yes, you're right, Mr. Governor," said a disturbed Cornelius. "Mr. Groves, I'm counting down the time until you will be disqualified from taking your turn."

Problem was, I couldn't even walk on my own. "I don't want you to look at that," Parker said, still making me face away.

"I have to take my turn, Parker. I have to look."

He grumbled unhappily. "Alright. Let me carry you to your line, at least."

He carried me to my line, and set me down very gently on my feet.

"Can you stand up now?" he asked me.

"Yes," I said, planting my feet on the ground firmly.

He handed me my axe. "Should I leave you?"

"Yes, I'm okay."

Parker walked over to his target, but as he walked away from me, the image of Donnie's target, just a few yards to the left, assaulted my eyes.

I saw Donnie was still fighting for life, still bleeding to death. Jericho approached him, and I thought it would have been to take the axe out, but all he did was look at him. "Darlin,' did I ever tell ya how much sexier ya looked in red? All through the rodeo, I was barely hard, and now look how ya got me."

He grabbed a nearby wooden barrel, set it in front of Donnie's target, and then stood up on it. His dick was then right at face-level of Donnie, and he flicked his ample precum off his prince-albert onto Donnie's face.

"See? Ya got me so excited like that, I'm leakin.' Now, I seem to recall you always beggin' me for a bone to suck. Well, looky here, yer dreams gonna come true before ya die."

He started to stick his dick in Donnie's open mouth, using his hands to hold onto Donnie's head and fuck his mouth. A gurgle of blood came up Donnie's throat and splashed all over Jericho's cock, sending the man into lustful overdrive.

"Oh lord, just put the poor boy out of his misery already!" Parker yelled, but Jericho paid no attention, he just moaned. But I could see by Donnie's glassy eyes that he was almost gone by that point.

I started to feel dizzy, and almost fell over again.

"Sweetie, I want you to keep your focus on me."

"It's hard when just to the left of you something out of my worst nightmares is going on."

"Don't look over there, focus on my body. Don't think about anything but my body."

That was helping me a little. "Parker, you're not hard."

"Oh, right." He too just focused on me, shutting the rest of it out, and I saw his dick get hard and leaky in no time.

"Mr. Groves, you have fifteen seconds left."

"Okay." I shook my head, trying to knock out the dizziness, and focused on Parker, trying to line up my shot.

"You'll need to get five this time, my love," Parker said. "That means no more playing it close. I want you to go as close as you possibly can. I know you can do this. And if I lose another leg in the process, if your family has been saved, it will be worth it."

"Five seconds!" Cornelius said.

"I'm going to throw!"

"I'm going to cum!" Jericho said, and one eye flick to the left let me see him as his dick, completely red and shiny from the blood, exploded its huge amount of seed into Donnie's mouth.

No, no, no, I would not look. Parker, keep it on Parker.

I threw my axe, and the blade went hurtling towards Parker's crotch. My first reaction was that I had aimed too high, that I'd cut his balls. I instinctively shut my eyes shut before the axe made contact.

I heard the sound I had come to hate of the blade landing in the wood.

"Five points!" I hear Cornelius announce, but there was still a disturbed sound to Cornelius's voice, and absolutely no sound from Parker.

I felt sick to my stomach as I realized that I must have hit him, that I had earned those five points the same way Jericho had with his partner. I kept my eyes shut, and prayed, prayed, prayed that Parker was still alive.

I felt someone embrace me, and I knew the sweet, familiar smell of the person immediately. I opened my eyes, and I realized Parker was hugging me, and I saw that Parker hadn't said anything because he was totally moved: his eyes were heavy with tears of happiness and relief. I let him squeeze me tight, and my own tears joined him.

"Challengers win!" Cornelius announced, and the crowds let out a huge barrage of boos.

"Only `cause my fuckin' partner was such a joke," Jericho huffed, leaving dead Donnie to rot as he stormed off.

"With this triumph, I hereby proclaim Mr. Groves's outside family and friends free from any sort of disruption, lethal or otherwise, from now until the end of time, by the Logan Blood.," Cornelius said, quite happily. "This will not apply to any new supernatural family or friends, however." So, I couldn't marry a vampire from another Blood and have them be protected, I understood.

Parker had promised me that we would celebrate as a couple by heading back to the infinity pool that he had showed me the day before, and it certainly was just as hot a day as the one before, so perfect for swimming. It was past twelve when Parker had me waiting with the horses while he got our things in the mansion. He re-emerged soon with two large bags, and connected mine to Patches.

I was mildly hungry when we set out for the creek, and just short of famished by the time we got back to Parker's special place surrounding the infinity pool.

We let our horses roam freely with each other and drink from the stream as we spread Parker's picnic blanket over the same sand dunes we had the day before. This time, I had no patience to suggest washing off in the pool before we ate; I was far too hungry to do anything but eat.

"Listen," he said as he took my hand in his. "I'm sorry you had to see what happened to Donnie today. I'm sorry you've had to see any of the brutality Jericho has imposed on you to witness."

"It's been very hard for me," I said. "Being here, being a part of all this."

He put his arms around me, comforting me. "I know, sweetie, I know. And as much as I am personally so, so thankful you've come into my life, I know that's selfish of me, and I wish with every moment that I could take back everything you've experienced in the clumsy hands of us vampires. I hope Donnie will be the last of the awful evils you have to bear witness to. It breaks my heart to think of you being permanently psychologically scarred."

"Thanks, Parker," I said. "You know what; I'm putting Donnie out of my mind. I'm here to celebrate with you, not brood over things I cannot change."

"Quite right. I'm afraid with you waiting for me, I didn't have time to pack anything fancy today, just sandwiches."

"Sandwiches sound perfect."

"I did manage to bring one frivolity befitting of the celebratory nature of this afternoon's expedition," he said. He again pulled out two champagne flutes, and opened a bottle that had been chilled with ice. He poured us each a glass, then handed me mine. "To your jaw-dropping magnificent performance in the rodeo today. Your win was well earned indeed."

"If you're toasting that, then I'll toast to me never having a doubt in my mind that I chose the right rodeo partner. You were absolutely wonderful, and frankly, my family owes you their lives."

His face went red with embarrassment. "And here's to your family as well. May they live long in blissful ignorance of anything to do with the dangers that no longer haunt them."

"To my family," I said, drinking along with Parker finally. I laughed as I tasted the bite of alcohol. "This is no sparkling juice!"

"I figured today was too special for anything less than the real thing."

"What about my safety when riding out of here?"

"I figured we wouldn't be riding out of here for quite some time. I'm sure the buzz will have worn off by then."

He pulled out the sandwiches, and as we started to eat, he took me in his arms, so I was leaning against him in a very romantic manner. Periodically, he would touch my face or my shoulders, making me feel all warm and fuzzy.

"Parker, I thought about what we were talking about yesterday, and I've made a choice. As much as I'd like nothing better than to run away with you forever, if the opportunity arises for you to be Governor, I think you should take responsibility on, and I'll be there by your side the whole way. But that doesn't mean I think we should hang around here and scheme on how we could get the Governorship, like everyone else is doing around here. We'll leave it up to God to decide when and if He wants the Governorship in our hands."

"I think that's very noble of you," he said.

"After seeing all the horrible things I've seen here, it makes me want to do something to help right it."

He nodded. "I'm of your mind, precisely. And the first thing we'll do is to eliminate slavery."

"Yes, exactly."

"And I also want to eliminate the sexist rule that only men can govern. Della would have been an excellent Governor, for goodness sake."

"Yes, of course," I said. "But that might be a moot point if we get rid of this bizarre form of monarchy and bring in democracy."

Parker considered this. "I'm not sure we'd have the autonomy to abolish the existing power structure like that, my love. And even if we found a way, I'm not sure that would be the best option. If people in the Territory were free to come and go as they pleased, it would only be a matter of time before one of them betrayed our existence to the outsiders. That's not something I think the world is ready for. In order to avoid that, I think we need to keep the people contained."

"Locked away like caged pets?" I asked.

"I'd say, we need to give the people everything they desire here, including a strong voice in their own politics. Make them never desire to leave."

"Well, we'd have to get rid of it being illegal to have religious notions," I said.

"Yes. I'm not so sure religion isn't more of a hindrance than a help, but I believe people should have a right to believe what they want to, just as long as religion isn't being used to steer politics."

"I agree completely," I said.

"And, for that matter, it's not fair that cheating is a crime for non-fanged married partners. Frankly, that leads to sexism."

"I agree."

"The thing is, my love, there are some issues that are easy to decide on, as they clearly violate our ethics. But the troubling piece is, there are so many moral issues that are far too complex to be black and white about. And I think it would help us both to use the time before we take the Governorship to spend as much of our free time as possible learning about cultures, both past and present. We'll travel around the world, soaking in all the enormous histories around us. We'll learn what has worked and what hasn't, and we'll come to consensus on all of our strategies together. Does that sound okay?"

"As long as it's just the two of us, yes, it sounds wonderful. A dream come true. I always wanted to travel more, but could never afford to."

"Now that your family is secure, there's no need to carry on your engagement to Syd any longer," he said. "How about tomorrow you call it off, I'll make sure your safety is ensured, and then let's leave together by the afternoon?"

"Yes, I'm not going to miss Mareshead, I must admit."

"Neither will I. It's been a century I've had to stick around here," he said. "I'm well overdue for a vacation. I'd say a century or two of exploring the world with my one love should ensure I keep from burning out."

I laughed. "It's so weird to me that you really weren't kidding when you said that just now." I shook my head. "I still haven't gotten used to the idea that I'm now not going to age. Maybe it's because it was only a few months ago that I apparently became this special person. Maybe it's because I still feel exactly the same as I did before, and I can't remember actually changing. I mean, I watched your sister turn Tucker into a vampire, and that was such a startling transition, it's like he's not even in the same body he was in before."

"I know it's hard to adjust to, but you'll get used to it after a few decades, I'm sure."

I laughed again. "Yes, right, just a few measly decades, those will go by in the blink of an eye. Anyway, how can you be sure? You were born a vampire, and never had to face the possibility that you might grow old and die."

"You're right, it was totally different for me," he said. "I'm just presuming you'll adapt to it because I know how good you are at dealing with change. And I'll be here with you, to help you though every step of the way."

"I never wanted to be ageless," I said. "I just wanted a normal life."

"I know, my sweet, I know. I'm so sorry you got forced into this hand."

"But I suppose I should be thankful for being ageless," I said. "Even if I'm resentful that it made me incapable of procreating."

"Why is that, my dear?"

"Because if I hadn't stopped aging, you would have never wanted us to be together, right? We wouldn't have been a good match for each other if I was growing old and you were staying eternally perfect."

Parker gave me a slightly hurt look. "Sweetie, don't think for a minute that would have changed my mind one bit about wanting to be with you."

"That's very sweet, Parker, but I'm sure you'd be ready to cut out as soon as I was old and wrinkly."

He took my hand in his. "Dearest, I think it's high time I tell you about Megan. She was my favorite past relationship, someone extremely well suited to me, though not nearly as perfectly as you are, my dear."

"Tell me about Megan."

"She was a brilliant chemist back when women scientists were shunned by their male colleagues. I met her in Germany, and our union at first was a simple as two academics fitting professionally together perfectly, feeding off each other's minds, striking creativity. But after a time, as I came to know her personality as well as I knew her intellect, I fell in love with her. I told her about what I was, and she accepted me completely. We began to have a physical relationship, and it was wonderful. She was absolutely mystified why I would pick her."

"Why is that?" I asked.

"Because she was in her fifties when I first laid eyes on her. At the time, she still had her beauty, but she didn't see it that way. She never could figure out why someone who looked like he was thirty would want with a woman who looked like she could have been his mother. I told her that my real age was actually two years older than she was, therefore I was technically her senior."

"What happened to her?" I asked.

"We got married," he said. "And it turned out to be one of the best choices of my life."

"If she had been a man, would you have turned her into a vampire?"

"Hmm. When it started to hit me that I would only have a couple decades to spend with her, I often wished I could turn her, yes."He looked a bit sad, reminiscing about it.

"So how did things end up?"

"I stayed with her until her death in her eighties, which was a very long life for those times. We were exquisitely happy with each other, and had a very romantic connection."

"So, I don't mean to pry, but how long did the two of you have sex?" I asked.

"She was a very sexual person, and I was more than happy to oblige. I slept with her daily, sometimes more than that if she was up to it, up until a couple a couple years before she died."

"Whoa, that sounds so strange, to picture someone as physically gorgeous as you sleeping with a woman who clearly looked like she was an elderly woman."

"I don't know what to say. It might have seemed strange to outsiders, but there was nothing the least bit odd about it to us. She never was self-conscious about her body getting older. If she had been ashamed of herself, it would have never have worked so well. And I absolutely adored her, and it had nothing to do with her looks or her age. When I held her body in my arms, all I felt was love for her. I didn't ever feel the slightest bit of displeasure."

"But even you stopped sleeping with her in the last couple of years, isn't that right?"

"Only after her mind slipped away due to Alzheimer's attributed dementia. At that point, I turned from her partner to being more like a parent to her, and I didn't feel like physical intimacy was appropriate anymore. But I never stopped loving her even then, and I would still hold her every day and all through the nights."

"Did you regret your relationship when she died?" I asked.

"Not for an instant. Of course, losing her made me quite depressed for a few years. But I never once doubted that it was absolutely worth it."

"That's very touching," I said. "I wish I could have met her."

"So do I, my love. But the point of all this is, it wouldn't matter to me in the slightest if I had met you as you are, or if I had met a version of you that would age. Or even if I had met you in your eighties. I still would have fallen madly in love with you. Nothing would have changed my passion for you. Because it has nothing to do with how you look, it's all about who you are on the inside. If you were as burnt as Patches, I'd still love you just the same as I do now. You see, I've run chemical tests on myself, just to confirm what I feel. When normal people fall in love, all sorts of exciting chemicals are rushing into the brain, making us feel good. Most people lose those chemicals as time goes on with their partners, but I'm one of the unusual ones. For me, those chemicals only grow stronger with time, no matter how long the span of time is. Right now, being totally in love with you, I can feel the range of emotions those chemicals give me. The endorphins that make me feel peaceful, healed, and secure with you. The dopamine, making just the sight of you or the slightest touch of your hand send pleasure into my whole body. The norepinephrine, which makes me giddy with excitement around you. Every time we are intimate, a great amount of oxytocin is released into my brain, which cements my long term commitment to you. I promise you, these chemicals will never relent in me. They are here for the long haul."

"I like to believe that I would be the same, if I were in your shoes," I said. "I mean, able to love someone into their old age."

"You would be, I'm sure. You and I have the same souls, my dear."

"I feel the same way about you, Parker. If something happened in the future to take away your youth and beauty, I know I wouldn't love you any less."

He started to get misty eyed. "That's what unconditional love is, my sweet. Doesn't it feel completely indescribable, and more fulfilling than any other kind of love you've ever felt?"

"Yes, it does."

We finished lunch, and my energy level went up almost immediately. "It's such a hot day, Parker. I think we should ditch these clothes and wash off the dirt from the rodeo in the pool, just like yesterday."

"I have a better idea. If you're up for it, there's a short hike from here down to the bottom of the waterfall."

"I'll agree to it on one condition," I said.

"Yes?"

"We leave our clothes here and hike down naked."

"I'll consent, but are you sure you want to? You've had to take off your clothes so many times already today, you must be sick of it."

"I'll never be sick of being naked with you, Parker. As long as we are alone at the time, that is."

I pulled my bag off Patches, set in on the ground, and used it to neatly place the clothes I was removing on. I took it all off except for my hiking boots and socks.

I watched Parker strip down to just his single hiking boot and his non-lifelike prosthetic, which I eyes curiously. "Is that a new leg?" I asked.

"Indeed. Della gave it to me yesterday. It's supposed to be fine in the water. I thought we could test it out today."

As Parker led me down the rough trail to the bottom of the falls, I enjoyed watching him hike, his naked butt looking so manly, powerful, and meaty as he walked in front of me. When he had me go in front of him, glances stolen backwards paid off their efforts greatly as I got see his humongous, flaccid dick swinging around with his steps like a pendulum.

Parts of the trail were a bit dicey, forcing us to rock scramble down, and I thought it was endearing how Parker would turn around at these places and help me carefully through them, making sure I wouldn't injure myself. During the smoother trail portions, he held my hand as we walked together, not to assist me, but just because both of us liked touching each other as much as possible no matter how slight the contact was.

A pale waterfall mist heralded our arrival at the bottom, as well as a blissful, water-crashing sound that became louder and louder.

"Oh, Parker, it's somehow even more beautiful down here than it is up top," I said as soon as we came into view of the waterfall, plunging down fifty feet into a shallow, rocky pool below.

"I'm so happy you let me share this with you before we leave," he said, leading me by my hand towards the pool.

"I'd love to swim here. This is my first waterfall. But do you think it's safe?"

"I'd say so," he said. "There isn't that much water coming down compared to any waterfall that would be in a properly sized river. Some waterfalls are prone to falling debris, but I've been here for a great amount of time, and I've never seen anything fall except for water."

"Well then, we're going in." I started to take off my shoes and socks, leaving me totally naked. Parker too removed his boot and sock.

"I feel terribly dirty, after all the naked activities we did this morning," he said as he looked over the dirt on his body. "Please do not be offended if I don't smell my freshest."

"Same with me, I'm just as dirty, and just in need of a wash. My clothes are particularly filthy."

"Well, I packed us each a fresh pair of clothes," he said.

"Parker, you're amazing."

"And I have this." He pulled a bar of white soap and handed it to me.

"What is it?"

"It's my own creation," he told me. "The soap residue in the water totally disappears after a few minutes, so there's no water cloudiness or any sort of environmental impact if used in an outdoor stream like this."

"Ah, ingenious. And it smells good, too. Are you ready to give that leg the old college try?"

"For sure."

I pulled Parker towards the water, and then he helped me over some particularly jagged rocks on the outside of the water. As we moved towards the waterfall, it became clear to me that the water was only going to get up to thigh level at the highest. Parker's new prosthetic showed no sign of any problems as it became fully submerged in the water.

I cautiously stuck my hand into the flow of the waterfall as soon as we came near its base. "Not too hard at all," I said. "I'd say this could be nature's most perfect shower." I splashed my body with the water coming down in the forward most section of the falls, getting my body good and wet. "And now, let's test out that soap of yours." I started to soap up my chest.

"I can do that for you, my love," he said. "Unless, of course, it would make you uncomfortable."

"Not at all," I said, handing him the soap.

He took over, washing my chest a hundred times more slowly, gently, and lovingly than I had just done. "That feels really good," I said. "I could get used to this real fast."

"Don't make promises you can't keep," he said. "You may find yourself never taking a shower again without me there to do the washing."

While Parker lovingly soaped me up, I let myself relax, taking in the amazing view of the stream passing over colorful rocks as it meandered down further into the canyon. I almost entered into a happy sort of trance, feeling his wonderful hands work my body over.

"There, all done," Parker said after a great deal of time washing me. "I won't presume that you want me to wash your private areas."

"As long as you don't mind those areas being as dirty as the rest of me, go ahead."

Parker smiled, and started to wash my crotch first. He took even longer washing this area, I realized, and I just continued to relax and enjoy his gentle touches. He did my butt last, and spent even more time on it, washing first my cheeks good and well, then starting on my crack. Finally, he washed my hole carefully, sending shivers through me as his fingers kissed me there.

"You can rinse now, my sweet."

"Don't think you're getting out of this without me being able to wash you," I said.

"Don't feel obligated just because I did you. I really take a pleasure in taking care of you, my love. Not that you aren't more than capable of taking care of yourself, I honestly know in my soul you are far more capable of anything you put your mind to than I ever was. Still, I get so much pleasure taking care of you. I don't ask for anything reciprocal."

"But I want to, Parker."

I grabbed the soap from him, and started on his face, gently rubbing the suds around his head. We didn't have shampoo, but I used the soap to lather his blonde hair in any case, wanting him to feel like he was clean.

With his back to me, I started in on the wicked lines of his upper traps and shoulder muscles. As I made my way through all the folds and ridges of his huge back muscles, it made me marvel at how someone as gentle, kind, romantic, and intelligent as Parker could possibly have such a perfect looking body. And, even more so, it made me marvel at how someone as perfect as Parker was in every way could possibly belong to me.

"Be forewarned, I'm not asking you if you'd like me to wash your private areas off for you, I'm just jumping right in."

"Alright sweetie, I'll try not to jump when you touch me," he joked.

I washed up his butt real well, kneading the thick muscles of his bubbled cheeks with both hands, marveling at their strength. Just like the rest of him, they gave off an aura of absolute manliness and power.

As I washed down his legs, kneeling down as I went, I reached around and washed the front of them as well as the back, loving the feel of his thick, ropy thigh muscles as I soaped them up. His hairy calf was particularly dirty, and I lifted up his big, manly foot and washed it off with special care.

I jumped around to the front of his body. He had his eyes shut, a look of blissful contentment across his face, his back to the waterfall, water splashing down his body. I washed his right shoulder, then down his manly, muscled right arm. I scrubbed his armpit, and then washed his left arm with the same care, enjoying the feeling of my hands over his knotted muscles.

I used both hands to simultaneously soap up both tan pecs at once, letting my fingers curl in his soft blonde chest hairs, rubbing my thumbs around his wonderful nipples. I moved down to his abs, crouching down so I was at face level with them, amazed at how cut they were. I washed his obliques, and then trailed my soapy fingers along his treasure trail.

My wet fingers blissfully grabbed at his blonde pubes, soaping them up thoroughly, always surprised by how smooth they were compared to my own. I worked my way down to the upper part of his glorious stalk, worried he would cry out with surprise as he threatened, but one look up at his face told me he was totally in a pleasurable trance. I soaped down all the many inches of his lengthy cock, soaping up each and every vein. When I got to that gorgeous dickhead that I absolutely adored, I soaped up each and every ridge, sticking my soapy finger in his wonderful pissslit. I finally soaped up his balls, rubbing each one in my hands carefully.

Finally, I was done.

I stood back up, walked over to the side of the water without Parker ever realizing I was gone. I set the soap down and dug a small packet of lube I had stolen the day before from Syd's room and stowed in my hiking boot on the way down. I ripped it open, lubed up my fingers, and got my hole totally lubricated before returning to Parker.

I just took a moment to look at his sweet, serene face, so sweetly handsome, as he kept his eyes shut. Then I embraced him with my arms and kissed his lips to wake him out of his trance. He kissed me back happily and put his strong arms around me.

"I could wash you all day long, but I'm afraid I have other plans for you," I said as I broke from his kiss and pushed my hard dick against his soft one, waking it up quickly. I guided his hands to my butt, and as he felt me there, I could feel him harden even faster.

"Mmm, did I ever tell you how much I love your plans?" he asked me. "I can't wait. I love you, so, so much."

"Will you still love me once I've done this?" I asked with a smile, and pulled him backwards in the water until we were both standing directly under the center of the waterfall deluge, still kissing madly in spite of the water rushing over our heads.

He pushed me back even further until we were under the waterfall, beyond the spray, and my back gently hit a rock wall behind me. I could open my eyes again, and the view was absolutely unparalleled: Parker's beautiful face in front of me, and behind it, gorgeous, transparent water falling in sheets all around us, as if we had somehow escaped into our own gorgeous little world, just the two of us. Parker was clearly enjoying the romantic location as much as I was.

With my back against the wall, I wrapped my legs around his waist. His hands were still on my butt, rubbing me with pure love, and it sent shivers through me. I pushed his dick down away from his stomach and moved it under my perineum. As quick as that, I had his penis up against my buttcrack under the water, and I started rubbing back and forth on him.

"Parker, I want you inside me," I whispered to him, grabbing his cock underneath me, which I could feel was totally wet from the water as well as all the precum his slit was leaking, and pushed it against my lubed hole.

"Sweetie, listen to me," he said, putting his hand on my cheek and looking me deep in the eyes. "We could never have sex again, if you wanted, and it wouldn't make me any less passionate about you, make me love you any less. I don't love you because of the sex. Promise me you won't ever sleep with me because you feel obligated to because we're a couple. I had enough of that with Annie. She never really liked the sex, just liked the biting, really. I would never initiate anything with her, and that would have suited me just fine. But she felt obligated, and so she would have me make love to her, but the whole time, the only way she could get through it was if she shut her eyes and pretended I was someone else."

"I can't say I'm above that maneuver," I said.

His eyes suddenly flickered with hurt. "You were pretending I was someone else when we were intimate?" he asked.

"No, not with you. But whenever Syd would force himself on me, the only thing that would get me through was pretending it was you I was with."

He laughed. "Oh, how strangely ironic," he said. "Very sweet of you, my dear. But I don't want you ever, ever doing that with me. Even if you decide that you don't desire me in that way anymore, and you never want to be with me ever again, I want you just to be honest with me. Like I said, it won't change the way I feel about you at all."

"I promise," I said. "And you do the same to me."

"Alright, though the idea of me ever losing any of my physical desire for you, it's just not feasible."

"I feel the same way about you, Parker. It's totally a non-issue." I kissed him hard, wanting him to feel my desire for him as much as I felt his. "That's why I want you inside me."

"Jake, how could you really want that?" he asked, thinking I was putting him on. "Two days ago, we did what we had to do to get you ready for your obligation with Syd. Today, we did it again in order to win the rodeo. But now there's no need for you to ever, ever repeat the act. I'm too big, and it's too painful for you. I don't ever want my love to hurt you, Jake. I'd be happier being intimate in other ways, as long as I knew I wasn't paying for my pleasure with your suffering."

"Parker, listen to me. I never would have thought I'd be saying this, but you gave me infinitely more sexual pleasure two nights ago than any lover has ever given me before. You touched a spot inside me that I didn't even know I had. I've been fantasizing about the next time we could get to make love ever since the last time ended. Now, I'm not saying I now want to run out and bottom for everyone. Syd's bed yesterday left me absolutely cold. I don't want anyone inside me except you, Parker. But I want you inside me so bad I can hardly stand it. So, I'm being totally honest when I tell you now that nothing would please me more than to have you make love to me."

"Oh, my love, my love," he said, his eyes moist with wet adoration again. "I want nothing more in this life but to please you. You just let me know the second you change your mind, or the second it starts to hurt, do you understand?"

"Yes, yes, just please don't make me wait any longer."

"Oh, sweetie, I won't. I won't."

He kissed me again with such love, holding my cheek.

He moved his hands behind my head and back. "I don't want you scratching your skin against this rock wall or banging your head."

"It's amazingly smooth, Parker. You could push me all over the wall and I wouldn't end up with a single scratch."

"Still, you'll hit your head."

"I'll lean forward so my head's not touching the rock," I said, doing as I said, being supported by just the wall against my back and Parker's body.

Appeased, Parker took his hands away. He stuck his index finger into his mouth, wetting it, and then he lowered it underneath me. "Tell me if this is at all unpleasant for you."

He slowly started to insert his finger into me, looking into my eyes the whole time.

"No, it feels wonderful."

He smiled. "You've lubed yourself, haven't you?"

"Maybe."

"You are just full of delightful surprises today, though it saddens me not to have an excuse to make love to you with my mouth."

I thought about telling him to go for it anyway, but figured the lube couldn't be good tasting, and so decided on this instead: "You'll just have to make it up to me the next time we're intimate."

He smiled big. "I can't wait, my dear."

After putting a second and then a third finger into me, I said, "Parker, I'm ready for you."

"Already? Are you sure?"

"Yes, yes!"

He never stopped locking those eyes onto mine, those deeply soulful, gorgeous eyes, as he pressed his huge dickhead against my hole.

"Yes, yes, give it to me, Parker, give it to me."

He very slowly started to inch his mushroom tip inside me, stopping when it was halfway in. "How does it feel, my love? Any pain?"

"No, it feels great," I said. "Please, give me more."

Still locking his eyes with mine, looking for any sign of displeasure on my face, he slowly moved more in until his whole massive head was inside me.

"Yes, you feel so good," I moaned.

"Oh my dear, do you know how much I love you?" he said, petting my cheek, looking into me with such overwhelming desire.

He kissed me, letting me get used to the huge size of his head inside me, and he tasted marvelous. Somehow the pleasure I was feeling inside me made my sense of taste more acute, and I wanted his kiss never to end.

"More, Parker, more." I pulled his muscled back towards me with my hands, so eager for him I couldn't help myself.

"Yes, my love, yes."

With almost agonizing slowness, he pushed himself further into me until he was halfway there, and then stopped again for me to get used to it, raining me with sweet kisses, moaning with such sensual delight.

I tasted his fangs go erect suddenly, and jumped a bit, startled at the sudden change.

"Sorry," he said. "I can't hold those back when I'm this excited."

"It's okay," I said.

"I know they're sharp, but you have to believe, no matter what, I'd never, ever hurt you. I'd never lose control. I'm not built that way."

"I know, Parker. I didn't mean to jump, they just came out so suddenly. I don't mind them at all. You haven't fed today, have you? That's why they're coming out so soon."

"No, actually."

"Parker, please give me more. I want to feel you all the way inside me."

"Nothing would please me more, my love."

He moved forward again, sliding farther and farther into me, moaning with pleasure at every little bit that was more inside me.

I hissed in gratification as he reached my prostate. "You cannot believe how good you make me feel," I said to him.

He smiled. "It makes me so happy to know something that brings my body and soul absolute bliss can actually do the same to you as well, my love. It makes my own pleasure all the more intense, knowing that we share this euphoria together."

I felt him slide all the way inside me finally. His balls his my tailbone, and his pubes kissed my scrotum. My dick pulsed in pleasure.

"Oh, yes, yes!" I moaned.

"You feel so unbelievable, all utterly wrapped up around me in this sweet manner, not a bit of me outside of you, not a bit of me excluded from your wonderful warmth. I could come like this, I'm holding myself back, my love."

We kissed for ages, not wanting that moment to end, as he stayed all the way inside me like that.

"I want to feel your thrusts, Parker. Please, give them to me."

"Yes, my love, yes."

He slowly pulled out of me until he only had his head in.

"No, Parker, I feel so tragically empty without you inside me."

"And I feel so cold, so painfully unattached to your beauty."

"Give it back to me, Parker."

"Yes, here it comes, my love."

He thrust back inside me, still with slow caution, but much, much faster than the first time he entered me, and both of us moaned in twin pleasure as he made it to the end.

"Yes, again, faster."

"Of course, my love. It thrills me to no end that I'm hearing pleasure in your voice instead of pain."

He moved out of me again, but just when that emptiness started to sting, he thrust inside me once more, to the hilt. And then he didn't even pause there, he moved back out, back in, starting a sweet rhythm that scratched away at my prostate.

"Yes, yes, this is magic," I said to him.

"I never, ever want to stop making love to you," he said in between breathless thrust strokes.

As both of our pleasures intensified, his strokes got faster and more exuberant, though never did they feel callous or unloving.

As my body filled with passion, I threw my head back, hitting it hard against the rock behind me. I hoped Parker hadn't noticed.

No such luck. He stopped mid-thrust and placed his hand behind my head. "I'm hurting you! I'm being much too rough, I'm sorry. Sometimes it's hard to control the passion I feel for you, my love."

"No, I'm fine," I said. "It doesn't hurt at all. Please continue, just the way you were."

"Alright, but I'm not letting your head go."

He kept his hand sweetly behind my head, keeping it from hitting into the rock, and only then would he resume his wonderful thrusts.

"Parker, you can feed from me," I said.

"No, my sweet, I don't want to do that to you."

"But you said before that you would always feed off your old lovers before they had the blood packets. And I know you fed off Annie. Don't you need to do the same with me?"

"You're different," he said. "You're disturbed by blood, and detest bleeding or being cut. I'm not going to subject you to distress needlessly, not when I have the packets now."

"So, you'd really be totally fine never drinking my blood again? That would mean you'd never drink a fresh drop of blood again for all eternity. Is that really okay with you?"

"Absolutely," he said. "I never desire anyone's blood besides the blood of my beloved, and my willpower is unmatched."

"Even though I guess my blood is really, really tasty?"

"It's indescribably good, yes. That doesn't matter to me," he said. "When I fell in love with you, not a moment of that was about the possibility of drinking your blood."

"Wow, Parker, that is so, so sweet," I said. I thought all the vampires just basically are attracted to me because my blood smells or tastes delicious. To me, this totally proved that my blood had nothing to do with Parker's love for me. "But I really do want you to feed off me."

"Whatever for?" he asked.

"No need for you having to go through eternity depleting the reserves of the blood banks," I said. "Not when I can easily satisfy your needs in that regard."

"That's nice, but we have our own collection of blood, we don't raid hospitals or anything, No one is going to not get a transfusion because you chose not to be bitten, Jake."

"Still, it just makes me happy to know I'm satisfying all of my man's needs," I said.

"You satisfy all my needs, my love, without giving me a drop of blood."

"But actually, I've sort of come to appreciate it, in a way," I said. "It felt good when you did it to me two days ago, much better than it ever has when anyone else has bitten me." The one exception had been when I had let Boyd bit me. That bite too had felt so much hotter than any of the others, though not as hot as Parker's. I came to realize that all the other times I had been bitten, it had either been against my will, or it had been something I had been coerced into. When it was my choice, my gift to give as I pleased, then it felt so much hotter.

"But that time I bit you to lessen the pain. I really didn't drain you of blood. If I were to really feed from you, you might end up tired for a bit, or light-headed."

"I understand," I said. "I've been through that before, and I know what the side-effects are. I'm still fine with it."

"I don't want you to be just fine with it, my love."

"No, I'm not just tolerating it, I like it," I said. "I want to show you how much I enjoy it. Please, please bite me, Parker."

"Do you promise that you'll tell me to stop biting you at any point it becomes unpleasant, and that you won't ever, ever feel obligated to have me feed off you in the future?"

"I promise."

"Alright, my love, here it comes."

He licked sweetly at my throat for a moment, and then I moaned as I felt the quick pain of his fangs pierce me.

"I'm sorry, sweetie," he said, pulling back. "Should I stop?"

"No, no, no, put them back in," I said. "It feels absolutely unbelievable to feel you invade my body both up here and down there simultaneously."

"Yes, my love."

He wrapped his warm lips around my throat, and I felt his loving mouth drink in ever so slightly the blood I had there, as euphoria surged through my throat.

"Oh, my sweet, you taste indescribably good. I know there's no music playing, but somehow, you make me hear music. And it's more heavenly than even a chorus full of angels could ever produce."

As he drank some more, I felt the euphoria spread from my throat to the rest of my head, and into my chest and arms.

"It's like I can actually taste your soul somehow. Taste what a beautiful, splendid person you are. And it makes me love you more with every drop I drink."

"Oh Parker, I cannot describe how wonderful it feels to have you absolutely consume me."

He continued to drink me as his thrusts became more and more fevered, still holding the back of my head, preventing it from slamming into the rock. My dick was oozing precum and close to exploding by then, I was in so much pleasure.

My hands started acting on their own accord, searching out his body frantically. His body was covered with a layer of sweet, hot sweat, and I wanted to touch ever single beautiful inch of him.

"Sweetie, I can't last much longer."

"Yes, Parker, I want to feel you explode inside me."

"Your wish is my command. God Jake, my love is boundless for you, you know that?"

As we looked into each other's eye's wit pure love, I felt torrents of Parker's seed explode inside me, hitting my prostate and setting that button off, causing my own orgasm. I started to shoot my own load at the exact same time Parker was at the heat of his orgasm, and it only seemed fitting for two people that fit together as seamlessly as we did for our cocks to both move through their blissful release at the same time.

Parker used his tongue to close my wound, and we stayed like that for a few minutes, him still inside me, as we both caught our breaths and held each other, not wanting to let each other go. He kissed me so softly and sweetly, so different from the passionate kisses he littered me with just moments ago, but they had just as much love in them.

"I'd have to give that new leg of yours my stamp of approval," I joked.

"Most definitely," he said. "I'll tell Della, she'll be so pleased."

"Perhaps it's best not to tell Della precisely the activity you were doing to test out the new leg."

"Quite right, my love, quite right."

Parker finally leaned back a bit, and I put my feet on the ground again. As soon as I stood up, I started to feel weak and light-headed, which surprised me because I hadn't seen any blood, and I immediately crumbled. I realized of course that it wasn't a psychological reaction this time, it was a physical one.

Parker caught me and held me again against the back wall with his gentle body. "Sweetie, what's the matter?"

"Just a bit light-headed and weak," I said.

Anguish took over his face. "This is all my fault, I took too much blood. Yes, I can feel it now inside me. More than I needed. Lord, how could have done this? You know what it was? I can't remember the last time I fed from a man. It's so different from feeding from women. Your heart was pumping stronger than I was used to, and so much blood poured out from your wound, more than I anticipated. Should have made a much smaller incision."

"It's okay, Parker, it was worth it."

He looked angry. "Nothing is worth you being in this condition. Look at you, you can't even stand up on your own. And it was so, so sweet of you, telling me you wanted me to feed from you, that you wanted to take care of me. And look what I did to you in return. I've broken you down."

"I'm not broken, Parker," I insisted. "It's just a temporary situation. That's all."

"I'm not ever feeding from you again. I'll drink the donated blood, and that's settled."

I shook my head. "No, that's ridiculous. If you had a chemistry lab experiment, and the result didn't work out quite right, would you never attempt it again? No, you'd run it again, correcting the mistakes you made the first time, and you'd get it right. We know now that you shouldn't have made such a large wound. In the future, we'll correct that."

"You're not at all concerned that I won't have the willpower to stop with less blood?" he asked me. "The way your blood tastes?"

"I absolutely know for certain you have the willpower to do anything you wish, Parker. Today was not about willpower, it was about a misjudgment."

"You are so, so sweet to say that," he said, his eyes filling with mist as he kissed me sweetly.

"Does that mean you'll agree to feed from me in the future?" I asked.

"I agree to try once more," he said. "But if I take too much again, I don't want to do this to you a third time." He caressed my cheek with his gentle hand. "We need to get you some more food as quickly as we can. There's roast beef in the cooler back up the hill, that'll help. I'm so sorry again to do this to you, my love."

"It's okay. I'll be back to normal before you know it. But I'm not sure if I can do the hike just yet. Give me a while down here to rest first."

"I wasn't suggesting you hike back up on your own, sweetie."

He spun me ninety degrees, so instead of facing him, I had my left side pressed into his front. He had his left hand under my knees and his right under my back, cradling me against his chest.

He carried me out from behind the waterfall, and somehow got his hiking boot on his good leg. "All you have to do is hold these," he said, handing me my socks and shoes. I just put them on quickly while still in his arms. "And say a final goodbye to the waterfall," he said as he stopped to look himself as well.

Parker began carrying me up the trail, with me kind of fading in and out of sleep as he did. In spite of the physical weakness, I found it all very romantic. I had drifted off to sleep, but woke up again as I felt him set me down gently onto the picnic blanket on the bank of the infinity pool.

Soon, I felt him lying on top of me, in a very carefully planned position in which he wasn't putting any weight on me, with me loving the feel of his whole naked front pressed on mine. He placed a bit of meat on my lips with his gentle fingers. "Here, eat that, sweetie," he said to me.

I opened my mouth, and he placed the food on my tongue, with me sucking on his sweet fingers a bit before he pulled them out. As soon as that bite was gone, his fingers placed more food in my mouth.

After he poured in my mouth a drink of water, I said, "See? Already feeling stronger. I yawned.

"Sweetheart, are you tired?"

"A little," I said.

"Well, no wonder, after everything I've put you through. Again, I'm so, so sorry to have hurt you. We have several hours of daylight left. How about we lie down together on the blanket and take a well- earned nap?"

"I'd love that," I said.

"Before you fall asleep, there's one more thing I wanted to examine." He gently turned me over on my stomach, and pulled my hips into the air. I felt his finger gently rub my hole. "Sweetie, your beautiful bud is all red and swollen. I've done a real number on you, haven't I?"

"It doesn't hurt, Parker."

"You probably just can't feel it because you're too numb from the bloodless," he said, still rubbing my hole tenderly. "I don't know, my sweet. These two times we've made love have been by far the most physically pleasurable experiences of my entire life. Hands down, no contest, it hits the runner up completely out of the park, to use one of your sports analogies."

"Wow, Parker, after all the sex you've had in your whole life, I'm amazed and proud that you think ours were your best."

"But what good is the paragon of pleasure when I know that my love hurts you? My bliss comes at a price I'm not willing to pay."

"Parker, stop worrying about me, please. Those two times were by far the best sexual experiences of my life as well, you're forgetting that part. It's not just you getting the pleasure, it's both of us."

"But it's just you that has to pay the price. That seems totally wrong."

"It's a small price to pay, Parker. Please, just put this out of your mind, and take a nap with me."

"Alright, but first, I'm going to kiss you to wish you a fast recovery."

I felt him give a tender kiss to my hole, which was both sweet and amusing.

"Oh wait. Any of that champagne left?"

"A little, do you want the end, my sweet?"

"Okay. You won't be upset if I ride under the influence later on? Parker, are you actually getting a little less uptight about my safety? I'm so thrilled."

He smiled. "I was already planning on riding Patches home with us going double with you in front of me, while we tow Abderhalden back behind us."

"Ah, should have known. If I'm going to be riding in front of you, could we ride home naked?"

"You need to think about rest, not sex."

"But you owe me," I said.

"That I do. Alright, we will then, my love. You'll have to forgive me if I wake you up inadvertently poking you."

"You know, I'm not really drinking age yet, so if we were outside the Territory, you could technically be arrested for this."

He laughed. "That's one of the main reasons I'm trying to whisk you out of the country, to any nation with a much more reasonable drinking age. So I can drown you in alcohol with total impunity. But you were joking, right? About you not being of drinking age?"

"Not in the US I'm not."

"Really? How high has the drinking age risen to in my hundred years of absence?"

"Twenty-one."

"I'm confused. I thought you were twenty-nine!"

"No, where did you get that idea?"

"I asked Syd the second day I had met you. I told him I thought he should call off the engagement if you were under thirty, as you would be far too young to handle such a mature relationship. He assured me you were close enough at twenty-eight. You just celebrated your twenty-ninth birthday."

"Syd once again totally lied Parker, I'm sorry. He told me he told you how old I was as well, so I always figured you knew."

"Wait a second, just how old are you?"

"I'm nineteen."

His face turned white. "JUST nineteen?"

"Couldn't you figure it out from me just starting college, Parker?"

"I figured college ages changed since I've been part of the real world. And you look like a thirty- year-old. And you have the maturity to match. I never even for once considered you were so young."

"Well, now you know. How about that nap you promised me?"

"Alright. Yes, go right ahead."

Parker lay down on his back, and I got down on my stomach on top of him. The sand underneath us made for perfect padding, and with my head resting on Parker's gorgeous pecs, I fell asleep quickly and easily, feeling deliriously in love and happy.

I felt like I had been sleeping for an hour when I woke up, long enough to get some deep, soothing sleep, but not long enough to have been dreaming. I woke up in the same position as I had fallen asleep, with my head on Parker's chest, feeling just as happy as before.

"Mmm," I said, as I opened my eyes. "That was very refreshing. Remind me to make your chest my permanent pillow from now on."

"Are you feeling any better?"

"Loads better. Just a bit woozy now, but should be fine to walk around."

"Jake, we need to talk."

I took my head off his chest and looked him in the face. "We do?"

"I've been thinking a lot while you've been asleep," he said, a shadow coming over his face. "I've realized how selfish I've been."

I shook my head. "No, you haven't been. I told you, I like you topping me just as much as you do. And that goes for the feeding as well."

"No, that's not actually what I meant this time. What I meant was, I'm very concerned that this relationship will get too intense too quickly."

"Alright, we can take things slow," I said. "That's fine. You wanted to take things slow from the start, remember? Let's just go back and pretend that we never took it this far."

"No, I can't just pull back now," he said. "I'm sorry, I'm not built that way. I'm not someone who just sticks his foot into love, I dive in, headfirst. And with you, Jake, I'm already thousands of feet underwater."

"So am I! What's so bad about that?"

"I'm not someone who changes his mind or falls out of love easily. My love lasts forever."

"I know that," I said. "I want my love to last forever as well."

He shook his head. "You're not ready for forever," he said determinedly.

"Who are you to tell me what I'm ready for or not?" I asked.

"For petessake, Jake, you're not even two decades old. You seem like you're an ancient, wise soul, and I was fooled into thinking you were much older than you were. But now it's all clear to me. You're way, way, way too young to be with me."

"No I'm not, that's craziness," I said. "You should trust your initial instinct. I was always the one way more mature than anyone my age, more mature even than most of the adults. I'm so ready for forever with you."

"Sweetie, I hate to say it, but you're blinded by young love. You need to leave here, you need to leave me."

"No!" I said, shaking my head.

"You need to go back to college," he said. "This is supposed to be the best time of your life. You love academics; I know you more than anyone can understand the value of a great education."

"Yes, but that doesn't matter. I wanted to go into engineering, but I failed. I told you all this."

"I don't believe that you failed legitimately," he said.

"I did. I hate to disappoint you, but it turns out I wasn't smart enough for the major."

"Don't believe that rubbish," he said. "You are absolutely brilliant, Jake. You would be an amazing engineer, or whatever else you decided to pursue. I want you to try to get back into the program."

"I got permanently ejected from that major," I said. "I told you that."

"If they aren't going to be reasonable, I want you to transfer into another school that will. I'm positive that if you give it another go, you'll come through wonderfully. What about MIT? Martine is there already, right? You'd have a friend. I know you're really close to Ahmad, but who knows? Maybe he'll end up transferring there too. Cambridge, well all of Boston, is great."

I shook my head. "I don't want to do any of this if you're not involved."

"You shouldn't be in any monogamous relationship right now, least of all with someone as old as I am," he said. "You should be spending the next few decades out living your life, experiencing the world, making friends, finding love, and learning who you are."

"No," I said. "It's very kind of you to be so concerned about me, but I know exactly what I'm giving up, and I know you're absolutely worth it. I'm staying with you, no matter what. You can just put all of this out of your mind right now."

"Sweetheart, I don't think I can give you a choice," he said. "I'm worried your judgment may be impaired."

"What, what exactly are you telling me?"

"It kills me to say this, but I'm telling you it's over."

I felt tears start to sting my eyes. "No. Uh-uh. You can't be leaving me."

"I'm sorry," he said, tears in his eyes as well. "This is for your own good."

Arguing was getting nowhere with him, I had to compromise. "Look, I agree that I should be in school. How about this? I'll go to MIT if you go with me. We'll move in together, you can work on your chemistry during the day while I do classes, and then we can spend our nights together as a couple."

"That sounds profoundly lovely," he said, wiping his tears away. "But I know if I'm around for the next few decades, you'll never grow. You'll be stuck in life, stilted, and it will all have been my fault."

"No, you can't tell me I'm never allowed to be with you again, not after assuring me that our souls were meant to be together so adamantly earlier today."

"I'm not saying the two of us won't happen. All I'm asking is that you take a several decades on your own. That you let yourself fall in love with men your own age. And after all of that time has passed, if you still want to be with me, I'll be here for you. We'll start that life together that we were just talking about. You'll be surprised how quickly the time will go, Jake. You might feel like you don't want to reconnect with me until centuries have passed, and that's fine with me. However long you need, I'll still be here for you. And if you meet someone else, and forget about me, or if you decide you'd rather be alone, well then, we'll know I wasn't meant for you after all, and I'll wish you well."

"And when I come back decades or centuries later, and want you back in my life, you'll just shrug off whoever you're with at the time in order to reconcile what we had? Don't kid yourself, Parker. You'll totally be in love with whomever you're married to at the time. You can only love one person at a time, like me. And if that person is another vampire, then it truly will be forever with the two of you."

"You don't understand," he said. "I've had my romances. I'm done with those days. If we get together, then I'll have one last go around, romantically. Otherwise, I'm not even having sex with anyone from here on out. I'm through." I absolutely knew that he wasn't pronouncing some intention that would turn out to be short lived and fickle, he was absolutely serious. And he would never have sex with anyone again, unless I ended up back in his life.

"No, that's absolutely ridiculous; to have you put your life on hold in order to wait for something that might never come. You'd be the one who stopped growing, who got stuck in life, if you've given up on love."

"But I'm already grown, Jake. No new love is going to change who I am. You're the one who has many decades of catching up to do."

"Parker, don't you see I care about you far too much to let you go? Even if I could understand what you're doing, understand some sense in it, I could never actually leave you."

"That's why I have to make the decision for you," he said. "Though it absolutely kills me to sever myself from you. Far more than you even can understand."

"I don't get it," I said, absolute panic hitting me. "Why put both of us through all this pain when we could just stay together, happy in love?"

"It just has to be."

I rolled back on top of him, pushing my naked body on top of his. "You can't leave me, Parker. Don't you feel this? Don't you feel how right we are for each other?"

He started to cry full on again. "Yes, I feel it all."

I kissed his mouth. "Please, please don't end this, Parker." I kissed him hard, making him feel my emotions.

"Sweetie, please don't make this any harder than it already is."

He rolled out from under me, setting me gently on the ground, and then stood up. He grabbed his boxers and pulled those on, and then reached for his trousers.

"Please, don't get dressed," I said, getting up on my knees and hugging him around his lower half.

"I have to, sweetie," he said as he pulled his pants up in spite of my efforts. "And it would be best if you did too. Last thing I need to see is your beautiful naked body right now."

"No, I'm not getting dressed," I protested.

He buttoned up his white shirt and put on his vest. "Well, I can't force you to."

And then the anger started to hit me as I became sure that there was nothing I could do to stop him from leaving me. "I can't believe you're doing this to me now," I said. "Your timing is stellar."

"Come on, sweetie. Don't be angry with me."

"I have a full right to be angry, Parker. Couldn't you have told me you didn't want to be with me before you took me out here, yesterday? Instead of waiting until now? Until after you swore to me that we'd be together forever? Do you remember that part? Do you remember when you told me like five seconds ago that we were going to spend the next several years traveling the world together?" I started to angrily throw my clothes on.

"The right path hadn't occurred to me until just now," he said. "I'm sorry I had to put you through all of this. I should have known from the start that I was being selfish, but I didn't. It's my fault, and you have every right to hate me."

"It might have been nice to tell me we were breaking up before you screwed me!" I shouted.

"I'm so sorry about that, sweetie."

"I can still feel your semen inside me, and yet now you're breaking it off. Just great."

"I wish I could take that back, but I can't. You have to know that I didn't plan to make love to you, then run out on you as soon as I had gotten off. That's not me at all, you have to know that."

"There was a lot a thought I knew about you five minutes ago," I said. "And you've gone and reversed it all. So forgive me if I no longer believe that everything you say is true." I finished dressing and went for Patches. "I'm leaving."

"We'll go together."

"No, you gave up the right to ride home with me when you broke up with me," I said. "I don't want to look at your face for another second. I'm going on my own. You stay here."

He looked wounded. "I'm not letting you ride back by yourself, sweetie. You're still intoxicated."

"I'll be fine."

"No, I'm not letting you," he said, looking absolutely defiant.

"Fine, if that's the way you want it, I'll stay here and sober up for a while. But I want you to leave me alone."

"I'm not leaving you alone."

"Parker, you have two options. Either you let me go alone, or you let me stay here alone. If you're going to break up with me right after having your way with me, you can't expect me to want to be around you the whole way back, holding hands and singing camp songs."

"Alright then, I'll go, you stay and sober up until you're totally fine to ride, then come back," he said. He gathered up his things into his bag and got on Abderhalden. "Are you sure you want me to leave you?"

"Positive," I said.

I watched him ride up out of the canyon, and when he was out of sight, I crumpled on the ground and began to cry. In a matter of minutes, my emotions had gone from blissfully contented, to shocked and panicked, to angry beyond belief, and now to deep sadness. I could not believe how awful it felt to lose a boyfriend that I had barely committed myself to, but Parker wasn't just any old boyfriend, and it had left me so, so miserable.

After a few minutes of crying, my sadness started to morph into self-doubt and anxiety, and that's when I shook myself together. These negative emotions weren't really who I was, they were imposed on me by an unhappy childhood. I had to conquer them. I was stronger than this.

I wiped away my tears and stood up on my feet, willing myself back to life.

"Boo!" said a deep voice from behind me.

I jumped, startled, then turned around, half expecting to see Parker there behind me.

Instead, my heart skipped a beat as I saw Boyd Slade standing there, a smug smile on his face. "Boyd, what are you doing here?" I asked disdainfully, having absolutely no patience for whatever he wanted.

"Ain't a cowboy have the right to take a walk?" he asked. He was wearing the same thing he had worn when I had first met him, jeans under chaps, cowboy boots, tight buckskin shirt, and cowboy hat.

"You walked here?" I asked, suspicious, but I didn't see any horse around besides Patches.

"That's right," he said.

"And this time, you didn't bring your gramophone, did you? What, too inconvenient to drag the thing around, is it?"

He reached forward and pulled my shirt button open. "I'm not used to seeing you in so many doofus clothes. Come on, at least show yer tits to yer old pal Boyd."

I knocked his hand way from me. "Not on your life."

"Ya want me to take my shirt off instead, so you can feel my muscles? Just like ya always did when we were ridin?'"

"You can go to hell."

"Ya know, yer tone is pretty high and mighty for someone whose conversation I just overheard, hiding up there in the cliffs."

I squinted at him. "You're a real bastard," I said. "How much did you hear?"

"Not a whole lot, but enough to gather that Cripple Logan has been screwin' ya. Which I take high offense to, sidering ya plain refused to let me fuck ya when we had our little session, remember? We were in the bushes, when ya told me that Syd and you were just a sham, and you wanted to get off with me, but ya said ya didn't ever let no one fuck ya, member?"

"Yes, I remember all that, Boyd. I wasn't lying to you; I really hadn't ever been topped by anyone until two days ago."

"Well, now that yer all broken in, how bout we get to screwin?'"

"Not going to happen. Is that why you came out here, to try to get me to sleep with you?"

He rubbed his facial hair. "Ya know, seems to me you should treat me better, when I could go and tell the Governor that you were just fucking yer fiancé's bother. Seems to me that might get you killed."

I rolled my eyes. "Go ahead and tell him," I said. "I'm about to tell Jericho myself that our engagement is off, and Parker has a way to save my life. It really doesn't matter if the engagement ended because I was unfaithful to Syd or not, since I never said any vows. As long as there's no evidence the engagement was a fake, I'll be scot free. So, you may think that your threats will make me do as you say, but you really don't have a thing over my head."

He looked defeated. "Guess not. I might as well be headin' home, then. Oh, one little thing before I go. Ya should've taken off my shirt when I gave the chance in the first place."

"Whatever for?"

"'Cause ya might've noticed this." He reached down into the cleavage of his two pecs, down the front of his tight shirt, and pulled out a tiny microphone on a wire that disappeared into his shirt.

My jaw dropped. "What is that?"

"Well, you and Syd made fun of me real proper for not knowin' much about modern technology. So, I invested some time and money into the stuff. I've got a recorder taped to my balls. I been recording ya this whole time."

I felt my stomach twist as panic set in.

He smiled. "Ah, I know that look by now. That's the `I'm tryin' to figure everything I just said that might end up with me getting killed.' I love it."

I knew he was right, and I started to fume. "What about our old agreement? That you wouldn't say anything, and I wouldn't tell about your wife?"

"In my mind, that agreement ended after you two fuckwads bragged to every willing ear about toastin' me in the rodeo, when ya knew I threw the fucker."

"That was Syd, not me."

"I don't give a fuck. I crushed Syd's recorder, and nobody's gonna just believe yer word without proof."

I thought for a long moment before I said my next words. "I have another copy, you idiot. You say you're so good with modern technology now? Well, then you should know, a video can be saved on multiple phones, and Syd gave me the video to hold on my phone."

Though I hated to lie, I took special pride watching Boyd's smugness quickly deflate. "How do I know yer not just pullin' this out of yer sexy ass?"

"Because, you should know by now, I'm not the liar, player, or cheater. Syd always was, but not me."

That convinced him, I could see it in his stony face. "Ah, fuck you. Fuck you, you little fuck! Fine, fine! I won't say nothin' bout any of this as long as ya don't give the video to nobody, ya hear?"

"Yes, deal," I said.

Boyd angrily kicked a rock into the stream, and then he walked over back up the hill, defeated. I grabbed the huge canvas bag Parker had packed for me and started to load it onto Patches when I heard a pistol cock behind me, and felt the muzzle of a gun pushing against the back of my head.

I turned around to see Boyd sticking his raised pistol right into my face. "I had a fuckin' change of heart," he said. "You can keep yer fuckin' video, and I'll turn in my recording to the Governor."

"And what will happen when I show your video to Jericho?" I asked, my heart racing just from having to look down the barrel of a gun.

"Ya know what? I'm a snake, and yer goddman fake fiancé is one too, but he's as good as dead. You don't have the heart to turn in the video, which would end up with serious consequences for an innocent woman that never did nothin' to nobody."

"But you'd never be sure if I would or I wouldn't."

"I'll chance it," he said. "And ya know what? Jericho's gonna fuckin' rip you to shreds." He smiled evilly. "Wait a second, no," he said. "What am I thinkin?' Why let Jericho have all the fun when I can take what I want for myself?"

"Jericho's going to want me unhurt, Boyd," I said.

"He ain't gonna do shit if I come back with yer pretty head."

"That's murder!" I said.

"It ain't, not in the Territory, cause the Governor gave everyone consent to kill as long as they could prove they committed a crime punishable by death. All I have to do is bring yer head and my recorder, and I'll be golden. Jericho will be so fuckin' tickled, he'll give my family their holdings back, give em more than they ever had before."

I felt myself fill with nervous anxiety. "Come on, Boyd. Please, please don't do this. You know it's wrong."

"I don't give a fuck about right and wrong," he said. "Those words only have fuckin' meaning to people like you and my wife. You can beg all ya want, but yer not getting outta here with yer life connected." He leered at me. "Now, I'll give you two choices. Either I kill ya brutally, painfully, and slowly. Or I fuck yer ass like I always wanted to, and I bite ya while I'm floodin' yer ass with my cowboy juice and I drain ya dry. Personally, I'd prefer to go out with a little lovin.'"

I squinted at him, horrified at the choices he had for me. "You should know, I just slept with Parker. I'm not exactly untouched."

He grinned wider. "I don't give a fuck," he said. "In fact, I love my sloppy seconds. It mean yer chute is all lubed up proper and ready. Won't give my monster any resistance. And ya know what? Knowin' some dude spilled his load there before me makes me somehow cum even more fucking honey than usual. It's like my swimmers know they have to beat the competition into the ground."

It was so gross, I almost begged him to kill me just so I wouldn't have to hear him talk anymore.

"So, what'll it be, kid?" he asked me. "Time to make a choice."

"Well then, I pick for you to screw me," I said. "At least I can go out with some pleasure."

"That's exactly what I wanted to hear," he said, smiling. I could still remember when that smile turned me on. "I knew you were the sensible type."

He put his gun back in his holster, and started to kiss me, his mouth feeling such the opposite of Parkers kisses, as he was practically raping me with his mouth. At the same time, he ripped my shirt off, and I mean actually tore the fabric apart, rendering the garment into a useless scrap of cloth. His hands quickly fondled my chest and pinched my nipples, his touch so rough he was almost hurting me.

His hands ripped apart my pants just as easily as they did my shirt, leaving my in just my underwear. He broke off the kiss and kneeled down to my crotch level, and I was shocked when he used his teeth to bite, through my underwear, ripping them away from my body and spitting them out, leaving me naked except for my shoes.

He got back up and resumed his mad kisses, and I felt his finger insert itself into my hole, thrusting in and out with none of Parker's gentleness. He started screwing my hole with a second finger, then with three.

"Enough kissing," I said when I couldn't take it anymore. "I want the real thing."

"Yeah, baby, way to go out of this world like a firecracker."

I dropped to my knees and ripped open his fly. Our kissing had made him hard, and I reached into his pants to free his dick and balls.

Boyd pushed my hands away before I could get his balls out of his pants, frustrating me. He grabbed his huge, dark dick in his hands and waved it in front of my face.

"Yeah, ya want this sweet fuck stick, huh? I wanna see ya drool for it."

Still not letting me touch him with my hands, he instead put his glistening cut dickhead to my lips, and I had to pretend to like what he was feeding me, moaning.

"Let me see that sweet, pink tongue o' yers on my huge pecker."

I had to lick away at his dickhead, and he suddenly grabbed my head in his fingers and forced himself two-thirds of the way inside my throat, choking me. In the process, he shut his eyes as he moaned in ecstasy.

That was the chance I'd been waiting for, I reached up, pulled his huge balls out of his pants, and then found the recording device that was indeed taped to his scrotum. I pulled it as hard as I could, ripping it violently away from him as I pulled my head off his dick at the same time.

"Ow, you little bitch!" he screamed, obviously in pain from the tape being ripped off.

While he grabbed his unit, I moved backwards as fast as I could, pulling his recording device above my head. "Won't be able to kill me without this, will you?"

Boyd gave me a stern look. "You throw that down right now, kid, before I make you regret it.

"Alright, I'll throw it," I said.

I chucked it into the flowing creek beside me, just upstream of the waterfall.

"You little fucker!" he said, flying towards me.

I tried to run away from him, but I knew he was too fast. I tried to sidestep him, but that didn't work either. He took me down, and we started to fight on the ground. I tried my hardest to overpower him, but there was no contest. He soon had kicked and hit me so hard; all I could do was lie there and wait for him to end it.

"You can't kill me without your recording," I managed to say on the ground, smiling in spite of the pain.

"But I can knock you the fuck out!"

He turned his fist to metal, and just before his punch came down onto my head, I saw his body suddenly get pulled away from me, and under the hooves of a huge, very loyal horse, that I loved so, very, very much.

I would have thought Patches would have been able to knock Boyd out, but all his fighting just seemed to slow the man down, and pretty soon, Boyd had jumped back to his feet and started to hit Patches over and over again in the head with both his fists turn to steel, until the poor animal was either dead or knocked out on the ground, making me so angry.

Boyd came over and looked down at me, wiping blood off his face. "Look at that," he said, pointing at the stream.

I turned and looked at where he was pointing. The recording device had been swept up by the whitewater, but ended up getting caught on a rock just before it would have gone over the waterfall. "So what?" I stammered. "It got all wet anyway, Boyd. It's going to be permanently ruined."

"Actually, I was sure to purchase the waterproof variety of digital recorder," Boyd said with a smile. "How does it feel to be outsmarted, little man? Now, you be a good boy and stay here until I fetch it. As soon as I have it back, you're dead. And I ain't fuckin' ya neither now. No more Mr. Nice Boyd."

He grabbed the huge canvas bag that Parker had packed for me from Patches's limp body and walked over to the stream. He crossed to the other side of the bank, walked towards the cliff to the edge of the waterfall, and used huge bag in the water as a sort of makeshift dam, making the area around where the device was easily traversable for him, and he started to get into the water.

I summoned all my courage, and then rolled over on the ground until my body hit the edge of the infinity pool. I was thankful that the waterfall noise drowned out any sound I made as I pulled myself into the water.

I opened my eyes under the water and swam towards the opposite side of the pool, to the wall that I knew bordered the waterfall. I put my hands on the boulder that I had discovered was loose the day before. I dug my feet into the ground, and pulled the boulder back, having it roll on top of my stomach, which was the only thing holding me down and keeping me from being pushed out with the rest of the water.

I could see water absolutely blasting out of the hole I created as the infinity pool quickly emptied its contents all over the spot Boyd was standing in, just as he grabbed the device. Boyd's face held pure horror as he saw the water come. He braced himself, and as the water poured over him, it came to my sad realization that he would somehow keep from being pushed off.

"Nice try, but it takes more than a little water to knock over a vampire as strong as me!"

Then, as if God heard my prayers, the water from the pool knocked my canvas bag loose, and suddenly all the water that Boyd had been damming up violently hurled itself over the cliff, and Boyd had made the mistake of being in the way of nature's fury.

He not only got knocked off the cliff, his body was thrown many yards away from the edge as he fell down through the air, screaming as he went. I heard a hard thud as he landed.

I may have defeated the villain, but my life was still in danger. Now that the water in the pool was gone, the weight of the boulder felt so much heavier as it pinned my chest to the ground. I tried to push it off of me, but I could not make it budge, and I hadn't been able to take in a breath since I had gone underwater, because the weight was totally collapsing my lungs. My vision started to go black.

I heard a familiar neighing, and felt giant hooves press against my side. I thanked God again as I realized Patches was not only still alive, he was well enough to come to my aid. Amazingly, the horse was able to push the boulder with his front legs until it rolled off me to the right. When I sat up, I didn't even think I had any broken bones.

I hugged and kissed Patches's scarred face, as he nuzzled me, and found the strength to stand up. I wanted not to look at whatever gross, violent scene I had created below, but I just had to make sure he was dead.

When I peered over the side of the cliff, I saw Boyd's body below. He had landed on some sharp rocks, and was torn up pretty badly, making me wince. He still held the device in his right hand.

I wanted to just mount Patches and ride back to Mareshead, but that recording device in his right hand kept gnawing at my consciousness. I knew if anyone found Boyd's body, that device would be the smoking gun that would lead them straight to me. My good judgment told me I couldn't just leave it down there.

I told Patches to stay, and I started down the trail which led to the bottom of the falls on foot. Parker wasn't there to help me over the rough patches this time, so it took a bit longer than usual. The whole time, I had this nagging worry that if Boyd had gotten so tech savvy, he might have made that device have some sort of GPS tracking on it, and someone might be coming for Boyd right that very moment.

When I got to the bottom, I ran over to Boyd's body. The rocks he had landed on had obviously broken his bones and cut his skin to shreds, leaving him a bloody mess. It was all I could do to look in his direction without fainting.

I started to feel guilty that I had killed him. I reasoned that he was a horrible man who had tried to kill me, and he certainly deserved to get what punishment I had handed out. Still, just the fact that I had now killed someone, it chewed away at my soul and made me feel very, very dark.

I didn't have time for brooding about the cruel nature of killing, I had to get the little gadget in Boyd's right hand. I kept myself from passing out by focusing just on his outstretched hand above his body. I reached down and tried to pull it out of his fingers, but I found that his fingers were tightly clasped together, possibly due to some rigor mortis. But it couldn't be that hard for me to open his hand, could it?

I dug my feet into the ground on either side of his chest, and used the stability to lend my hands more strength. I used both of my hands to simultaneously pull at his fingers.

I pulled and pulled, but no matter how hard I tried, the hand would not budge.

After a few minutes, I realized that my strength wasn't going to be enough, I might need to actually cut his hands free. But a quick look around told me there weren't any rocks sharp enough to do the deed. I walked back over to his body, and again started desperately pulling at his fingers, feeling so, so anxious as it seemed more and more likely I wasn't going to be leaving with this all important gadget.

"Please God, let his fingers give, please God, let his fingers give, please God let his fingers give, please God, let his fingers give..."

And then, miraculously, his fingers turned from being hard as rock to being as pliable as rubber, though I had no idea what had prompted the difference. Does rigor mortis wear off in vampires?

I grabbed the device free from his hand, and I looked it over, starting to try to rip the insides out of it, destroying it.

Just before I finally broke the device, Boyd's blood-covered body jumped up to life right in front of me, making me scream and leap back.

"I'll take that," he said, grabbing for the device, but I quickly threw it aside. I absolutely could not believe he survived that fall.

He had a pistol in a hip holster, and he pulled it out, pointed it at my chest, and fired. BOOM.

I fell backwards, landing on something soft, as pain exploded from my stomach to the rest of my body. I reached down to my stomach, and then raised my hand up to my face. It was absolutely covered with blood.

I saw Boyd stand over me and look down, smiling a smile that was meant to let me know he had won. He sniffed the air, and his fangs came out. "Mmm, smells delicious," he said. "Over the decades, ya get pretty damned used to shooting folks. And I just shot you in the muscle. The bullet has passed through your body, leaving you with two holes in you. You won't be able to move, but I didn't hit any of your organs. So, you'll be dying slowly as you bleed. The wounds are far too large for you to ever stop yourself from bleeding, not without some emergency surgery, and there ain't any doctor's `round here for miles."

"Boyd, no," I managed to say through the terrible pain. I realized that any wounds he had sustained from his fall were healing at an alarming pace. Soon there would be no record of my assault save for the blood on his skin.

I was so disturbed by the odd, unnerving feeling of blood leaving my body so quickly that I started to pass out.

Boyd slapped my face. "No ya don't. Yer not gonna get out of this that easily, buckaroo. I'm gonna make you suffer through the bleeding." He looked off to the side and smiled. "Ah, there's my recorder. Don't move, kid," he said, knowing full well I was incapable of moving.

I realized that the soft thing I had landed on was the bag Parker had packed for me. It must have fallen down here along with Boyd. My right hand found the zipper underneath my body, and plied it open. I searched through the contents, trying to find something useful, but only coming across the picnic items and some blankets.

"Looky what I found!" he said, coming back and hovering over me, shoving the device in my face to show me.

"Boyd, please stop this," I said. "I never wanted to hurt you. I just wanted to save my life. Is that so wrong? Why do you hate me so much, to want to kill me like this?"

"You have to die," he said. "That's the way it's gotta be, kid."

"Clearly, I'm going to die, but do you really have to kill me like this? I'd never wish for you to die such a death."

"Hey, I offered ya a kind death like the gentleman I was raised to be, and you shoved that offer in my face right before you knocked me off a goddamn waterfall. Do you remember that part, Jake?"

"That was back when I knew I had a shot at life, so I was willing to do anything to keep it. Now, I know I'm dying for sure. Nothing left to fight for. Would you please, please find it in your heart to do it to me with less pain?"

He didn't say anything, just looked at me defiantly.

"Please Boyd. What would Clara want you to do?"

"Aw, fuck, did ya have to mention her?" he asked, his resolve finally breaking. He pulled his revolver out of his holster and pointed the muzzle at my forehead. "Alright, ya want me to do ya fast?"

"No, Boyd, I want you to do me," I said. "Just like you offered to start with."

"You want me to fuck you while you bleed to death?" he asked.

"Yeah, and then bite me, and kill me that way," I said. "Why, do you think you won't be able to get hard?"

"Are you kidding me?" he asked me. "You're a fuckin' hot dude at it is, but when ya add in the fact that yer absolutely drenched with blood that smells like AB negative, and somehow tastes even better, well I'm already fuckin' hard. If anything, I'll burst my nuts way too fast for both of us to really enjoy it."

I looked down at his body, and I knew what he said was true: his dick was as hard as I'd ever seen it.

"Yeah, give it to me, Boyd! You know how I want to go out!"

Boyd leaned down and smelled the blood coming out of my stomach wound, his teeth looking more excited than ever. He started to lick his big tongue at the collecting blood there. "Holy fuck, I can't believe how good you taste," he said. "I just want to drink you all up." He started to actually jam his excited tongue inside my bullet wound, inadvertently making my pain swell.

"Please, Boyd, stick it in me," I said.

"Can't wait for Boyd's huge cock, can ya, my little bitch?"

"No."

"Well, yer about to get yer wish."

He climbed on top of me and lifted my legs so my calves were wrapped behind his lower back. He stared me straight in the eyes as he jammed his head inside me, hard. Even though he pushed so far into me he scratched my prostate, all I felt was pain at the rough and quick invasion he made on my insides.

"Ah yeah," he said. "Yer hole is still all lubed up for my cattle prod, just the way Boydie likes it."

He pushed all the way inside me, causing more pain as he slapped his balls hard against my tailbone. And the, moaning and groaning in delight, he started to fuck me hard and callously.

"Yeah, take Boydie's cock, take it all the way! Ya wanna get filled up with my millions of swimmers?"

"Boyd, kiss me."

"Yeah? I still got yer sweet, sweet blood in mouth, ya wanna taste it?"

"Yes."

He leaned his body on top of mine as he bent down to bring his mouth to mine. He started to kiss me, and I could taste the slightly metallic flavor of my own blood, which in no way tasted the least bit marvelous to me, I just could not fathom whatever it was the vampires claimed to taste.

As his tongue plowed through my mouth, I could see that he shut his eyes in pure lust. He moaned with pleasure as he continued to fuck my hole mercilessly.

"Oh fuck, this feels so, so good!" he said, breathless, and then he went back to kissing me.

With his eyes finally closed, he never saw me pull the loaded pistol I had finally found in the bag underneath me out of the opening and straight to his temple. I had already removed the safety long ago.

I pulled the trigger, and heard the deafening crack of the gun blast, saw light come out of the end of the muzzle. The bullet came out on the other side of his temple along with a portion of his pinkish red brains.

He stopped moving instantly, and his weight collapsed on top of me. This time, I would not be fooled by any fake death, I had to be positive he was gone, so I kept shooting until I had empted the entire revolver's bullets into the inside of his skull through the hole I made in his temple, completely tearing all his brain matter to shreds, until I was positive he was gone.

I spit his still extended tongue out of my mouth angrily. I tried to get his body off of me, but he was so heavy, and I found myself too profoundly weak, I thought there was nothing I could do.

But then the idea of dying with this body still crushing me, with his hard dick still impaling me, hit me, and I knew that I wasn't really free of him until he was off. I must have accessed some adrenaline that I didn't know I had left, because I was able to roll him off of me and the bag I was lying on, pulling his dick out of me in the process. He ended up limp on the ground nearby.

After being so brave for so long, my anxiety finally gave way and I started to cry. Not even because I knew I was about to die here alone, but because of the completely brutal acts that had been done to me, and even worse, that I had done back

I shut my eyes, wishing the pain would stop, wishing to just die already. I felt myself start to drift off into unconsciousness.

"Jake!"

I opened my eyes, and at first I thought Boyd was standing over me again, but that was just a nightmare. I could hear the voice was far off.

I looked up the cliff that held the waterfall, and looking down at me from the top was a face I was so, so happy to see. "Parker!" I yelled, my voice totally cracking with tears.

"I'm coming down!"

I saw him start to climb out over the edge of the cliff, over the waterfall. "Don't even think about jumping! Take the trail down!"

"Too slow!"

"Boyd fell from there, and almost died from his wounds," I said. "Parker, please don't risk it."

"There's a spot over here, straight down, where the water is deep enough for me to jump into safely," he said, pointing.

"Don't risk it! I'm not going to live anyway!"

But he didn't listen to me, he was already leaping off the cliff. I was terrified watching him fall through the air and splash into the water.

I thanked God as I saw him emerge out of the water, amazingly unhurt, just needing to re-fasten his prosthetic leg.

"You shouldn't have done that," I said as he ran over to me.

"Oh my lord," he said, as he saw my wound, tears in his eyes. "I knew I shouldn't have left you alone! I am so, so stupid!"

"He shot me through the stomach," I said. "I can feel myself bleeding to death, Parker. There's nothing you can do for me now, and I don't have much time."

"No, you're not going to die," he said. "I won't let you."

"Yes, I am," I said. "And I've accepted this."

"No, no, no," he said. He started looking around. "Are there any knives around? Anything sharp?"

"No, there isn't," I said. "I looked for something like that already, to no avail."

He kept searching around. "What about any guns?"

"I have my revolver, but it's out of bullets. Parker, please, listen to me. You have to tell my mother that I love her so much, and I'll be waiting for her in Heaven. Tell Jerry that we both know that we always argued because I would always try to make him change into what I thought was a better person, but that I should have just accepted who he was. Tell him I love him. Tell Ahmad thanks for being such an amazing friend."

"Don't say this, don't you say your goodbyes to me, my love," Parker said in between sobs. "You are not dying on me, do you understand?"

"Parker, come here. Come here and just hold me. I just want to be held by you while I die."

I felt Parker lean down and hug me, placing his head on my chest. Even though my sensations were going numb, it still felt amazing.

"Parker, I want to say I'm sorry. I didn't mean any of the atrocious things I said to you before. I was just angry and lashing out. The truth was, I agreed with everything you did."

"Thanks, my love."

"And I need to tell you, that I am totally, madly, in love with you," I said. "I know I never said the word because it scared me, because I've never said it to anyone before, not romantically. But I've never been absolutely head over heels in love before. I love you, Parker. I'm more sure of that than anything else in the whole world."

Parker started absolutely sobbing. "I love you more than anything too, my sweet."

"And you need to know that you are the best catch in this whole world. All single people should be beating down your door, and if they're not, they must be complete morons, and should be avoided anyway. You have to promise me that you'll never doubt for an instant how just much you're worth."

"I promise," he said. "Sweetie, you feel so cold."

"I can't feel that," I assured him. "All I can feel is bliss, dying in your loving arms. I wish so badly we had that eternity together, but this will have to do. We'll have an eternity someday in Heaven together, after it's your time. I'll be waiting for you there."

"No, no, no, you cannot, cannot die." I saw his eyes move away from mine. "Whoa, what's this?" He reached over and picked up a revolver.

"Oh, that was Boyd's, forgot about that one."

"It's loaded!" he said excitedly. He stood up off me and started to take off his clothes.

"Parker, what are you doing? Can't you just keep holding me?"

"I will soon, my love."

He quickly ripped off all his clothes, he did it so fast that he tore his whole suit to pieces in the process, leaving him totally naked, like I was.

As soon as he had his clothes free, he gently laid himself on top of me again. This time, it did feel even sweeter, having his perfect naked body against mine, the body of the man I totally loved.

"Oh, this is a sweet way to die," I said.

"Yes, it is."

He grabbed the revolver and lifted it towards us. At first, I thought he was going to shoot me in the head, to put me out of my pain. But then the gun moved past my body and up to his. I realized he was intending to shoot himself.

"My love, no!" I said. "I can't die in peace if you're killing yourself. You need to go on without me."

"Don't speak, love," he said.

He pulled the trigger, and this time the blast was so quiet sounding, I wondered if it really went off. But I saw a bullet enter Parker's chest. He lowered the gun, shot again into his upper stomach, then lowered it some more, shooting into his lower stomach a couple times.

My contentment turned into panicked anger as he dropped the gun, and plastered his wounded body on top of mine. He put his strong arms around my body and hugged me tightly, shutting his eyes as I felt his blood splatter all over me.

I could feel my body start to tingle as his blood entered the wound in my stomach. I figured this was just an odd reaction to the blood loss, but then suddenly, the pain came bursting back, all numbness leaving my body. I could feel the wound at the bottom of my back react similarly when his blood made its way through my body and hit me there as well.

"Vampire blood heals, my love," he said groggily.

I pushed him back and looked down at my stomach wound. I wiped the blood away, and where the wound should have been there was just healed skin. I could feel the hole in my back had healed similarly.

"See? I told you I you weren't going to die. Not as long as I could find a way to injure myself. You can take back that `I love you' now, if you wish, my dear. I won't hold it against you."

Then he lost consciousness with a smile on his face.

I realized all my pain was gone, and it was like I was as good as new. I tried to sit up, but the weakness of blood loss sank in, and I knew that Parker had fixed my wound, but hadn't been able to cure the missing blood.

"Parker, please tell me you didn't just waste all your blood healing me when I'm never going to make it out of this canyon alive," I said.

He was just lying there, and a quick pulse check told me his heart was barely beating. I knew it was because he too was suffering from bloodloss. Would I be able to save his life if I gave him my blood?

His fangs weren't out, and there were no more bullets left, and no way for me to cut myself open. But there was so, so much of my blood still pooled into the canvas back beneath me, I was totally wet with the stuff all over my back and butt.

I grabbed some of the blood from behind me in my fingers, then put them in Parker's mouth, wiping the blood onto his tongue. No response.

I scooped up more blood and put it in his mouth, but again, nothing. I wasn't getting him to it quickly enough, and I could see I was losing him.

I set him on his back and opened his mouth, pulling his tongue out. Then I climbed over his body, and started to rub by bloody back over his open mouth, but still nothing

I figured it was all a lost cause when I finally felt his tongue move, licking against my back under its own volition. Then I felt so, so pleased when I felt his fangs come out. He wrapped his naked arms around my body as he licked and licked at my back.

Only then did he regain consciousness. "What am I doing?" he asked, pulling his tongue away.

"You need my blood to live," I said.

"I've fine dying for you, my love," he said.

"But I've lost too much blood to even crawl anywhere," I said. "I'll be dead in a couple hours."

"Oh, sweetie, I had no idea you had lost that much."

"You should take my blood to give you enough strength to survive your own blood loss, Parker. Bite me, and live."

"I will not kill you to save myself. Never, ever would I do that."

"Then take my blood so that you can carry me out of here, because I can't make it on my own. Please, bite me."

"I won't take another drop from you, my love. It might kill you."

"Well then, at least lick up the blood I still have on my back," I said. "It's not doing me any good, anyhow."

"Yes, alright, that'll work."

I felt him licking every inch of my back with his gentle tongue. After he was done with that, he starting licking the blood off my butt as well.

After he had licked up my crack, he said, "Alright, I've gotten all of it, my love."

"How do you feel?"

"Much, much better, thank you.

"Thank the Lord," I said. "Because I'm just about hitting the wall here."

With that, I feel into a spell of dizziness, and passed out.

When I woke up, I opened my eyes, and realized I was sitting up, riding a horse. I felt so confused that I almost jumped before calming myself down.

I realized, yes, I was on Patches, riding in the front of the saddle. Behind me, I felt the warm, muscled body of Parker against my naked back. Parker was using his legs to steer Patches, not the reins. He used his arms to hold me tightly against his body as we rode. He was leaning back in the saddle, making his upper body a sort of comfortable recliner for my sleeping self.

We were both still naked; I guessed our ripped up clothes weren't salvageable. But Parker had wrapped the picnic blanket around both of us, trying to keep me warm. Actually, the contact his naked front was making against the naked back of my skin was warming me a whole lot more than the blanket in front of me.

I felt happily content in my love's sweet embrace, and I fell asleep again from weakness.

The next time I awoke, I was lying on my back in our bed in our new apartment in Mareshead, and it was clearly night.

"Della, he's waking up, it's working!"

"Of course it is, I told you as much, didn't I?"

I saw Parker's sweet face looking into mine. "Oh, Della, you don't know how good it is to see his beautiful brown eyes again. Sweetie, can you hear me?"

"Mmm, yes," I said. "I feel much better."

His eyes started to mist up with happiness. "I'm so, so glad, my love."

"Alright, give the boy some room to breathe, for petessake!" Della commanded. "You've been staring at his face for who knows how long. And look what you done now, Parker. You've tangled up your IV. Now, when I agreed to let you stay in the same bed as Jake here, it was on the agreement that you would keep your distance. The last thing I need is two patients all tangled up together."

She pushed Parker away from me, to the left side of our bed. "Alright, Aunt Della, you don't have to get physical with me."

As my vision cleared further, I could see I was in the right side of our shared bed, the covers pulled to about my waist. I could feel that I was completely naked under those blankets. I was hooked up to medical equipment that had been moved into our room, heart and breathing monitors, it seemed. And I had two IVs in both my arms, but instead of water, I was being given blood.

"Am I getting a transfusion?" I asked.

"That's right, sweetie," Parker said to me. "I knew there wasn't any AB negative in Mareshead, and was worried your body would reject anything else."

"I told him your body would be fine with the O negative, and it has. Living in the Territory, this isn't exactly the first time I had to give someone a transfusion to save `em from blood loss."

Looking over at Parker, I could see that he was also naked with the covers pulled up to his waist, and he had IVs of his own going into his arms. "Vampires can get transfusions too?" I asked.

"They can," Della said. "When Parker got here, both you and him were on death's door."

"Even though I gave him my own blood?" I asked.

"If a fanged vampire looses too much blood, it's true that drinking living blood will help, to some extant. But only so much. If a vampire has lost too much blood, like Parker did, the effects will wear off after a bit, and the only way to save their life will be to give them a blood transfusion."

"Wow, I can't believe how much healthier Parker looks."

"Ya should've seen the kid when he got here," she said, her voice quivering suddenly. "He was so adamant on saving your life, he almost died carrying you to me," she said.

"Della, he doesn't need to know the details," Parker said, embarrassed.

I grabbed Parker's hand, intertwined my fingers with his and looked deep into his gorgeous green eyes. "I owe you everything. I love you, so much."

"It was well worth the effort," he said. "I love you too, sweetie."

"I hope you don't mind, Jake, if I treated him first. He looked most in danger."

"No, not at all."

"I certainly minded," Parker said. "You knew I wanted you to treat Jake first."

"Well, good for me it's hard to be sore at the woman who just saved both your lives," Della snapped back.

I put a hand to my head. "Mmm, I have the worst headache."

"That's from dehydration," Della said. "After we finish the transfusion, you should feel much better. And after it's complete, I'm going to hook you up to a normal fluid line for a while."

"Thanks so much, Della."

"You're welcome."

"Mmm, I do not feel good," I said, yawning. "I know you've been watching me, waiting for me to wake-up. Would you mind terribly if I go back to sleep? I feel weak, and the whole IV thing is kind of disturbing me."

"Why is that?" Della asked.

"Because I kind of have a thing with needles. Especially ones that are going into my own body."

"Huh. So, you have a problem being poked with a little needle, yet you getting shot in the stomach, that was just peachy?" she teased me.

"No, I had a huge problem with getting shot too."

"Sweetie, go ahead and go back to sleep," Parker told me.

"Do you promise not to watch me while I sleep?"

"Maybe."

"I'll make sure he doesn't," Della said.

"Thanks again, Della."

And as soon as I shut my eyes, I was asleep.

I don't normally have vivid dreams, but that night I dreamt clearly of Boyd. With him on top of me, inside me, him kissing me, and me gripping the gun in my hand. My heart racing out of control.

When I woke up, the dream had turned into reality, and I could feel the weight of Boyd's naked body still on top of me, his lips at my face. I desperately clawed and hit at his chest and face, trying to get him away from me, out of me.

"Whoa, I'm sorry, sweetie, I'm sorry."

I opened my eyes, and realized I was hitting Parker, and he quickly moved from being on top of me to the side of the bed. He hadn't been inside me, he wasn't even hard. It had just been a nightmare.

"Parker!"

"I'm sorry, my sweet," he said. "You looked like you were having an awful nightmare, so I came over to hold you close and wake you with a kiss. I can't stand the idea of you being upset, either sleeping or awake. But I shouldn't have overstepped my boundaries, clearly. I invaded your personal space, and I'm sorry."

He moved all the way to the other side of the bed from me, and I sadly realized I had probably just stopped him from cuddling with me in bed ever again.

"Oh, Parker, that is so sweet that you would try to save me from my nightmares. I'm glad you woke me up, and I'm sorry I hit you, I thought you were Boyd. Parker, I really don't mind you physically comforting me while I sleep. I think that's very sweet of you."

I reached over to my left and jumped into his arms, noticing that neither one of us had IVs in anymore, and we were definitely alone again. I kissed him deeply as I wrapped my arms around his gorgeous body.

"Are you sure you want to be kissing me, so soon after having that nightmare? We can cool it off for now."

"I'm sure," I said, as I pulled him back on top of me and started pushing my dick against his.

He let go of the hesitation, and started kissing me back.

Just then, I pushed him off me and sat up in a panic. "Oh God no!"

"Sweetie, I told you it was too soon from me to be touching you."

"No, no, Parker. The recording device. Oh no, I left it there like an idiot. Next to Boyd's body." I started to get up. "I have to go back there, before someone finds it."

"Sweetie, do you mean this?" Parker grabbed something from the nightstand on his side of the bed, and showed it to me.

"Yes!"

"I grabbed it before we left the scene," he said.

"Oh, Parker, I LOVE you! We need to destroy it. I'll try to find something I can crush it with."

"I can do that," he said.

I watched as he turned his right hand to steel, and then obliterated the thing in his closed fist, laying the broken bits aside.

"Parker, you are amazing."

Parker's hand turned back to flesh, and he used it to clasp mine. "Sweetie, do you want to talk about what happened after I idiotically left you alone? You don't have to if you'd rather not tell me, but it might help your nightmares if you just let it all out."

"I will if you promise to hold me while I tell you."

"Are you sure that won't bother you?"

"Yes. I need to feel you intimately."

I pulled his naked body back on top of mine, our dicks touching again, and he set the right side of his face just to the left of my head on the pillow, looking at me. He started to stroke my cheek and face lovingly with his left hand.

I started with Boyd's surprise arrival in the canyon.

Parker shook his head. "He must have followed us in," he said. "I was the only one who knew about that place. He followed us, and he waited for me to leave before he confronted you. Oh, I could kill myself for leaving you. He would have never come forward if I was there, he knew I was older and stronger than him."

"It's not your fault, Parker. I was the one who emotionally forced you to leave."

I told him about how Boyd got me to confirm how my engagement had been faked, and then revealed that he had a wire on him, and let me know he was going straight to Jericho.

"What cold-blooded deviousness!" Parker said. "What did you do?"

"I lied and told him I still had a copy of Syd's video," I said. "Parker, I HATE lying. I hated lying when I knew I started having sexual feelings towards men, but didn't tell my mother. I hated lying when I had to tell everyone I was engaged to Syd. And I hated lying to Boyd."

"I know, I hate lying as well, but sometimes it's the only way to protect oneself."

"Honestly, I would rather protect myself with a gun than I would with a lie. But I didn't have any gun, and I knew if he walked out of there with the recording, that would be it. I'd be dead. Something snapped in me, Parker. I knew I was willing to do anything to survive, even betray my personal values like not lying."

Parker rubbed my cheeks with his gentle hand. "If you hadn't lied to protect yourself, I wouldn't be holding you right now. You would have died. So, I'm so very proud that you did whatever you needed to do."

"It gets so much worse," I said, my voice quivering. "He saw through my lies, and told me he'd be killing me right then. He made me chose between dying slowly and painfully, or die getting screwed by him."

"Oh my lord, I cannot believe the depth of depravity in this man. Sweetie, you must have been terrified."

"Now, honestly, if I had to choose between those two fates, I'd pick the slow and painful death, just so I could avoid giving Boyd the self-satisfaction of killing me in that way."

"So would I, no contest."

"But I wasn't ready to be resigned to dying yet," I said. "I figured I had a shot in taking the recording device out. I just needed to get close to him. So I pretended to choose the option where he screws me, and he ripped off my clothes and kissed me. I had to act like I was into him, Parker, in order to get into his pants, where he had stashed the gadget."

"Oh no, my sweet."

"Now, I just told you I hate lying to people. But I hate lying even more when it's sexual in nature. Having to pretend I was interesting in Syd sexually was absolutely humiliating. And having to betray myself sexually in order to take down Boyd was so, so awful."

"Oh, sweetie, I can't even begin to imagine how used you must feel."

I told him about throwing the device in the stream, and about him beating me up me and Patches, and how I had swam in and knocked that boulder loose when he was retrieving his lost component.

"Oh, I'm so proud of you," he said.

"I'm sorry I ruined the infinity pool, Parker."

"Are you kidding? That doesn't matter to me, my love. The only thing that matters is that you're safe."

I told him how I walked down the hill and pulled the device out of hand, but he woke up and shot me, wanting me to bleed to death painfully and slowly.

"That slimeball. If he wasn't dead already when I got there, I would have killed him, for doing what he did to you."

"How did you get all the blood and dirt off my body?"

"I gave us both baths, my sweet. I knew you'd want to be clean when you woke up."

"Oh, that's so true."

"How did you manage to kill him?"

"It's all thanks to you packing a revolver in my bag. I found it, and knew if I could get him to come close, I could kill him, take him with me. This is the worst part."

I started to let my tears loose, and he wiped them off my cheeks. "Oh, Jake, I can't believe it could possibly get worse."

"I had to lie again, and coerce him into thinking I wanted him to top me. I was hoping he would kiss me before he put himself in, Parker, but he didn't. He forced himself inside me, and it was one of the worst feelings of my life."

"Oh, sweetie."

"And then he kissed me finally, and then I pulled the trigger. I had to shoot him over and over to make sure he was dead. It was so, so gross, it makes me feel sick just remembering it."

"Sweetie, no one should have to go through anything like what you just did, ever. You are unbelievably strong."

I kept on crying, shaking my head. "I feel like I've cheated on you, Parker."

"No, no, no. Don't even say that. I don't care if you led him into the sex or not, it was the only way to save yourself after the situation he put you into. Sweetie, you didn't cheat on me. You were raped. And it's brought me to tears, thinking about what happened to you." And I could see him crying along with me.

"Yes, that's it exactly," I said. "I didn't want to use that word. I was afraid of it. But he raped me, and I killed him for it. Parker, he's the first person I've ever killed."

"You know he deserved it."

"I know he did. But knowing the person deserves to die doesn't make it any easier to handle the idea that it was you who killed them."

"Yes it does, believe me. But my dear, I know what you mean. Killing someone is a messy, ugly business, and its best to avoid if at all possible. For you, sadly, it was necessary."

"Thanks for making me tell you about all this, Parker. I already feel loads better."

"Well, what you just went through, this is not something you can expect to process and deal with emotionally in the course of one evening. Whatever you need from me, I'm here for you. If you want me to hold you and listen to your feelings, that's easy. If you want me to leave you alone and not touch you, that's totally understandable as well."

"Wait, why are you talking as if we have a future? I thought you were leaving me."

"I was planning to, but the thought of something happening to you when I'm not there to help you scares me to death. So, I'm prepared to offer you a new deal."

"Which is?"

"I know you've already missed out on this semester. So, I'm asking you to start school again in the fall, start fresh. From now until then, I'm yours. Your partner. We can tour the world together, go wherever you want to go."

"And what happens when I start school in the fall?" I asked.

"Then, we move into the same scenario that I briefed you on in the canyon. I'll leave, and let you live your life as you should somewhere way down the line, if you feel you want to rekindle our relationship, I'll be there. What do you say?"

"I don't like it," I said. "But if it's a choice between this or breaking up now, I'll chose this. You know that the next half year will make it that much harder to leave you in September, don't you?"

"Especially so for me," he said. "Thankfully, we are both strong men, capable of doing the right thing even if it feels so wrong."

"Well, let's not cross that bridge until we come to it."

"That's right, my love. Until then, I am all yours, to do as you please with. Oh, I almost forgot." He jumped out of bed, and walked out of the room.

"Wow, I never really understood that proverb about being sad to see someone leave, but loving watching them go, until I saw you walking naked away from me," I said, getting a good eyeful of his sexy rear.

His neatly cut, sandy blonde hair on the back of his head, the back of his wide neck, blending into his thick traps. The back of his shoulders and those round tris of his on the back of his arms. His broad lats, covered with muscled ridges. His strong, tapered lower-back, his perfectly taut bubble butt, so powerful and manly. His thick thighs, just and rigged with muscle as the rest of him, and the large calf muscle his good leg. Even his false leg looked attractive to me. As he walked, I could see his soft dick and balls hanging through his legs.

"Oh, I know that dichotomy all too well from watching you walk away from me, naked or clothed," he said. "I appreciate the view much more than you, I'm sure. After all, you're not even a top like I am."

He came back a few moments later with a tray of food.

"Oh, babe, I'm not that hungry. Thanks though."

"Nope, you need to eat this anyway," he said. "In order to replenish some of your lost blood."

"Doctor Della's orders?"

"My orders."

The tray had a neatly presented plate of food on it, and a glass of water. "Steak, beets, and spinach? Not sure this is going to win any culinary accolades."

"That's beside the point," he said. "All of those foods are high in iron. Which is exactly what you need right now."

I started cutting into the steak. "Did you eat already?"

He smiled. "Do you think Della would have ever left me alone without making sure I ate a similar meal, as well as drinking two packets of blood?"

"Oh, babe, I told you, I wanted be your one and only source of blood," I said as I continued to eat the food on my plate.

"If you think I'm going to bite you before you're completely back to normal again, you don't know me at all," he said, getting on top of the covers beside me, laying on his side with his elbow in the mattress and his fist holding up his face as he looked at me. "You were just shot in the stomach, and almost bled to death. The last thing you need to worry about it making sure your vampire boyfriend gets his daily blood."

"I'm already feeling loads better," I said. "I don't see why I won't be able to have you feed from me tomorrow."

"We'll see," he said.

I finished the glass of water last, and he got up on his knees in bed beside me. "Are you still hungry? Is there anything else I can get you, my sweet?"

"Yes, actually," I said.

"Anything you wish to have, I will find a way to get."

I set down my food try on the nightstand, and looked over at Parker. "What I wish is for you to stay just like that," I said. "And just let me admire you."

"In this position, you mean?" he asked, obviously not understanding the allure his sexy body had over me.

"Yes, just like that." I got out from under the covers, got close to him. "Goodness, you are so beautiful, babe. I just cannot fathom you're even in my life, let alone, that you belong to me."

"Mmm, you know how to melt a man's heart, my love."

"I'm not saying it for your benefit. I'm just being totally honest about my feelings. Just stay exactly like that and let me worship your body."

"Sweetie, I'm going to get erect real fast with you doing this to me. Is that okay?"

"No, I want to see you when you're soft," I said. "Just keep talking to me, and try not to think about what I'm doing."

"Alright."

I got on my knees too, at his level. I reached out my hands and touched his round, muscled pecs. I loved the feeling of the blonde fur between my fingers. There was so much meat here, it was impossible to feel bone. I rubbed my hand down the cleft his two pecs made down the middle of his chest, and only there could I feel his bone. I moved my face in, and licked along the sharp cleft the underside of his pecs made with the top of his abs, feeling that sharp line against my tongue. I rubbed over his nipples carefully with my fingertips, feeling every little bit of those pink darlings, rubbing the nubs in between my thumbs and forefingers. I could feel myself getting hard as I did this.

"I should be worshiping your body," he said, making a movement towards me. He always wanted to make my physical pleasure the focus of our activities. It was his way, to always be concerned with me.

"Nope, you just stay as you are, and don't touch me. That's an order. I want to do the touching for now."

I moved my hands away from his chest, up to his gorgeous shoulders, and started massaging those.

"Sweetie, where do you think you'd like to go to school?" he asked, clearly trying to keep himself soft with a conversation not the least bit sexual.

"MIT sounds great," I said as I moved my roving hands to his muscular, masculine upper arms. His arms were at his sides, but I could see his straight, blonde pit hairs just sticking out of the crevasse his arms made with his chest, which I absolutely delighted in playing with between my fingers. "But I doubt I'll be able to transfer there, given me failing my Engineering class last semester."

"Well, I may have pulled a few strings," he said. "I have a chemistry connection there with some clout. He's agreed to get you in as a new freshman in the fall, meaning you won't be able to transfer any credits you had from Berkeley. It would be a fresh start. He just wants to meet you first, interview you, give you some tests, perhaps."

"Wow, babe, that was so sweet of you to do. When did you talk to him?" I moved my hands to his huge, round bis, so powerful looking even though he was not the least bit flexed. Ran my fingertips over the veins that ran over those knotted muscles.

"Earlier this evening," he said.

"But babe, I don't ever want to be in a university knowing that I'm only there because my boyfriend had connections," I said as I rubbed his forearms, twisting his short, wiry blonde hairs there in my hands. "I want to do it on my own steam."

"No, no, no, it's not like that at all," he said. "I told him about your high GPA and test scores, your excellent high school career. He told me that you were just the type of student that would have gotten you into the school, had you applied."

"Wow, I guess I should have applied," I said, moving my hands to his gorgeous abs. Tracing my fingers around every hard section of his 8-pack. Then moving my hands over his hard-lined obliques. "I had my heart set on San Francisco, I suppose." His blonde treasure trail was looking so adorable, I actually had to lean and kiss/lick its entire length.

"He wants to meet you, just to make sure you're smart enough for MIT, which I already know you are. But, listen to me. All he's doing is getting you in. He has no control over the school of Engineering. So, if you flunk your engineering classes or any other classes for that matter, you're out."

"Babe, you haven't seen me at school. I'm a study-aholic. If I ever do poorly in class, I promise you, it won't be for lack of trying."

He was on his knees, but his butt wasn't resting on his feet or on the bed, which meant his thighs were actually flexed, as they were holding the rest of him up. Which meant all the thigh muscles that I loved were totally popping, veins aplenty. I used my hands to rub over the beautiful muscles of those flexed upper legs.

"I already knew that," he said with a smile. "Alright, then we really need to go to Boston as soon as possible, to confirm your transfer. And then when we're done there, you can pick the rest of our destinations until we have to back in September. Anywhere in the world, price is no concern when you're a Logan."

"Sounds amazing," I said, raising my hands until they were on those beautiful hips of his, running the tip of my tongue along that V-line in between his lower abs and his hip-muscles. "We can leave tomorrow, as far as I'm concerned. I'll announce the end of my engagement to Syd first thing in the morning."

"Excellent. I have a bunch of packing to do. I'll need to pack everything I'll need from Annie's room and the lab. But I'll be ready to go by late morning, if I start early enough. Ah, Boston. The last time I was there it was the end of the century."

"The nineties?" I asked as I started to lick away at his gorgeous blonde bush, loving the masculine, clean taste of his pubes in my mouth.

"Eighteen nineties, yes."

I laughed. "I can't believe how old you are, Parker." I started to take in his soft dick, which even though he was on his knees, still hung so low that it ran along the full length of his thighs, with the head resting on the blankets below. I traced a finger along a tasty vein that ran down the base of his astoundingly thick member, loving the feel of his soft, supple skin there.

"I'm young at heart," he joked. "You laugh, but just wait a little bit, my love. Soon you'll be so old, the centuries will all be running together."

"We'll see." I saw his ballsack squeezing out behind the edges of his thick base, and I was drawn to it. I reached around his dick, and got my hands on his warm, wrinkled scrotum, which I teased delightfully.

"Ooo, I want you to meet some friends of mine in Boston, if I can still find them. I think they'll be able to help us teach you about what you are. It's my goal to make sure you can handle yourself by September, should any supernatural forces ever intervene. After all, you are the gifted One. Let's bring these gifts to the surface, so no one can ever physically overpower you the way they do now."

"Sound's good," I said, as I moved my hands from his balls back to his dick, this time starting about halfway down the thing. I massaged my way down this incredible trunk, finally getting to his warm, pinkish-tan dickhead, which was somehow even fatter than the rest of the shaft, and I made love to the thing with my hands.

"And speaking of all that, I was worried that you didn't know Boyd might have survived the fall he sustained, or that vampire blood heals. Those are all things I had assumed you would have known by now. So, as soon as we set off, my first task is going to be going over every piece of knowledge I have of anything supernatural. I always say, nothing can make you safer than possessing superior knowledge to your enemies."

"Are we allowed to have a little fun in Boston too? I've never been to the northeast, you know." I took my hands off his head, and used my right hand to move the massive dick back and forth like a pendulum between his thighs, amazed at its weight.

"Yes," he said. "I'll show you all the significant landmarks there that were crucial to the birth of our nation. I hope they all still stand. And I know you love sports. I used to absolutely love going to baseball games in Boston. Do they still have baseball?"

"Are you serious?"

"Yes."

"Yes, they have baseball."

"Excellent, I'll take you to some games while we're there."

"Umm, it's not exactly the right time of year for that one," I said. I couldn't take it anymore; I climbed in between his thighs feet first, my back on the bed, sliding my body under him until my face was directly under his dick. Of course, this meant that the bottom half of huge unit was sprawled against me from my nose down to my chin, and I looked up, getting a whole new angle of the top half of his monster dick disappearing into his blonde bush, and his ridged abs and huge pecs sticking out above that. "How about basketball?"

"Yes, splendid! What's basketball?"

"Wow," I said. I started to lick my tongue up and down his veiny shaft, taking in his sweet taste. "Okay, so if it's your goal to teach me everything you know about vampires, it's my job to teach you everything you've missed in modern society."

"Alright," he said. "I'd love that."

"Starting with your clothes, Parker," I said. I licked my way around his head, tasting every inch of his rim of his mushroom. I tasted his pissslit.

"All my suits? What about them?"

"They're quite dated," I said. "I think they're endearing. Other people might think you look strange. Might think you're a bit odd."

"That's just fine, I've been dealing with people thinking that I'm odd here for years and years," he said. "I like my clothes, and if you're not embarrassed to be seen with me, I'll continue to wear them."

"You would never, ever embarrass me, Parker."

"Should I rent us a cabin in a train to Boston, then?"

"That sounds romantic, but is that even possible?"

"Oh, right, everyone is going by those new jet-planes nowadays, aren't they?"

I laughed. "Oh my, do I ever have a lot of work to do with catching you up to speed," I said, thinking his lack of knowledge was endearing, rather than annoying. . I took his whole dickhead into my mouth, and started to suck earnestly on the larger than an egg chunk of meat.

"Um, sweetie, it's been total torture trying not to get erect during all of this, but if you keep doing that, I'm going to lose the battle."

"I don't care," I said, then moved my lips up his shaft. I could feel his dick start to pump itself alive in my mouth, which turned me on enormously. My goodness, I loved the way he tasted.

"Oh, my love, that feels so, so good." He moaned in pleasure. "But you don't want to do this to me right now. Not when you went through so much today. The last thing you need right now is to give your boyfriend oral love."

I didn't answer him, I just kept sucking, and as I did my work, I felt his dick harden completely, sticking up, towards me. Suddenly I had gone from a manageably flexible tube to steel rod inside me, thicker and longer than ever. If it had been anyone else, I would have felt breathless and trapped, but with Parker, I absolutely loved it.

"Sweetie, I don't think this is right," he said, but I kept on sucking. "You know that just being with you makes me happy beyond words. I don't need you to pleasure me in order to keep me so in love with you."

I pulled off him and crawled out from between his thighs. "Did I do a good job?" I asked.

"Oh, sweetie, that was incredible. Words cannot describe how good you are at that. The best I've ever had, by far. You don't know how moving it is to look down at the man I love making me feel so absolutely incredible."

I smiled. "It's good for me too," I said. "I love pleasuring the man I love."

"Yes, it was amazing, but let's just go to bed now, okay, sweetie?"

"Afraid not, babe," I said. I laid on my stomach, with my head right at his dick level, and I took the head in my mouth again, smiling.

"Oh, sweetie, this feels wrong."

I pulled off him, squeezing a huge glob of precum all over my chin as I looked into his eyes. "You said I needed foods high in iron, right? I'm just trying to get my iron the sweetest way I know how." I stuck my mouth around him again.

"Sweetie, I think you're mistaken," Parker said. "Semen does not contain much iron to speak of. You're probably mistaking it for zinc. If you want more iron, I have more beets in the kitchen I could procure."

"I don't want anymore beets, babe," I said. "What else does semen have in it besides zinc?" I started sucking again.

"Well, um..." I could tell with the pleasure I was giving him, it was hard for Parker to think of anything else. Then, it came to him. "There's citric acid," he started saying, in between groans. "Amino acids. Proteins. Selenium. Vitamin C. Fructose. Phosphorylvholin." He groaned as I went farther than I had before with my mouth. "And, uh, and potassium."

I pulled off him. "It all sounds very healthy," I said. "I'm sure it's just what I need right now. Tell me, are there any other health benefits?"

As I sucked him some more, he put his hands on head, and once again I marveled at how such masculine, strong hands could be so gentle. I felt his fingers lovingly massage the back of my head, and a quick glance up at his face showed me his eyes were shut, his mouth open in a look of pure pleasure. I rubbed my hands over his muscled thighs, then cupped his strong buttocks.

"Yes," he said breathlessly. "It's considered to help prevent cancer, which really won't matter to you. And it's known to help prevent depression. And increase one's libido, as it contains a bunch of testosterone."

"Sounds just what I need right now," I said. "And I've noticed that you have big loads, babe. I'll be able to get a whole lot of nutrients from just one of your loads."

I started to suck again, and he said, "It's true, vampires on average produce twice as much semen as a human male, or four milliliters per load. I've always believed that it's evolution's way of compensating for the fact that vampires aren't able to reproduce until they're around a century of age. More semen means more likelihood of impregnation during unprotected intercourse, and that means vampires that have become fertile are far more likely to impregnate women at a much faster pace than typical men, giving them more chance to spread their genes. And I'm definitely above average on the vampire scale of semen volume, which sounds like more of a blessing than it really is. Annie refused to perform oral all together, and I was totally fine with that. Other partners have performed it, but none of them ever wanted to taste or consume my actual semen, which I understood. There's just too much of it for anyone to drink. And I've noticed ever since I started being around you, my semen quanitity has increased significantly more than it ever has. I attribute this to your presence putting me in a constant state of arousal, even if that arousal has been entirely subconscious."

He wasn't going to thrust into me, so I bopped my head up and down on his monster, not able to get it all in without choking, so being content with going two thirds of the way. I moved my right hand down to his balls and twisted him there.

"Oh, lord, your mouth feels like magic, my love," he said, leaning over and moving his strong hands from the back of my head to my bare back, rubbing me passionately, and I knew him well enough to know that he was trying desperately to somehow return the incredible pleasure I was creating for him through the love of his hands.

I moved both my hands to his butt again, and grabbed onto each of his cheeks. I pulled them towards me, trying to get him to thrust into me, but he looked down at me and shook his head.

"No, sweetie, I don't want to choke you. I'm too big for that."

I looked up at him defiantly and shook my head. I pulled his butt again. And again, and again.

"Alright, alright my love," he finally relented. "If it's thrusts you want, that's what you'll get. But I'm not going all the way in, and I'm going to take this slow. I don't want to hurt you."

He put his hands on the back of my head again, holding it in place. And he locked his beefy forearms against the side of my head.

"Alright, my love, here it comes," he said. Using his arms to anchor me in place, he started, very slowly, to push himself inside my waiting mouth. "Oh my lord, your lovely mouth feels like heaven, my angel."

I loved every second of it, and I moaned in delight.

He pulled out slowly quickly until just the tip of his bloated dickhead was in my mouth, and then pushed into me again slowly. He started to develop a slow rhythm as he continued to pump me.

I could taste precum leaking, and it set me off even more. I grabbed his butt and pulled it towards me, wanting him to go faster than he currently was at his smooth, sleepy pace.

He shook his head. "No, sweetie, I don't want to hurt you."

I shook my head, and then pulled him with all my might towards me.

"Alright, alright, I'll let you set the pace, sweetie. Just please don't have me go too fast for the sake of my pleasure, because I can't imagine how you can give me more pleasure than you are right now."

I used my hands on his butt to speed up the rhythm of his hips, not going in any deeper, just moving back and forth at a quickening pace.

"Oh god!" Parker called out. "Okay, I was wrong, that right there definitely just gave me a whole new level of pleasure, my love. You are blessedly good at this!"

I turned me on to feel his masculine, powerful buttocks flex rhythmically as he plowed towards me, and I could feel hot sweat on his butt and legs.

I looked up, and he was looking down at me with open eyes, pure adoration of his face as I did this to him. I could tell how much pleasure I was bringing to him, and it made me proud.

I wanted to do one last thing. As he plowed as far into me as he would go, with his dick about two-thirds inside me, I forced him to go further down, finding a way to open up my throat and stop myself from choking that I never even knew I had, that I knew came from the fact that I absolutely love this man, and absolutely wanted to devour him.

"No, don't do that, my love. I'll break your jaw!"

He tried to pull out, but I looked up into his eyes defiantly as I got his dick all the way inside my mouth. I felt my nose nestle into Parker's sweaty blonde pubes, and I loved his smell, loved the manly smell of my partner. I felt his huge, sweaty balls kiss my lower lip and chin.

"Oh god!" Parker yelled, totally breathless, sweat dripping down his brow and face. "Oh my god, this is, this is beyond measure."

I held my mouth in place, his dick into me up to the hilt, and I looked up at his eyes with absolute love.

He used his hands to rub my face and head sweetly, his utmost devotion to me pouring out through every gesture, and I knew he absolutely worshipped me for giving him so much bliss. "Oh, my sweet, sweet love, you're going to make me summon my fluids, I can't possibly hold it back any longer, not with what you are doing to me."

I felt him pulling out of me, and I tried to shake my head.

"No, sweetie, I need to pull out, I'm going to erupt, and it's not going to be any tolerable quantity. Besides, all my partners were never afraid to tell me how bad semen tastes. You'd think it would be sweeter, with all the fructose. I know a lot of people are repulsed by it because they think it looks and smells like ammonia, and there's a good reason for that. The environment inside the vaginal opening is a highly toxic environment for the sperm, very acidic. The sperm cells would be destroyed in this environment if the male didn't produce semen to have base elements. The base neutralizes the harmful acids, allowing the sperm cells to survive."

I pulled a few inches back.

"Yes, sweetie, just take your mouth off before it gets dangerous," Parker said.

But instead, I plunged back down all the way to the hilt rapidly. Where the last time his balls had kissed me, this time they slapped my chin. I pulled back a few inches again, and then slammed my way home. I started picking up a rhythm.

"Oh god, no sweetie, don't do that, that's going to put me over the edge."

But I kept at it, moving as fast as I could.

"Oh no, here it comes! Please remove yourself while you still can, my sweet!"

Parker pushed me off of him, and though I tried to hold on, he was much stronger. I was so disappointed when he pushed my face away from his dick, and I had to sit there in agony, watching his orgasm hit him.

He opened his sexy mouth and shut his eyes, then started bucking his hips into thin air. He cried out as the first massive shot tore out of his pissslit and splattered all over my chest.

And the second shot came shooting out, just as large and powerful as the first, and that one reached all the way to my face, landing on my lips.

"Oh, sorry, my sweet."

I licked my lips, lavinshing in the sweet flavor of his wonderful cum.

"No, no, don't lick it."

"Parker, it taste's incredible. It taste's like the man I love, and I want more."

"My sweet, you make me fall in love with you more with every word that comes out of your mouth."

"I'm taking the rest."

I grabbed his dick and aimed it towards my face.

"Don't, sweetie, it'll overpower you."

"No, it won't!"

I felt a load splatter from his dick a couple feet to my open mouth, and I caught it right on my tongue, loving it.

"Holy crap, babe, your cum sets me on fire. Please, please let me have the rest."

"Are you sure, sweetie?"

"YES!"

"Alright."

He let go of me, and I was free to close the distance between us at last. I got my lips around his wondrous dickhead just before it shot out another burst.

I eagerly milked his mushroom tip in my mouth, sucking out a huge amount of liquid until my mouth was absolutely full of the stuff and I was sure his load had finished. And then I excitedly swallowed all of it down all at once, letting it overpower my gullet, loving its silkiness.

Only then did I notice that while he was fighting me off, he had managed to spray a good amount of semen all over his chest and stomach. I finished licking his dick clean, and then I shot my face out towards the seed on his body.

"Sweetie, you can't possibly want to drink all of it. There's way too much. It'll make you sick, and you'll never want to taste my penis ever again, which I wouldn't ever hold against you."

"No, I want every last drop!"

I made him stand still while I licked all the tons of cum from his wonderful pecs, his cut abs, and even his beautiful balls.

"You don't understand. I love you so much, babe, I want every single drop of semen that you produce for the rest of your life to end up inside my body."

Parker's look went from concerned astonishment to absolute love. "And I hope you know, regardless of any deal we've made to end the relationship, I'd absolutely love that fate even more than you.

"Well, at least let me return the favor, and get you off," he said, starting to move his mouth down to my crotch.

"Nope, I don't want you to," I said. "I already came today. If I do it again now, I'll be less horny tomorrow."

"Sweetie, I don't like the idea of you satisfying me without getting the same back in return," he said.

"But it seems to me that vampires recover sexually a lot sooner than the rest of us," I said.

"That's known fact," he said. "I believe again that evolution has our sexual faculties and libidos turn around so quickly after ejaculation in order to pass on our genes as efficiently as possible."

"Well, considering you have a stronger sexual appetite than I do, I think its fine for me to get you off more frequently than I get myself off."

"Sweetie, I am not one of those vampires that requires his partner to get him off, or he'll feel unsatisfied or go astray. I don't want you to think of me as some sort of sexual responsibility, someone whose appetites need to be fed. I can go a long time without sexual stimulation of any sort. And even when I absolutely need a release, I'll either have a nocturnal emission, or I'll masturbate. Either way is totally fine by me."

"Parker, if you think I sucked you off just now out of some sense that I just needed to satisfy my man, if you think that I wasn't the least bit turned on by what we just did and perhaps even repulsed by it, well I don't think you saw how hard I was the entire time. I absolutely love what we just did. I just figure the way our recovery systems are mismatched, it's better for me to orgasm less frequently than you do."

"Oh, my love, I think it's so phenomenally touching that you would love what we just did, even though you weren't receiving any pleasure yourself. But I don't think you should worry about your libido keeping up with mine. After all, its potency may surprise you, as you should be entering your sexual peak. If you orgasm multiple times a day, I wouldn't be surprised at all if your body learned to adapt. There's just no reason for you to hold yourself back, ever."

"I guess it's worth a try," I said. "Still, I'm not going to start tonight. I'm still too weak. I just want to go to bed."

"That is the smartest idea you've had since you woke up," he said.

"Let me just say my prayers, and I'll be ready. Don't worry; I won't say them out loud."

"It's perfectly fine with me if you say them out loud," he said.

I knelt down on the bed, shut my eyes, and started focusing on God. "Thank you, God, for taking care of my family today when they needed your help most. If my mother had known what happened for her and Jerry today, she would have spent the whole night thanking you herself, I'm sure. Thank you for protecting me and keeping me safe when all seemed lost when I was with Boyd. And most of all, thanks for bringing Parker into my life. He has been the one shining beacon of goodness and light in my life, and I know every second I'm with him how much of You are inside him. He has turned a life that would otherwise seem bleak and morose into a life that couldn't be happier. I am eternally grateful for you for bringing him to me, you've made all the difference in the world. Amen."

"Are you finished?" Parker whispered to me as I opened my eyes, clearly trying not to disturb me.

"That's what `amen' usually signifies, babe," I said to him with a smile.

"Well, you'll forgive me if I'm not exactly briefed on the whole Christianity thing," he said. "But I hope you didn't modify your prayer because you were speaking it out loud, just to please me."

"I would never," I said. "I said exactly what I was feeling."

"Well, it brought me to tears, listening to you," he said, wiping his face clear. "But I thought prayers were more supposed to be about people asking for things they want or need."

"For the first night in a long time, I have absolutely everything I need or want," I said, lying on my back. "I only have thanks left."

"That's very touching," he said as he cuddled my side, putting his right arm behind my head, and rubbing my body with his left hand. "I may not have a deity of my own to give thanks to, but I find myself thanking no one in particular for you being brought into my life every waking second of every day. And how much I beg for your happiness and good health."

"That's so sweet, babe," I said. "Now I can really sleep."

"Let flights of angels sing thee to thy rest," he said. "And I absolutely refuse to allow anymore nightmares to assault you tonight."

"With your strong arms protecting me, babe, I know the nightmares couldn't possibly come."

"Sweetie, you are ever loved. Goodnight." He kissed me on the forehead, and I was gone.