Evil Is a Man

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

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

FEBRUARY 1st

I woke up early in the night of the next day to fire and screaming.

I was confused and had to remind myself where I was. I had gone to bed at eight in the tent the others had been referring to as the "couples tent," with Haala and her boyfriend, Lek and Kuzman, and other couples making me long for Parker as we all fell asleep, which seemed like perhaps an hour ago.

I jumped up out of my mound of blankets as I realized that everything was lit up with a disconcerting orange glow, a sharp contrast from the pitch blackness another night without fires had brought us as I went to bed.

Everyone else was getting up in our tent as well, as we realized that our tent was somehow on fire.

"Everyone out!" I yelled.

"But it's the door that's on fire!" Lek said, and I saw he was right.

I went for my stuff and pulled out my machete, and I walked over to the side of the tent that wasn't on fire and cut out a huge hole. "Now there's a back exit," I said.

After everyone left the tent, I put my shoes on, thankful that it had been so cold I had slept in my clothes, and pulled out my backpack, not wanting any of Parker's things to get burned.

When I left the tent, I looked to make sure none of the people in my tent had been injured. All of them seemed unharmed, though they were looking with awe at the scene below, as we were up on a hill and had a unique vantage point of the rest of the camp.

I looked myself, and covered my mouth in horror.

Perhaps twenty-five cowboys on horseback, many whom I recognized as Mareshead vampire guards, were dispersed around the camp, torches in their hands. Where they had managed to find the horses, I had no idea, but clearly that's why there were so few vampires attacking. They were throwing those torches at the tents, and those tents were igniting quickly, all the fire lighting up the camp way brighter than any of our own campfires ever would have.

"Stupid nineteenth century tents have absolutely no flame retardants applied," I complained. "Everyone, grab the machetes and hack open the tents, make sure everyone gets out. Don't try to take on the vampires, just make sure no one burns."

We all grabbed the machetes and all headed in different directions.

The first tent I approached had its door on fire just like ours had been. I slashed the side open, creating a doorway, and everyone rushed out. Benedict was among them, and Jane, and that older Asian woman who had given me information about Clanton. It seemed to mostly contain the older or injured people, in fact.

The next tent I slashed open was towards the middle, and it was filled with screaming children and their parents. I pulled the whole group of children and brought them to the side and up the hill, away from the vampire riders.

By that time, the others had all cut everyone else out of the burning tents. The vampires, newly torch-less, pulled out revolvers from holsters.

"Everyone listen to me!" I yelled. "The only way we'll kill these vampires is if we work together. No one person can be expected to take down a vampire, but ten people all working together should be able to. Keep in mind the easiest and fastest way to kill a vampire is to decapitate them."

Just as I started to ready my weapons and rejoin my friends below, I felt the chilling sensation of being snuck up on from behind. I turned around, and there were all eight of the Pawnee warriors, their weapons drawn, standing threateningly around all the frightened children. I could only assume they had teamed up with the Mareshead vampires, as they would have needed their horses to cross the river.

One of them said something in Pawnee, and I pulled Benedict up out of the crowd. "Benedict, tell me what they want, I can't understand them."

"They are speaking in some old version of Pawnee I'm not familiar with," he said. "I'm trying to understand them, but it's difficult."

"Tell them not to hurt the children."

Benedict said something in Pawnee, and one of them said something back.

"I think he said," Benedict said. "Well, I think he said that they are not there to hurt children. They don't care about children."

Another Pawnee said something else.

"'Look at your people,' he says," said Benedict.

I turned and watched the scene below, as the slaves bravely rallied to fight for their freedom. I watched a number of them pull down a vampire off his horse and swing their sharp weapons upon him on the ground.

Another Pawnee spoke.

"'Watch your people die,' he said."

And then I watched as another horsed rider trample a man, watched as another shoot a woman in the head. I knew we would win this battle, but I couldn't guess how many of us would die in the process.

Another Pawnee spoke.

"'We offer our arms,' he said. He means, them as fighters, not their weapons."

"What do they want in return?" I asked.

Benedict said something, and another Pawnee spoke back.

"They want a reason to risk their lives."

"Tell them we have food, water, blankets, and supplies. Anything they need is theirs."

Benedict spoke, and another Pawnee spoke back.

"They need as much tobacco as they can carry back with them."

"Tell them we don't have any tobacco."

"They care nothing for other supplies," he said.

Another Pawnee spoke.

"They, oh my, am I hearing this right? Let me ask."

Benedict asked something in Pawnee, and then they responded.

"Yes, I did hear it right. They want you."

I shook my head. "I'd rather die than be a vampire prostitute. That's the life I just broke away from."

"They don't care about that," said Benedict.

"For how long do they want me?" I asked.

More discussion, and then Benedict said, "You'll be theirs until five nights have passed, starting with tonight."

"Tell them, three nights, including tonight."

"They agree. And then they'll deliver you to the edge of the Territory safely."

"With my things?"

"With your things."

"Yes, yes, I agree. Tell them."

As Benedict discussed with them, I had to stand there and watch as a vampire shot dead another of the slaves.

"Please hurry!" I said.

"They want you to swear to them that you'll be everything they want you to be in that time."

"Yes, I swear," I said, shaking one of their hands. "Please, just hurry."

The Pawnee shouted to each other, raised their weapons in aggression as they all took on a war cry, and then ran out towards the Mareshead vampires. I ran down after them and urged all the slaves to pull back and let the Pawnee take the front of the ranks.

The Pawnee were outnumbered three to one by the Mareshead vampires, and didn't possess steeds or firearms, so I couldn't fathom how any of them would live through this battle. At least I hoped they would take out a good number of the enemy before they went out, leaving the rest of us a reasonable number.

I was shocked when a few minutes later, only two Pawnee lay dead, while the entire squadron of Mareshead vampires lay defeated and slaughtered.

We put out the fires, commandeered the torches for light purposes, and salvaged most of the supplies, even if the tents were a lost cause, meaning people would need to sleep outside. We adopted twenty-five new horses, much to Polly's pleasure, and took their other weapons and supplies. They had with them a huge amount of blood packets, which the Pawnee ignored. Knowing their tribe was completely composed of vampire males, I couldn't fathom how they got the blood they needed. Were they expecting all to live off of my blood while I was with them? That would likely kill me. So I stuffed all the blood packets into my backpack just to make sure.

And then we buried our fallen men and women, twelve in all, while the Pawnee buried their fallen brothers on their own. I said a few words in their honor of those people, many of the others crying for them, and prayed to God to see them to Heaven.

After the only dead left unburied were the slain vampires, the Pawnee were eager to take me and leave the others. Before they did, I mounted Patches one last time, so I could see all of those brave souls looking back at me.

"I have to leave you," I said. "But you'll be fine, I promise. Polly says it's less than a day's walk now to the end of the Territory, where our people will be waiting to meet you. Don't stay here for the night. It's too dangerous. Move somewhere close, and then camp again until morning comes, without fire if at all possible."

"What about you?" someone asked.

"I'll be fine, I always am. I wanted to thank all of you for trusting me, and for being the bravest, most inspirational bunch of folks I could ever imagine. I wish you all the best as you return to your old lives or start new ones."

They erupted into even more applause than ever, shouting `Spartacus Jake' over and over as I dismounted Patches. I said goodbye to the loving horse, and then hugged all of my closest friends before grabbing my backpack and walking off with the Pawnee to the south.

They let me use a flashlight as we hiked through the night, with most of the Pawnee treating me with indifference, as I did my best to try to figure out their names as they spoke to each other in Pawnee (no easy task).

But not all of them reacted towards my presence in a friendly way. It soon became very clear to me that this group had a couple of bullies, just like most other male groupings, I supposed.

One of the Pawnee, a man they called, "Ki-wa-go," groaned and pointed at me when I couldn't keep up with their pace. I noticed his face was always angry-looking, and his extremely annoyed eyes looked me over (though he never, ever looked me in the eyes), and complained to the others in Pawnee, clearly about me being too slow. I gathered that he was suggesting just leaving me behind.

"If you refused to let me bring a horse along unless you would eat it when we got to your tribe," I remembered, as it was specifically Ki-wa-go who had refused me bringing the horse, with Benedict translating, "then you shouldn't be the first to complain when I can't keep up with you." Of course, this fell on deaf ears.

I looked over this one who obviously detested me. Like all the Pawnee (and male vampires in general), he had very handsome facial features a muscled body. He was definitely the most visually striking of all of the bold Pawnee due solely to the hat he never seemed to remove. He had created a helmet out of a buffalo's head, complete even with the horns, making him look totally terrifying. The helmet prevented me from seeing his hair.

He had a buckskin shirt not unlike the one Boyd had worn, with hanging ribbons down the sleeves. And below that, he had a very short loincloth that didn't nearly cover his huge, uncut member, which I was trying not to stare at as we walked.

Every bully needs an annoying friend, and Ki-wa-go had his in Ku-rux. While Ki-wa-go's dislike of me was all too serious, his friend Ku-rux added in an annoyingly cruel sense of humor. He teased me constantly, laughing evilly.

Almost entirely nude, Ku-rux made me wonder how he wasn't freezing in the cold winter night. All this Pawnee wore was a pair of boots and a belt that he kept his weapons in. The belt also had a loin cloth hanging from it, but instead of there being two sides, this one just hung in the back, covering his butt but leaving his ample penis out in the open (which I too tried not to stare at). And he wore not even an earring above that belt. He too had a Mohawk, but this one turned into a long pony tail in the back. The rest of his head was shaved, but the odd thing was, all the visible skin on his head from the bottom of his eyes up was tattooed in solid grey, making him look very, very strange, and cutting out the natural beauty of his facial features.

When Ku-rux took his taunts to a physical level, coming behind me and shoving me rudely, laughing as he did it, another Pawnee stepped up to my rescue.

"Ku-sox," they called him. He had what I knew as a warhawk: a shaved head, with a strip of hair, a couple inches high and a few wide, down the middle. In the back, he had two feathers attached loosely to the back of his head. He had no facial paint, earrings, or facial tattoos, and because his hair was the most tame of all of them, it was easy to find the humanity in his face.

His clothes were simple. He had skin armbands which made his arm muscles fierce, but besides those, he was shirtless. His upper body was tattooed in the pattern of ferocious war paint, strips of black that striped his chest, abs, and thighs, highlighting his impressive muscles. He wore hide pants and boots.

He grabbed for my backpack, which at first made me think he was trying to steal it. Before I could defensively protect it, he got it off of me, with me angry at him, thinking of Parker's things in there.

But he didn't go through my bag, instead, he slung it over his shoulders and carried it for me, allowing me to walk faster and stopping Ki-wa-go and Ku-rux's complaints.

When we crossed an east-west stream, I knew it was the same one Parker and I fished on. The Pawnee camp was just on the other side and really just consisted of one house-sized structure, an earth lodge. The outside was covered with dirt and grass, and the only thing that would keep passersby from thinking the place was nothing but a large hill was the single door and multiple chimney holes at the topmost points of the roof.

Before he went inside, Ku-sox kindly returned my bag to me, even offering me a half-smile.

The inside was very, very dark, as there weren't any windows in the structure, and I was glad for my flashlight. I noticed right away as I walked down steps on my way in that the whole thing was a submerged a few feet, making the place taller than it appeared from the outside. I could see that curved, wooden beams made up the frame of the earth lodge, with dirt packed in between. An entry way filled with supplies led to the central part of the earth lodge, which seemed to be a combined social place, kitchen, and eating area. From there, hanging buffalo skins created doors to the other rooms, eight of them in all, which seemed to suggest they were the eight bedrooms for the previous amount of Pawnee warriors. I saw no sign of a bathroom of any kind, which led me to believe they went outside. Since male vampires only ever have to urinate, that did not surprise me.

One of them, whom the others called what sounded like Le-sha-ro, started to light a fire in the center room of the earth lodge, the one that was connected to their kitchen area. Above us was the tallest part of the ceiling and the largest chimney hole. He lit the fire with true mastery, and suddenly the earth lodge was lit up in firelight, and I was able to turn off my flashlight. Soon, the room heated up that cold night air, and it felt good to be so close.

I looked over Le-sha-ro as he blew on the fire to make it larger. He looked similar to what I had always pictured Hiawatha looked like. He had a spiky mohawk perhaps ten inches tall that looked like a dorsal fin across his head, clearly he used something to keep his hair sticking straight up like that, and he was the only one who looked like they had access to hair products. The rest of his head was shaved. His face had red war paint around his eyes, like a painted on visor, as well as around his chin. The red paint made him look alien and inhuman.

He wore skin pants and boots, with a skin loincloth hanging in front that in this case was purely decorative. He had a skin band around his body, going from his right shoulder to his left hip, then up and around his back. This made his bare chest and abs pop out, somehow. He had a skin armband on his left bicep, and a necklace with ornamental bones. Over his left shoulder, he was wearing a decorative pelt. One of his ears was pierced.

But he abandoned this central fire and went into one of the bedrooms. In fact, all of the Pawnee were doing likewise. I could see that each one had a central fire and chimney hole as well, though those fire pits were much smaller in scale than the main one, clearly just there for warmth and light.

As I waited there, I wondered how these vampires could survive out here in the middle of nowhere. There didn't seem to be any civilization for quite a ways. How were they getting their daily supply of blood in order to stay alive?

One came out of bedroom before the others, and spoke to me in Pawnee. It was the first time I had been addressed since I got there. "Sha-ku-ru," I had heard the others call him. He had a long, unspiked Mohawk (wasn't that referred to as a lazy hawk?) that turned into normal hair in the back, and a tribal tattoo covering his right arm, showing off his muscles, as well as the right side of his torso, covering his right pec.

He wore a tank-top made completely out of wires and beads, which was only decorative, as I could see through them to his ripped upper body beyond. And beneath this, he had on a pair of skin pants, much like Le-sha-ro's, only without the loincloth hanging in front.

He pointed towards a corner of the room and said something to me, clearly some command. I walked over and sat down in the area the man was pointing, and then he cracked a smile, laughed, and said something else.

He came over and started to grab my backpack and pull it away from me. My first reaction was to hold onto it defensively, and then I remembered who I was dealing with, and let him take it. He set it down right where I was sitting and then pulled me up out of the area. Now I realized he had been trying to tell me to put down my things in an area where they seemed to store their possessions. He pulled me towards the fire, and had me sit down on a log nearby it before going back into his room.

I sat for a bit until kind Ku-sox, my rescuer, came back into the room. He walked over to a huge wooden barrel in the kitchen, grabbed a wooden cup, and poured a large amount of water. I noticed he did everything with his left hand. He came over and handed it to me, and pointed at the barrel. Even though I had no idea what he was saying, it seemed to me he was giving me permission to drink whenever I wanted, and I thanked him, even though I knew he couldn't understand it.

Ki-wa-go came out of his bedroom, still looking annoyed with my presence, still wearing the buffalo hat. Ku-sox, standing in the kitchen, said something to Ki-wa-go, and Ki-wa-go argued in response. But more arguments from Ku-sox ended up in the buffalo man leaving the lodge, and after another word from Ku-sox, Sha-ku-ru walked out of the lodge as well.

Another of them came out of one of the bedrooms, the one they called "Ski-rik." Ski-rik had a black mohawk that was a good foot tall, but wasn't slicked up with product like Le-sha-ro's, and just stuck up in a bushy fashion. And the rest of his head wasn't shaved, but covered with his straight hair. In the back hung a single decorative feather. He had earrings and a tattoo strip moving from his temples to his cheekbones and connecting on his nose, making him look fierce. He had on a beaded necklace, an armband and a wristband that made his arm muscles stick out, and that was it. He was almost entirely naked, his huge, uncut dick hanging flaccid. Well, he did have one piece of clothing on the bottom half of his body, technically: another strap was around the base of his dick.

He and Ku-sox spoke back and forth, and then Ku-sox said something about me that seemed like he was saying I needed something, and then Ski-rik marched out the front door as well.

Le-sha-ro and Ku-rux came out of their bedrooms and sat down near me, and Ku-rux teased me again in Pawnee as he looked me over with his penetrating eyes, making me uncomfortable

Soon, Ki-wa-go returned to the earth cabin, holding huge slabs of meat in his arms. Given his peculiar helmet, I could only expect that he was bringing in buffalo meat. I looked at it suspiciously, trying to understand why they had stored the meat outside. It currently was cold enough to refrigerate the meat properly, but the days would bring too warm weather, and the meat should have attracted pests out there. But the meat looked totally healthy and pest-free, and had no smell, and looked safe to cook.

Le-sha-ro started to cook the meat on the fire he built using a stone grill. Sha-ku-ru, the one who had bid me to sit by the fire, came in a bit later, holding a bunch of vegetables, fruits, and grains in his hands. He handed it to friendly Ku-sox, who began cooking the food.

Ski-rik, the one with the tattooed strip across his face, remained alone outside for quite some time. Just when I was sure he had ran off, he returned, just as empty handed as before. I knew he wasn't out going number two, since he didn't partake in that sort of activity. None of the other vampires seemed perplexed by his absence.

Once they were all together again, Ku-sox came and handed me a large plate of food, smiling. I politely ate the meat, cooked grains, and vegetables, all of it tasting bland but totally decent, and I thanked Ku-sox, though I knew he couldn't understand.

And when I finished my first plate, Ku-sox fought off Ki-wa-go and Ku-rux to grab the rest of food and give it to me to eat, instead of the other men having seconds. I thanked him again, eating until I could eat no more, and he got me plenty of water to drink as well.

After the meal was over, all six Pawnee engaged in a heated discussion. I could tell by the way they looked or gestured towards me that I was the topic of conversation. It seemed like they were trying to figure out who would get me first.

One thing I had noticed was that there didn't seem to be anyone here in charge. I figured there would be a chief of some kind, but instead they seemed to have an egalitarian society, which didn't seem to bode well when they had to reach decisions.

Finally, they all seemed to agree to draw straws. Sha-ku-ru, the one who with the lazy hawk who so far had been pleasant to me, got the long straw and celebrated. I supposed I knew whose bed I'd be sharing that night.

But then Ski-rik, the one with a single tattooed line across his face, exclaimed happily as he too had a long straw. Was I fated to sleep with both men that night?

But then there was more discussion had, and all the Pawnee stood before me, looking at me, wanting something from me.

"Choose," Ki-wa-go the buffalo said, clearly knowing at least some English.

"Choose what?"

"Choose who," he corrected.

"What do you mean?"

But he said nothing more.

All six of them stood before me. Ski-rik was flexing his arm muscles, Ki-wa-go adjusted his buffalo hat and looked extra mean, Ku-rux played with his big, soft dick, Ku-sox puffed out his tribal tattooed pecs.

They were primping themselves for me, trying to look appealing. They wanted me to pick which one I was to sleep with, I realized. Oddly, none of them even cracked the slightest bit of a smile, clearly mistakenly believing that I would only be impressed by toughness.

What I wanted to say was none of the above. It wasn't that the Pawnee weren't impressive, they were all amazing specimens of masculine beauty. But I could not ever get sexually excited about someone who I did not respect, and I could not respect anyone who would arm-twist someone like me into giving them sex.

The only feeling I could muster for these men was pity, and pity certainly didn't do anything to fire up my libido. So, instead of picking out which man I thought would be the most sexually impressive, I figured I'd be better off picking one for a more practical reason.

Two of the Pawnee had their dicks hanging free for all to see, and a third, Ki-wa-go, had such a short loincloth that he was practically naked. I could rule out all three of those men because the size of their dicks scared me. I figured sex with a less-endowed man would be much easier for me. The other three men were wearing pants, which I could only hope was because they were perhaps a bit envious of the others' endowment.

So, that meant it was between Le-sha-ro, the Hiawatha type who had started the fire and grilled the meat, Ku-sox, the guy with a warhawk and war paint type of tattoo stripes on his body, or Sha-ku-ru, the guy with a lazy hawk and tribal tattoos on his arm and pec.

"Ku-sox," I said, "For carrying my backpack and keeping me fed and hydrated."

Of course, they understood nothing but the first word I said, but that's all they needed to know. Ku-sox looked entirely pleased, while the other five Pawnee looked angrily rejected.

After saying goodness knows what to his brothers in Pawnee, Ku-sox took my hand and led me into his bedroom, pulling the buffalo skins closed behind us to give us privacy.

His room was very simple: fire in the middle, barrels and hide containers held his things, and an actual raised bed against the wall that was covered in piles of fur. That's what he led me towards, kicking off his boots as he did, and as he looked at me and started to pull my shirt off, I tried to remember that I had promised to do anything these men asked of me. I took off my shoes before getting on his bed, which was surprisingly soft.

When Ku-sox got my upper body naked, he looked down at me, smiling. He started to kiss and lick my body, spending particularly long on my chest and nipples. I concentrated on the fact that he sure was a handsome man, caressing his head and rubbing my hands through his furry warhawk.

He stood up, and when his face passed in front of mine, I thought he would kiss me. But his handsome lips just grazed against mine, and then he pushed me down to the level of his chest. I sized him up, using my hands to feel how his armbands cut into his strong muscles. And then I moved my hands to his robust chest and abs, feeling along the horizontal tattoos which looked very cool, even if I knew tattoos just weren't for me.

He reached down and pulled off his pants, and he wasn't wearing any underwear of any sort beneath. I gasped as I got my first real look at his dick. Was it too late to take this one back and exchange him for another? He was just as hung as his naked Pawnee tribesmen, killing my hope that his pants had been a sign that he was less endowed very quickly.

He took my hand and put it on his soft dick, and I took it in my hand and stroked it carefully, giving him a handjob, slowly watching the huge circumcised cock rise to attention under my administrations.

When he was rock hard, that's when he pushed my head to his dick. I figured he'd do that, and I licked his man-stick lavishly before eventually starting to suck him, as he moaned happily and said things in Pawnee.

I could only get about two/thirds down, and he didn't push me past that point.

I was hoping he would be satisfied with a blowjob, but he pulled off of me before he orgasmed and then pulled my pants and underwear off, leaving me as naked as he was.

When he had me lie down face first on his bed, I knew what was coming for me, and I rolled my eyes without him seeing. He bent my knees and stuck my butt into the air, and then I felt his mouth on my hole.

His tongue wasn't gentle as it forced its way into me, but it wasn't so aggressive that it caused me pain.

Ku-sox spent so long giving my hole oral, I became hopeful that he actually considered that act his main course, and that he wouldn't top me after all.

But my hopes were not to be: he stopped licking me and I felt his dickhead push against me.

Even though Lucky had repeatedly screwed me, it still hurt a bit when Ku-sox's hung member pushed inside me, and I tried not to call out in pain.

The pain thankfully was only temporary, and when it passed, I was at least thankful that I wouldn't have to do anything else but lie there face down until he was through.

I tried to tune out until he was done, and only let my attention be roused when I felt all the telltale signs from his grunts to his body language that he was going through his orgasm, and when I felt his semen suddenly flood into me, I knew it was over.

After Ku-sox finished with me, I figured I'd be sleeping beside him. Instead, he grabbed my clothes in his arms and led me back outside his room, setting them down gently by my backpack.

When the other five Pawnee saw Ku-sox and I naked, Ku-rux teased and Ski-rik hollered. Ku-sox said something biting back, and then disappeared again in his bedroom.

"Choose," Ki-wa-go said to me, and the sinking realization that they expected me to have sex with at least two of them that evening set it.

"Sha-ku-ru," I said, pointing at the Pawnee with the lazy-hawk. "For trying earlier to communicate with me, even if I butchered his instructions."

Sha-ku-ru seemed even more overjoyed than Ku-sox had. He smiled like an idiot as he took my hand and led me into his room, shutting us inside. There really wasn't any difference between his bedroom and the last one, and soon I found myself on his bed.

I wouldn't have been surprised if Sha-ku-ru and Ku-sox had been related, they looked very similar. And like Ku-sox, Sha-ku-ru had nothing marring his face or worn on his head, making him seem more human than the others. The only big difference from the neck up was that if Sha-ku-ru cut off his laxy hawk pony tail, he'd look just like Ku-sox. I preferred Ku-sox's simpler hair style than Sha-ku-ru's, but both men were very handsome.

Sha-ku-ru smiled at me as he handed me the long straw he had drawn before and said something in Pawnee, almost as if he was using the straw as some sort of payment. I found it completely baffling.

He removed his bead and wire tank top, and I could see another small way he was different from Ku-sox: while Ku-sox's striped tattoos were slim and understated and far in between, Sha-ku-ru's was much more wild and took up a huge surface space of his skin. He had a flowing, patterned tribal tattoo along his right arm that highlighted his bi, tri, and shoulder muscle. This tattoo poured down the right side of his chest and abs as well, totally adorning his right side.

He took off his pants, and I could see that Ku-sox was very similar to Sha-ku-ru in the dick department too. And I knew I was in for no easier a time with him.

As soon as he climbed onto the bed with me, he started to kiss me. It was very strange to be kissed like that, and the romance of the gesture just made me wish for Parker. How strange that being treated with some gentleness could feel just as bad emotionally to me as being treated roughly.

Soon, his hands rubbed on my head as he kissed me, and then the hands grew bolder and rubbed down my body. Feeling all over my chest, stomach, and thighs before traveling around my hips to my butt.

And then, still kissing me, he started to grind his hard meat against me.

He pushed me down in the bed and climbed on top of me without ever breaking his fervent kiss. After grinding against me in this new position for a while, he pulled my knees up.

I felt his eager dickhead pushing against my hole, and he entered me, still without ever pausing his kiss, his head slipping in easily due to Ku-sox's lube.

He didn't plow right in; he was gentle enough to wait with just his head inside me, letting me get used to his size, still kissing me.

And then he moved slowly more into me, eventually getting all the way in.

He stayed there for a moment, and then started to pump me back and forth, his kiss still all over me.

His one single kiss lasted for what seemed like an eternity, until I almost felt like I was going to drown. Just before he was about to blow his seed, he broke the kiss finally.

And then he totally surprised me when I felt his fangs pierce my throat. As he started to drink, I realized then what exactly they had been arguing about, what the straws had been for. He had won the right to feed on me tonight, I realized, while Ku-sox hadn't been able to, and that's why he had just had sex with me.

But the flavor of my blood came as a surprise to Sha-ku-ru, he yelled out in shock, then screamed something in Pawnee.

Excited, he wrapped his arms around me and lifted us both into a sitting position, and then stood up on his feet, with my legs around his hips as he held me up off the ground.

And then he ran out of his bedroom with me in his arms, his dick and fangs never leaving my body. When he appeared in front of the other four Pawnee, they clapped at him. Ski-rik said something encouraging, and Ku-rux sounded like he said something to tease the guy.

Only then did he pull his mouth away from me, and he said a whole string of excited words in Pawnee. Even Ku-sox came out of his room, awakened by the noise.

Next thing I knew, while Sha-ku-ru stayed imbedded inside me and held me off the ground, other Pawnee started coming over and taking a lick of my throat. Ku-rux took a lick, and Le-sha-ro, and Ku-sox. All three of them confirmed what Sha-ku-ru was telling them, delighted by the flavor of my blood. Only Ski-rik and Ki-wa-go abstained, the former probably due to the fact that he too had drawn a long straw, the latter because he clearly hated me.

With his claims now confirmed, Sha-ku-ru whisked me back into his bedroom as Ku-sox went back to bed, drinking me again and pumping away at my butt excidetly.

I felt him come inside me, making that two huge Pawnee loads I was being weighed down with.

When I knew he had taken all of my blood he needed, it seemed like torture for him to pull those fangs out of me, but he did it, and licked my wound healed.

Afterwards, Sha-ku-ru fell right asleep with my in his arms, and I felt so tired after the blood loss, I started to nod off as well.

After a couple minutes of sleep, I woke up feeling annoying Ku-rux pulling me out of bed, making me get to my feet, and then again pushing me from behind through the door, teasing me. Goodness, was he ever irritating.

And then the four remaining Pawnee looked at me.

"Choose," Ki-wa-go ordered in his deep voice again. Were they really going to make me sleep with the whole gosh darn tribe that night?

"Le-sha-ro," I said, picking the last Pawnee with pants, the one who looked to me like Hiawatha, who so far had been the one tribe member who seemed to regard my presence with the most indifference, with the lick he gave my wound a few minutes ago being the only interaction he had ever had with me. No interaction was better than negative interaction, which was why I rated Ku-rux and Ki-wa-go so far down the list, and I didn't want to choose Ski-rik because he would get to feed off me, and I was still a bit weak from the last feeding.

Le-sha-ro didn't celebrate, he just led me into his room and shut the door. He was the most sensibly dressed of all the Pawnee. He took off the decorative pelt he had slung over his shoulder, leaving his top half bare except for the strap he had on around his body, going from his right shoulder to his left hip, then up and around his back. The strap clung so tightly to his buff chest, abs, and back muscles.

He removed his boots and then took off his pants, once again proving that the Pawnee hadn't invented underwear. He was nearly as hung as the rest of them.

His soft, circumcised, brown dick was very impressive.

I wondered if he would clean the red warpaint from around his eyes and chin before having sex with me, but as he climbed into bed, I realized he wasn't going to. Sitting on his bed, Le-sha-ro motioned me towards him, and I approached him. He said something in Pawnee that I didn't understand, and then pointed at my mouth, and to his soft dick. His intention became all too clear.

I started to lick him, salty flavor entering my mouth, and used my tongue to make his dick come to life.

When he was totally erect, I started to suck him, again only going down two-thirds of the way comfortably.

He grabbed a pipe and lit it up with his room fire, and started to smoke it as I continued to give him oral. I cringed, so turned off by all the smoking vampires seemed to do. I supposed that was why they had wanted so badly to take any tobacco we had.

But as soon as the smoke hit my nostrils, I realized it was anything but tobacco, and the smell made me wrinkle my nose. And Le-sha-ro certainly wasn't behaving like he was merely smoking tobacco, he slumped back on his bed, shut his eyes, and continued to smoke.

Le-sha-ro never even made the slightest thrust into my mouth, he let me do all the work while he lay there. And after a while, my neck started to hurt from moving my head up and down so much. Was he even still awake?

I took my mouth off him just to see if I could get away with leaving, and when he did nothing but doze, I started to turn towards the door.

"Mmmm," he said, coming to, and then he said something in Pawnee, giving me a new order as his eyes went halfway open.

He pointed at my butt and then pointed at his hard, wet dick sticking up in the air, and I sighed, knowing what he wanted.

While just lay there on his back, doing nothing but smoking, I faced him and straddled him, putting my weight on my knees and shins. I stuck Le-sha-ro's rock hard rod inside me, and lowered slowly down onto it.

The good news about being the one in charge was that I could chose how far down I was going to go, and I didn't go all the way down.

But the bad news about being in charge was that he didn't move a single muscle in the entire process, and so I had to do all of the work, using my legs muscles to bounce up and down on him, while all he did was smoke. It was so, so exhausting, especially after just having my blood drained.

After a while, Le-sha-ro's pipe fell out of his mouth, and he started to snore. I stopped riding him, and just before I could pull out of him, I heard him come to and scold me in Pawnee, using his hands to gesture for me to continue.

And so, even as he fell asleep, I had to bounce up and down on his dick for twenty more minutes until I felt him explode inside me, the invasion of his seed the only sign he had orgasmed.

I grabbed his pipe, put it out to avoid fires, and then walked out of the room.

And once again, I was expected to choose between them.

Ku-rux was standing there, jerking his dick, looking me in the eye, clearly under the false impression that seeing his big dick would lead me to his bed first. I put him at the bottom of my list.

And that meant choosing between angry buffalo Ki-wa-go and less antagonistic Ski-rik.

"Ki-wa-go," I said hesitantly, not sure if I could take Ski-rik's feeding so soon after wearing myself out with Le-sha-ro.

Ki-wa-go seemed surprised at my choice, but that surprise lasted only a moment before he lifted me up off my feet and carried me into his room brusquely. He threw me into the wall over his bed, and then violently forced me to my knees.

He didn't even bother removing the buffalo skin loincloth he had on, he just moved it slightly to the side to let his big dick pop through, which was already totally hard.

Before I even had a chance to think or get my bearings, he forced that unit into my mouth, raping me with his dong.

He drove all the way down to the hilt, making me go so far that it hurt my mouth, and not giving me time to get my throat to adjust to the increased capacity. I absolutely hated what he was doing.

This whole time, he never once looked me in the eye; he always looked away from me. He never took off his buffalo helmet or the tight buffalo skin, Native American style shirt.

And when he was done screwing my face, he slammed me hard down onto the hide bed, hurting my back. As soon as I looked up at his face, he flipped me over until I was laying on my stomach.

And once again, before I could catch my breath, I felt his dick pushing into me, this time penetrating my butt, which was so much worse than my mouth.

I tried to look back at him angrily, but he pushed my face into his blanket, not letting me have the smallest glance at him. And that's how the man in the buffalo helmet totally attacked my hole, pushing so far in, my insides screamed out in pain.

Thankfully, it didn't take long for him to come, and when he had, I ran out of his room as soon as he let me free.

Back in the main room, Ski-rik was standing by his bedroom door while Ku-rux stood in front of his, still jerking himself off while looking at staring at me.

"Ski-rik," I said.

Ski-rik taunted Ku-rux, who clearly didn't like getting a taste of his own medicine, and we went into Ski-rik's bedroom.

The only clothes Ski-rik was wearing was his earrings, the feather at the end of his bushy mowhawk, a beaded necklace, and that strap around the base of his dick. He took none of this off as he pulled me towards his bed and started to kiss me. The decorative tattooed line across the middle of his face made him look rather intimidating, so I shut my eyes.

It occurred to me that all the Pawnee were circumcised, which seemed odd to me. Had the vampire special woman who made them cut their foreskins off at the same time for some reason? Or perhaps was it some part of being a vampire? I couldn't recall seeing any uncircumcised vampire.

Compared to my last little tryst, Ski-rik's affection felt as gentle as Parker's had been. He had me suck his dick, but didn't force me all the way down, like the buffalo man had done. I noticed with confusion as I sucked him that the strap around the base of his dick held a metal key in it.

And when it came time to screw me, he wanted to do it with me face up, so he could see me, and he didn't go all the way in.

It all went well until he bit into my neck. Once he had tasted my blood, he turned into a new man, moaning and groaning with excited surprise before turning into an animal and ramming my butt like crazy, slamming all the way in.

So, it wasn't long after he bit into me that I started to wish for the ordeal to end, shutting my eyes and letting the seductive power of the bite take me away from the pain.

But I had to snap out of that euphoric daze when I knew he was way passed what he needed to drink to survive, and still he was sucking my blood down.

I gave him a little more leeway to be polite, and then I started to push up against him. "Hey, you need to stop," I said, even though I knew he wouldn't understand my words, my intentions behind the words should have been clear.

When he still didn't respond, I started to push against him frantically, trying to get away.

"Stop, get off me, get off me!"

I wrestled and wriggled, but he remained screwing away at my hole and sucking at my throat. I hit and punched and kicked and tried to eye gouge, but he stayed firm. He was going to kill me.

"Someone, please help, PLEASE!"

And in ran Ku-sox, Ku-rux, and Sha-ku-ru, and after assessing the situation and trying in vain to talk sense into him, they had to pull his head by force away from my throat, while Ku-sox leaned in and licked my wound shut.

Sucking in a sharp breath, Ski-rik looked completely stunned, like a newborn baby pulled out of the birth canal. He shook his head until his senses returned to him, and he waved the other Pawnee away and out of his room as his continued to screw me, but let himself be satisfied with just licking my blood- free throat, pretending he could taste the blood inside, as he finished off.

I felt him spread his seed inside me.

Instead of falling asleep, Ski-rik seemed angry at himself and walked out of his room to who knows where. That left me lying on his bed alone, and I was so weak with blood loss, I couldn't even move; all I could do was let my weakness pull me asleep.

I woke up feeling another massive dick entering my hole, and I thought perhaps Ski-rik had returned to his bed and was initiating a second round. But as soon as I saw the bizarre noggin of my lover, I knew it was old tattoo head himself, Ku-rux, who was molesting me, taking his turn with me even if it was in someone else's bed.

Ku-rux showed no sign of gentleness as he screwed me, and yet, I still kept drifting in and out of consciousness due to my severe blood loss. And even though it was all too clear what condition I was in, that didn't stop Ku-rux in the slightest.

I fell asleep as he pounded the heck out of me.

The next time I woke up, Ku-rux was gone, though I could feel his load inside me, and I was sharing the bed with its owner, Ski-rik, who had come back from the outside. He kept the fire going as we slept, and as I rolled over, I woke up Ski-rik, who held onto me, poking into my hole with his hard (again) dick.

I felt really uncomfortable being alone with Ski-rik after he had so massively gone off the deep end when he had been feeding from me, and felt annoyed that Ku-rux would have left me here alone in his bed once he was done with me, just another reason for me to despise him.

But instead of being able to get out of the bed on my own will, I was too weak to do anything but fall asleep in Ski-rik's arms.

Ski-rik was anything but a heavy sleeper. All through the night he would wake me up, rubbing on me or whatnot. Every time I woke up and actually found him to be sleeping, any slightest turn of my body would wake him, making him sexually excited in no time. It made for a restless night when I was already weak from blood loss.

FEBRUARY 2nd

Ku-sox woke me up that morning, rubbing my forehead until I woke up. He said something to me in Pawnee, and then showed that he had a huge plate of food and water. I tried to thank him and explain that I wanted to keep sleeping, but he made me sit up and eat all the food and drink the water. Only then would he let me go back to sleep.

It was midday when I woke up again, and I scolded myself for sleeping in so late, but then I remembered that I had barely slept the night before, and had a lot of blood taken.

I got out of Ski-rik's bed and walked out into the main room of the earth lodge. No sign of the Pawnee anywhere, they must have been off doing whatever they typically did during the day; hunting, raiding, or most likely of all, trading their battle prowess for sexual services. All the fires were out, so I grabbed my clothes and put them on as I shivered in the winter air.

I noticed there was a huge amount of food left for me, clearly by Ku-sox, the warhawked Pawnee who seemed to be the only one who really had a concern for my well being. He was always taking care of me. I mentally thanked him as I gobbled down the food, surprised at how hungry I was.

I went outside the lodge, shocked at how bright the sun was after the darkness of the windowless lodge, and walked off into the wilderness and did my business. And then I pulled out my toiletries, marched down to the stream , and bathed thoroughly, shaved, and brushed my teeth.

I supposed under normal circumstances I would have chipped in with the camp chores, but since no one explicitly asked me to do so, and since it was hard to feel like just one of the guys when I was expected to satiate any and all of their sexual desires, I wasn't feeling in the mood to help. So I just acted like a lazy person for once in my life and read my books all afternoon in the Texas sun.

When the sun went down and the merry band of Pawnee weren't back yet, I decided to light the main fire due to the fact that it was insanely cold. But there wasn't any firewood anywhere that I could find, so I grabbed my flashlight and went outside.

I hadn't remembered seeing any obvious piles of firewood around before, but they used so much of it, they had to have some major stack of it someplace, and I searched my flashlight around, trying to locate it. I started to walk off to the east, telling myself I would look for it for ten minutes, and then I'd think about cutting down some myself.

I stopped walking as I heard something strange. Something very, very faint. I listened closely, and it sounded like very distant moaning.

My first reaction was that I was hearing some strange animal sound, and bad memories of that bear encounter I had while hiking at night in Lake Tahoe came to my mind with a chill.

My instinct told me to give up on firewood and to go back into the earth lodge, and just as I turned to leave, the moaning ended.

And then I heard the very distant but distinct two words replace it: "Help me!"

That was it; I couldn't turn away for anybody (or anything) that was so pleading. Instead of hiding, I turned back towards the voice and searched ahead of me with the flashlight.

"Help me!" I heard a bit louder as I moved towards the source. It was a man's voice, low and deep.

"Who is it?" I asked, moving towards the sound.

"Help me!"

"Are you one of the Pawnee?" I asked.

"Help me, Jake Groves!"

I stopped, sucking in air. "How do you know my name?"

"Help me, Jake!" The man knew me, yet I didn't recognize the voice in the least. It certainly couldn't have belonged to any of the Pawnee.

I moved to the spot I had been sure the voice was coming from, and then searched around with my flashlight. No one was there.

"Help me!"

I looked down at the ground, realizing the voice was coming from the earth beneath me. Oh my goodness, had this poor man been buried alive?

"Help me!"

I threw my hands into the dirt and started to dig. I pulled away handfuls of earth until my hands hit a structure. At first I thought it was a coffin, but more digging made it all too clear: this was a structure. Another earth lodge, I realized, this one hidden below ground.

I just had to find the entrance. I picked up my flashlight and searched around until I found some big branches looking just a bit conspicuous. I pulled them aside and uncovered a hide door, heading down into the earth.

I opened the door and headed down into the underground chamber. There weren't any windows or ceiling holes that I could see, so my flashlight was the only way I had to see the interior.

Most of the space was filled with supplies and provisions. Huge slabs of meat hung in one area, other food supplies in another, and I realized it was so low in here; the place would always be refrigerated. Other valuables were gathered here too, namely all of their huge stash of weapons.

But the back of the room was what my flashlight was drawn to. Iron bars cordoned off a small section of the room from the rest, with a large iron gate, locked up tight.

In the cell beyond was a man locked up in chains.

"Help me, Jake Groves," the man said, with a slight bit of some Asian accent.

I walked towards this prison cell, and shined my light on the man in chains. I could see the bindings were keeping him from even moving any part of his body except his head. It didn't take me long to realize that this was no man at all.

He was an Asian male of phenomenal beauty. He had the ripped muscular body of an Olympic sprinter, just slightly leaner in size than most of the male vampires I had seen, who all had the bodies of ripped, muscular running backs or wide receivers. Underneath the chains, he only had on a loincloth that looked like it came from the Pawnee's. It covered only his front, not his back. In fact, it seemed like someone had purposely tied the loincloth around just his package, in order to keep just that piece of him clothed, as if they found it offensive. But even covered, I could tell by the sizable lump in the cloth that he was certainly just as hung as his Pawnee oppressors.

Of course I knew he must have been a vampire.

"Who are you?" I asked him.

"They've kept me locked up here for years," he said. "Please, please, let me go."

"I'm not in the habit of unlocking other people's criminals."

"I'm no criminal," he said. "They only keep me alive here because they feed off me. Every evening of every day since they caught me, they've drained me within an inch of my life, and violated me in other ways I dare not even speak of. Jake, you're a man of God. Ask Him yourself to validate the truth of my words."

"How do you know me?" I asked.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I'm a telepath. A mind reader. That's how I knew you were up there. I could sense your gentle mind."

"Telepathy is your special ability?" I asked.

"Hmm? Yes, I'd guess you'd call it that. Telepathy led me to my lost brother, who had been imprisoned by the Pawnee much longer than I have been. Tragically, he was so weak, he died in the escape attempt, and that's when they caught me."

I tried to open the gate, but it was locked shut. "How do I open this?"

"One of them has the key," he said.

"I know exactly who that is," I said, thinking of the metal key I had seen tied around the base of Ski-rik's dick.

"Have they been feeding you down here?"

"I don't eat," he said, and I realized he was like Jericho, he survived only on blood alone.

"Does that mean you don't need to urinate?"

"That's right," he said.

"How do they keep you alive down here?"

"I only need to drink one thing, which they provide to me daily. And I'm addicted to smoking cigarettes, so they've been giving me tobacco pipes to smoke daily as well. Other than that, they only touch me when they want blood. And they'll keep me here forever unless fate intervenes. Listen, I'm not asking you to do anything that endangers you. If rescuing you would risk your life, it isn't worth it. But if you can do it in a safe way, I'd be most grateful."

"I'll see what I can do."

He looked above us suddenly, almost as if he heard something, before I realized he wasn't hearing, he was sensing.

"They approach."

"Can you read their minds too?"

"The blooddemons remain mostly a mystery to me," he said, which didn't make any sense to me. "But I can sense their presence, sense their strength, sense what they are. You need to hurry out of here. Run!"

I turned around and ran back out of the earth lodge, threw the braches back on as a covering, and rushed towards the main lodge. I would just act like I had been there the entire time.

My flashlight beam ahead of me lit up an angry looking man with buffalo horns, and I jumped back and stifled a scream.

Ki-wa-go. It was only Ki-wa-go.

He said something in Pawnee, and the others came out looking at me as well. Clearly Ki-wa-go's words had been some sort of accusation.

"You were all so late, so I decided to look for firewood," I said. I reached down and pulled a twig up from the ground to show them what I meant. When they still looked confused, I took them into the lodge and pointed at the cold firepit.

"Ahh," said Ku-sox. He said something in Pawnee, and all the other men left the earth lodge.

Ku-sox got me a cup of water while we waited, and rubbed my shoulders as I drank it.

When the other five Pawnee returned, they were overflowing with firewood. Clearly they had just made a trip to their secret cellar. Soon, Le-sha-ro had the main fire lit, and then all of them lit the fires in their bedrooms.

Dinner was discussed, and once again, Ki-wa-go went into the cellar and came back with a huge slab of meat. Sha-ku-ru came back with the rest of the food, and dinner started to be cooked.

When dinner was ready, Ku-sox again made sure I got more than anyone, and plenty of water. After dinner, straws were drawn once again, only this time, Ski-rik and Sha-ku-ru abstained.

Ku-sox got one of the long straws, and Ku-rux, the one I hated the most, got the other. I knew I was fated to have them feed off me.

There was more discussion, and Ski-rik pulled the key out of his dick strap. Soon, he, Le-sha-ro, Ki-wa-go, and Sha-ku-ru walked out of the place.

While we waited, Ku-sox held me from behind by the fire, and I could feel his dick getting hard.

I thought about what was happening to the captured Asian vampire. It was all too clear that they were feeding on him and likely raping him in the process while the rest of us waited. These two stayed behind only because they would be drinking my blood that night.

I realized that they must have a huge stash of plastic blood packets, surely raided from other vampires, such an extensive one that they didn't bother taking any more with them from our victory during the previous night. He said they were feeding him what he needed to survive, which I'm sure meant he was getting fed packet after packet of blood.

And that meant all the Pawnee were living solely off him. Syd said vampires hated drinking the blood packets, but making another vampire drink them and then getting it from them hot and alive, with sex involved to boot, would be a sweet deal for these people.

I made up my mind; I had to help this poor vampire. He was a slave, just as the other humans were, and he needed rescuing.

I just needed that key. Why did it seem like I was always in want of some key or another?

I got up and shocked Ku-rux, my least favorite of the Pawnee, when I pulled him towards his bedroom, saying I chose him first. The logic was simple: since he would be feeding off me, I was worried he would lose control, like Ski-rik so shamelessly had the night before. I knew that if I went with Ku-sox, my favorite of the Pawnee, first, he would fall asleep after, and be less likely to be able to come to my rescue should I need him to intervene with Ku-rux. This way, he'd be waiting just outside the door, ready to come to my rescue should I need it.

Ku-rux stripped me of my clothes and tossed them by my backpack before he let me go into his room. Since the man with the tattoo covering half of his head from the nose up was nearly naked already, he didn't take anything off accept for his boots.

Ku-rux certainly didn't display any sort of gentleness with me, though he wasn't as rough as his buffalo-helmeted friend, Ki-wa-go. Though he wasn't bullying me physically, he still had me get on my knees and suck him, and he wouldn't let me get away with me going only part of the way, he wanted his whole huge dick inside my mouth, and when I came up short, he laughed and ridiculed me.

And then he wanted to screw me with me lying down on his bed, facing him, while he was on his knees. He held my feet by his face as he plowed me roughly.

I suppose Ku-rux must have had some sort of foot fetish, because he first started to lick my feet as they rested on his shoulders, and then he actually bit into my right one, surprising me. As that euphoric sense hit my body, I realized he wasn't just playing with me; he was really taking his fill of blood from my foot. Of course, while he sucked it down, he continued to plow me.

His orgasm, when it came, led him into the most physically forcefulness he had yet given me, and I felt nothing but pain when he shot into me.

As I got up and left Ku-rux, who fell on his bed, asleep, I realized I didn't feel very weak at all, even though I had just had my blood drained. I wondered if it was because he had chosen to bite my foot when my foot was elevated: that didn't seem like the most efficient way to get blood, and as a result, I was suffering from having my foot fall asleep, but little else.

When I came into the main room, Ku-sox was still waiting there, and Sha-ku-ru just walked in from the outside, his pants seemingly sporting a major erection. I could only assume feeding off their trapped Asian vampire had left him unfulfilled in the sex department.

"Ku-sox," I said, pointing to my next choice, and leading him into his bedroom. The warhawked Pawnee was my favorite, after all, and I felt energetic enough that the prospect of being fed upon was not so great.

The sex was much like it had been the night before: he started by taking off his pants and boots, and then I sucked him, but he didn't force me to go down all the way.

He had me lie face down and he licked my hole for what seemed like forever. And then, with me still lying face down, he entered me, but didn't ever push all the way in.

But this time, after screwing me for a while, he bit into the right side of my neck, making all sorts of groans as the blood entered his mouth and the pleasant feeling entered my body.

He was so excited by my blood, he came inside me as soon as he tasted it, something that no vampire had done with me before. Usually they drank their fill before orgasming. I figured it must be unintentional as he emptied himself into me and still drank and drank.

When he took as much as I knew he needed and still continued to drink, his dick inside me never softening, I angrily shook him and said his name sharply. That seemed to jolt him back to reality. He pulled off me and licked my wound shut.

As Ku-sox fell asleep in his bed, I walked out, feeling a bit woozy but still decent. By that time, everyone was back from their secret cellar, and the four of them clearly wanted me to chose who I'd be sleeping with next.

Everyone was shocked when I said, "Ki-wa-go," the only other Pawnee there that I absolutely detested. Ki-wa-go hadn't even been trying to pose for me, he knew after the way he treated me the night before, he'd for sure be last in line. But the truth was, I needed to get his rough sex over with for fear I'd be too tired later in the night to proceed with my plan if I left him for later, so I ended up with him grabbing me and carrying me over his shoulder into his bedroom, one of the buffalo horns on his helmet almost cutting me in the process.

When Ki-wa-go set me down over his bed, he once again forced me to suck his dick. This time, though, I noticed that he was still totally hard from him drinking from their captive's blood, which wasn't surprising. His huge dick was all wet; I figured that must have meant he made the captive suck him or have intercourse with him while he fed, even if the sex clearly hadn't resulted in a Ki-wa-go orgasm, which I found very disturbing. More troubling was just the thought that his dick was clearly contaminated, and he was forcing the thing into my mouth, not letting me avoid it.

From the lack of any bad flavor on his dick, I figured he must have gotten blown instead of anything more, but it still grossed me out. He forced me all the way down, raping my mouth, again never looking at me in the eye.

And then he flipped me over and gave the same treatment to my other side until he came inside me. He carried me out of his room and threw me on the ground outside before going to bed. Such a world class gentleman he was.

When the three remaining Pawnee looked at me, I said, "Sha-ku-ru," who I had picked second the night before and then got demoted to fourth. He smiled, seemingly surprised, perhaps he thought I had been disappointed in the sex he gave me and that's why he had gotten bumped down.

Sha-ku-ru, the one with the lazyhawk, tribal tattoos on the right side of his body and that bead tanktop, led me into his room by the hand. Sha-ku-ru was by far the most gentle of all the Pawnee, and that made me want to put him after Ki-wa-go and Ku-rux's guaranteed roughness, in order to catch my breath before I had to enact my plan for the night. Otherwise, I would have picked him second again, for sure.

Our pairing was much like it had been the night before, with him taking off his pants and then kissing me, and never breaking that kiss. He entered me face up on his bed, and I just lay there, letting him kiss me, until he came. Afterwards, he quickly fell asleep, and I left the room.

"Le-sha-ro," I said next in the main room of the earth lodge, and went into Le-sha-ro's room with the Hiawatha look-alike. The sex was maddeningly the same as the previous night. He started smoking whatever substance was in his pipe as he made me suck him. And then, while he passed out, he made me bounce up and down on him until I was exhausted and he came.

But this time, I grabbed the discarded pipe and took it with me as my prize as I left the room.

Ski-rik was the only one left, and it didn't seem to upset him that I had picked him last. How could it have, when the last time I had picked him, he could have killed me by taking too much blood? But, the truth was, I only put him at the end because I wanted to end up sleeping in his bed, just like I had the previous night.

Only, instead of Ski-rik being so amped all night the slightest movement I made woke him up, I'd have to make sure he was in a much deeper sleep.

As Ski-rik, who never wore anything more than a necklace and a feather, started to get his dick going on his bed, I showed him the pipe and smiled, offering it to him.

He smiled as he took it from me and said something that sounded like words of gratitude as he put the pipe to his lips.

Just before he could inhale, he seemed to change his mind. He said something else in Pawnee, perhaps something akin to "Just say no," and he set the pipe down away from the bed. I guess he wasn't into drugs.

And with that, he totally ruined my plan. As he took his time with me in bed, both with the oral and then especially with the anal, I kept racking my brain for some other solution.

After he came inside me, he started to rub my chest with his hands, not looking the least bit tired. His dick wasn't even softening; he would probably be up like that all night. He seemed to be one of those people that just didn't need sleep.

Right when I started to dread the long night of interrupted sleep I was bound to have sharing a bed with Ski-rik, he reached over, grabbed the smoke pipe, and re-ignited it with his bedroom fire. He put his lips on the pipe, inhaled fully, and then held his breath as he set the pipe down.

He put his lips to mine, pulled my face into his with his hands, and then exhaled all of the smoke into my mouth. As soon as I realized just what he was trying to do, I tried to take a sharp breath and hold it before the smoke got to me. Instead, I ended up inhaling some of the disgusting smoke, and then coughing, which meant I ended up blowing the smoke out as well as sucking it in. And just like that, I had thoroughly inhaled the offensive stuff too.

Whoa, was this smoke strong. Clearly this was no marijuana, not that I would even know what that felt like. My head felt dizzy and I lay down on my back.

Ski-rik took another huge inhale from the pipe, and then he put his lips to mine and tried to blow it into me again, but this time I was smart enough to hold my breath.

Only, that's when the smoke really, really started to hit me, and I felt my senses start to go. He took another inhale, straddled my body with his hard dick pressed against my soft one, put his lips to mine, and kissed me one last time with the smoke. I couldn't muster the control over my muscles to even hold my breath, so I ended up taking it all in.

And that's when I passed out into a hallucinogenic fuzz.

I woke up feeling confused, my head and my senses all betraying me. I hated the confusion, it made me feel nauseous, so I listened to my body and went back to sleep.

I woke again, only a bit less confused than the last time. Could hear Ski-rik's body next to me, sounding like he was in a heavy sleep. Wasn't there something important about that? For the life of me, I couldn't remember. I went back to sleep.

My eyelids slammed open as my head cleared for the first time, and I remembered what I had to do.

One quick look over told me that Ski-rik was still lying there next to me, totally conked out. I had to do this now, before the drugs wore off.

But when I tried to move, I found the drug still had its effects on my body. Trying to get up almost made me faint, but then I did manage to roll myself towards him.

My left hand hit his hard dick, and moved up to where that strap was around his base.

Just as I got my hand on it, my body gave in as I passed out again, fruitless.

The next time I woke up, I found Ski-rik was lying on his stomach, meaning my window of opportunity had passed.

But then I lift up my arms and realized that my body was functioning a lot better than it had been the last time.

I tried to be gentle as I lifted Ski-rik up, and then used my body to push him onto his side, but I was still impaired enough so that gentle just wasn't an option.

I grabbed the key in his dick strap and I pulled it off into my hand.

And then, I heard him groan, and it surprised me so much, I leapt back and dropped him in the process, his face landing hard on the bed.

I was sure he'd wake up, but after a couple seconds of suspense, he still snored on.

But a new problem presented itself. In my initial plan, I was going to walk the key over to my things, get dressed, and then slip out of the lodge, letting out their captive in the night. But now, I found I couldn't even sit up, let alone walk anywhere. The captive would have to wait until the next day, and I would have to find a place to hide the key for now.

But there wasn't anyplace around that would conceal a key, at least none that wouldn't require me getting up from bed.

As I felt the drugs take me down again, making it clear that I'd pass out again any second, I had no option but to hide the key somewhere on my body. Surely, under the arm would never work with me asleep, so I moved my hand in the direction of my butt, sighing that it was that sad option it would come down to.

Something made me change my mind though, some sense that as long as I was in this earth lodge, my butt belonged to them, and would not be safe.

So I stuck the key in my mouth and held it there as sleep took me.

Much later, I woke up again, feeling my hole all stuffed up, and I realized that Ski-rik was having sex with my unconscious body, apparently feeling all recovered from the effects of the drugs. I certainly had made the right choice by not trying to hide anything down there. And, for once, I was glad about the drugs still affecting me as I went unconscious again as he continued to plow me.

FEBRUARY 3rd

It was morning when I woke up, and Ski-rik was nowhere to be found. In his place was Ku-sox, the warhawked Pawnee who was waking me up gently.

He said something and handed me a huge tray of food, clear that he wanted me to eat.

I was about to say, leave it and I'll eat later, when I noticed an obstruction in my mouth.

That's when I realized I had the key in there still. I could not let him see it.

I tried to motion with my hands that I would eat later, but he reached over, grabbed a slice of apple with his hand, and stuck it in my mouth. Afraid he would see the key, I pushed it to the back of my throat.

I shut my mouth around the apple slice, smiling at him. I did nothing for a moment, but he just looked at me expectantly, so I started to chew the apple.

And then I pretended to swallow, creating a fake gulping sound, when really, I held the food in my mouth.

I felt him put a piece of cooked meat to my lips, sticking that in my mouth as well. I chewed it along with the apple, and then pretended again to swallow, hoping he would leave me alone.

But then he grabbed a cup of water and put the rim to my lips, dead set on me having a balanced meal. I was forced to take a long drink, until my mouth was totally full.

As he looked at me quizzically, I was able to somehow move the key to the front of my mouth and hide it under my upper lip before I swallowed the mouthful.

With that strategy in place, I was able to eat the entire tray of food before he finally let me go back to sleep, the key still hidden.

I woke up around lunchtime, the key still in my mouth, and the first thing I did was remove it. I got up and quickly made sure the earth lodge was empty. Yes, they must have been out for the day.

Just as I started to get dressed in order to let out the captive vampire, I realized that there was probably a really good reason why his cell didn't have a single ceiling opening for light. It must have been because, with him not getting the blood he needed, he would bleed to death in the light, just as Syd had done. I needed to wait until after dark to let him out, I decided.

So I ate the lunch they had left for me, bathed in the stream, did some laundry, and then read until nightfall.

When the sun had set, I grabbed the key and my flashlight and walked to the concealed entrance of their second earth lodge.

"Jake, you got the key!" said the captured vampire before I even got into view of him.

"Okay, you'll have to stop doing that, it's very unsettling," I said to him as I walked down into the cellar and towards his bars.

"Oh, right, I see how it could be so, I'm sorry."

I used the key to unlock the gate of his cell, and then again to unlock the chains they had surrounded him with.

"You can't imagine how thankful I am to you, Jake," he said as the two of us pulled his chains off, and he remained naked, the front loincloth tied around his unit the only remaining piece of clothing on the man's studly body. "Mmm, I feel weak. Would you help me outside?"

"Of course."

He put his muscled arm around my neck, and I led him out of the lodge, and then we both sat down on a nearby log.

He gazed towards the sky. "Oh, my Lord in Heaven, thank You for giving my eyes the sight of Your beautiful sky." I assumed he was speaking figuratively, and not literally addressing God, whom the vampires didn't believe in.

"The stars sure are beautiful, aren't they?"

"Indeed. I owe you the experience of seeing them again, just as I owe you my life. I'm indebted to you." He smiled, his eyes twinkling, looking endlessly deep.

"I'm glad to help."

"Can I just ask one more favor of you?"

"You can ask."

"I'm only asking you because it feels so, so good to have you close to me."

I worried he had smelled my rare blood type, and was asking permission to have a taste.

"It's been so long since my telepathy has really worked on anyone, and having you walk into range of my mind was like, well, it was like being shown a beautiful Michelangelo masterpiece after years of being blindfolded. I only heard the thoughts I couldn't shut out if I wanted to, but I can actually go deeper and really read you deeply properly."

"Do you really need my permission to do that?"

He shook his head. "Actually, no, I could force you into it if I desired to, but I won't, I promise you. And I should let you know, I do not lie. What do you say, will you let me probe you?"

It sounded oddly sexual to me.

He chuckled. "I can assure you, there's nothing the least bit sexual to the act."

"Alright, sure," I said. "I don't have anything to hide. Do as you please."

"It would take me hours to go through your whole history, so I'm just going to do a light dip for now. It would assist me if you let your mind wander anywhere it wants to go, don't try to direct it yourself."

"Umm, okay," I said, feeling a bit weirded out by the whole thing.

I shut my eyes, and tried to just let my mind wander. Wander it did, going from my upbringing, to my recent revelations and attacks by the vampires, to me rescuing the Territory slaves.

After a couple minutes, he said, "You can open your eyes. Thanks so much for indulging me, Jake." He was smiling at me.

"Of course."

"You're the Eversor," he said.

"The what?"

"The, uh, the One."

"Oh, right, my odd gene, yes, I guess I'm guilty."

He put his hand on my head, and it was remarkable how soothing his touch was. "And you're a man of deep religious faith and convictions."

"Yes, that's right," I said, hoping he wouldn't freak out about that.

"You're an extremely good person, Jake. Very moral, and very brave. And you're a very beautiful man physically as well."

"Uh, thanks."

"I'm going to invite you to come with me," he said with a smile. "You would make an excellent one of my kind. Come with me to my brothers, and we'll turn you. You can do much more good with us than you will on your own."

"That's very kind of you, but I don't ever want to be a vampire," I said.

"A blooddemon? Oh no, of course you don't. But that's not—"

"--I'd rather remain as I am."

"Ah, yes, I understand. You cling to your tether to your humanity. No, I see now. What I have to give you would only cause you consternation."

"What will you do now?"

"I'll leave, tend my wounds, and then come back here to deliver justice to the Pawnee."

"What does that mean?"

"I'm going to kill them for what they've done, and in order to make sure they don't victimize someone else in the future."

"No," I said. "Please don't kill them."

"I have to, Jake."

"You said you owed me something. I'm asking you to just walk away from here and leave them behind. I know what they did was awful, but I'm tired of all the bloodshed."

"Alright, I promise not to hurt them, for your sake. Oh, one of them actually speaks English for goodness sake, the one with the buffalo helmet. He only pretends not to understand."

"Ahh, that's good to know."

He looked up and down at me. "Now, if you're going to refuse my offer of turning you, let me do something else. Let me be your guardian. If you'll have me, I swear to stay with you, to guard you against evil until such time I can ascertain your long-term security, even if that takes years."

"Listen, that is such a sweet offer, and you seem like a very kind man, and you certainly are a beautiful person, inside and out."

"Thank you, Jake. As are you."

"But I think I need to remind you that you may know me well now because you've, uh, probed me with your mind. But I still barely know you."

"Sorry, sometimes I forget that. I wish I could just give you my telepathy and have you probe me as well, so you could see my honesty and conviction for yourself."

"But since that's just not an option, I'm going to have to turn your offer down, though I am flattered."

"I understand," he said. "At least let me take you away from here. Let me take you wherever you need to go. To your family, it seems."

"No thanks, I swore I'd stay with the Pawnee through tonight, and I'm not big on breaking my word."

"That is very honorable. Alright then, I can sense they are on their way back now. I'd better leave before they drag me into any unwanted confrontations."

"Will I ever see you again?" I asked.

He smiled. "That remains to be seen. We can only hope."

"Oh, what's your name, anyway?"

"Samuel."

"Just Samuel? Like just Cleopatra?"

He laughed. "Indeed. Just Samuel. Now, if you would be so kind as to look away from me and cover your ears."

"Really?"

"Really."

"Okay." I faced away from him and covered my ears, as he asked. After a few seconds, I asked, "How long do I have to do this?"

When I heard nothing in response, I turned my head. Samuel was completely vanished.

I went back into the main earth lodge to see the six Pawnee had only just arrived, with them just finishing lighting all their fires.

"I have something I need to tell all of you," I announced. I looked at Ki-wa-go. "And you, I know you know English, Ki-wa-go. Why have you been pretending you didn't?"

He looked at me disdainfully under that buffalo helmet. "Because the sound of English makes my ears scream. Even more when I hear it come out of my own mouth."

"Well, translate for me, please. Tell them that I'm not going to play any games, that I'm just going to come clean."

Ki-wa-go translated into Pawnee for the others.

I held up the stolen key in my hand. "I've released your prisoner. He's long gone, and there's no way you'll ever get him back."

Ki-wa-go was so stunned, he couldn't translate for a moment. When the words finally did come, the other five all gasped in surprise.

"You idiot," Ki-wa-go said. "He was our lifeline. Our means of survival."

"I don't care," I said. "It was wrong to keep him enslaved, to use him like you did."

"He was no saint. He killed two of our men." Which surely happened when he tried to break his brother out of their captivity.

"I don't care. I don't want you to go after him, and I don't think it's right for you to hold anyone else captive like that, ever again."

Ki-wa-go translated, still never looking me directly in the eye. "What are we supposed to do now?"

"I filled my pack with blood packets, enough to last you weeks. That should be plenty of time for you to find a plan B. If you relocated a bit west, you could put your camp near Fools Gold, and you could buy or trade for blood there. Also, I know they have an enormous store of these blood packets in Mareshead. You might be able to launch a raid party and steal their blood." The second option was particularly enticing to me.

Ki-wa-go translated everything.

"I think this is the perfect opportunity to try and better yourselves. Think of what your wives, mothers, sisters, and daughters would have wanted, before they died."

"No. I'm not translating that," Ki-wa-go said in disgust.

"Fine, I don't care." I pulled out the blood packets. "But tell them since you've obviously agreed that no more than two of you should feed off me in a day, which I wholeheartedly agree with, four of you will need to get used the idea of drinking these tonight."

As Ki-wa-go translated, I handed out four packets, skipping Ki-wa-go and Le-sha-ro because I knew they were the two who still would be able to drink my blood that night. Ku-rux in particular looked disgusted at the packet.

Ku-sox was the first to bravely suck down the blood inside. Sha-ku-ru quickly followed suit, and it didn't even look like it tasted bad while he drank it.

Ski-rik and Ku-rux took a whole lot more convincing, but they too drank the packets, because, really, what other option did they have?

And then the evening turned into business as usual, with dinner being made, Ku-sox getting me to eat more and more food, and then the sex starting. All of the sex was pretty much like it had been the first two nights, only this time, Le-sha-ro and Ki-wa-go drank my blood, with the latter being particularly brutal.