Evil Is a Man

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

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

APRIL 15th Cont.

"Welcome to the city of Pradhaan Desh," Big Horn said to us. "The political center of the Shankar Blood's Territory, or what they call the Raajya East, situated towards the east side of India."

"Is there a Raajya West?" I asked.

"Yes, an Arabian city called Badiya Ahmar. You see, the Raajya is a land split amongst two city- states."

"It's a Tale of Two City-States?" All I got from Big Horn and Helina were blank stares.

"I guess so. But this is the premier city-state, the one in charge, where their leader is housed."

Helina pulled at her black dress collar. "I can't believe I've been here only a matter of seconds, and I'm already longing for the frigid Russian air."

The heat and humidity couldn't bother me in the least. I was too busy gawking at the beauty of these new surroundings.

The city was carved out of the lush Indian jungle, and seemed to be situated at the crossing of two deep, wet rivers. The architecture of the buildings was beyond gorgeous, all classic Indian architecture. I saw a lot of Vijayanagara architecture style, with plenty of even older stuff, back into the first Millennium. There was even the occasional Mughal influence in some buildings here or there.

We had moved from the all-white Petrov Blood to a population that was entirely Indian. People were wearing Indian garments that seemed a couple centuries old at least, filled with gorgeous colors. No sign of any Petrov industrial revolution machinery at all, and the people rode horses or the occasional elephant down the streets.

"What time period did we just move into?" I asked.

"Why, India in its prime, of course. Before you White People came and mucked everything up with unkempt promises to the Indians, just like you managed to do to pretty much every other culture."

"Oh, I see how it is. Just because I have a history of amnesia, may as well just go ahead and pin all the ills caused by European colonialism on my shoulders, since I can't technically can't deny any of it. Makes perfect sense."

"I'm not blaming you alone. Crazy Kid here is just as white as you are, so he is equally to blame."

"You getting your long hair stuck in your eyes, Big Horn?"

"Sorry, did I forget to warn you that Big Horn isn't exactly overburdened by common sense?" I asked Helina. "Which is why he thinks I am white when I am darker than he is, thinks I'm a kid even though I'm very much a man, and thinks I'm crazy even though I've got loads more sanity than half the vampires I've met."

"Enough talk," Big Horn said.

"It's pretty convenient to stop conversation cold when it is critical of you instead of all the loads of times I've wanted to stop you from lecturing me," I said.

"Like it or not, but we have arrived. This is their head of monarchy here, the Mahal Aranya."

Big Horn pointed to the grandest building of all, situated at the edge of the city, right against the tree-covered mountains. It had the scale and the serene magnificence of the Taj Mahal, but with less of an Islamic look to it, this palace was pure Hindu temple, dark green in color.

Big Horn led us two the doors. "Their leader will probably be inside."

I looked down at Pavlov at my heel. "I can't walk into a vampire king's hall with a pet. That's just too rude. Would one of you mind waiting out here with the dog?"

Helina grabbed Pavlov and walked to the side of the door. "Us female members of our respective breeds will wait outside while you menfolk talk business with the king," she said. "Even in the Petrov Blood, where it's technically not illegal to be a Tsarista or a female head of one of our head families, it's still nothing but a sausage fest among any leaders, and I don't want to hold you back from meeting with the king."

Big Horn and I opened the gate doors and walked inside the palace. We made our way into a large entry way of sorts. Ancient green stones and tiles supported lanterns, which lit the room up in beautiful, twinkling light. There were several doors on the other side of the room, but the main focus seemed to be on a large fountain. Water ran over green rocks, looking like a creek. In fact, it was hard to tell if the palace had been built around this creek or if it was artificial, but either way it was pretty.

"Stop right there!" said men's voices with Hindi accents.

Three nearby male guards came at us with spears drawn. They had Indian armor on that looked out of the middle ages, filled with shiny metal. Their eyes were dark brown, and they all had black buns on their heads. They seemed like vampires to me.

"I'm the next One, and I need to see your leader."

"Get Admiral Devar," one of them said, and he ran off through one of the side doors.

A couple minutes later, the guard returned with two more men. One didn't even have a shirt on, and was carrying just a ceremonial object, but the other had even more armor than the others and a full helmet, with a larger spear.

"You must be Admiral Devar," I said to the man who was dressed the most imposingly. "I'm the One."

"No, that's me," said the man who was shirtless. "I am Admiral Sajan Devar, the head of both the Shankar military as well as the Royal Guard."

I smiled at him. He was the absolute epitome of male Indian beauty, so beautiful that I could not imagine him existing in modern India without getting sucked into their movie industry, even if he was totally talentless. He had big, beautiful brown eyes, full lips, and a chiseled face structure. His hair was just long enough to show off a taste of his luscious black curls, but it was under a modest sikh-style turban. He had a very short beard, and it was interesting to me that his beard hair showed no sign of being wiry or curly, just perfectly straight. His brown skin covered ripped, tight muscles, sending shivers through me as I looked at him in practically his underwear.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Devar, but I seem to have interrupted you in the middle of getting dressed. You can finish, I'll wait here."

"This is my battle uniform."

"Just that?"

"You've learned that the more esteemed a warrior, the more fanciful their dress. But for us Shankar warriors, the opposite is true. Here, the older, stronger warrior has no need for thick plates of armor or long range weapons meant to strike at a coward's distance. The stronger warrior is deadly with just his bare hands, if need be, or just a simple little Bhuj, like this one." He showed me that what I had thought was some item of ceremony was actually a weapon, a combo between an axe and a dagger.

I looked again at Sajan Devar, and I realized what I had taken for underwear actually seemed built for battle. He had metal armbands and anklebands, and he was wearing a colorful warrior's skirt that came down to his knees, almost something like a Sikh Shastar Vidiya person would have worn on their lower half. Was he wearing underwear under that skirt of his? It didn't look like it, but I couldn't exactly look down to inspect his crotch.

"Finally, a man who understands my taste in clothing," Big Horn said.

"This is Big Horn, a vampire from the Logan Blood. And according to his fashion tastes, you are over-dressed right now."

"Good to meet both of you." He leaned in and smelled me. "Ah, the Raami was right. You are AB negative."

"How did you know?" I asked.

"The Raami has been expecting you. Just didn't plan on you coming so quickly. Please come with me, Mr. One."

"You don't have to call me that."

"Right, so just One then? Or is your first name The? Please, just call me Sajan."

"You can call me by my actual name," I said.

"Which is Crazy Kid," said Big Horn.

"Alright, nice to meet you, Crazy."

"That is only what this crazy man calls me. My real name is Jake Groves."

"Ah, okay. Well, follow me."

I gestured to the surroundings. "This palace is so obviously Hindu in design, isn't it?"

"I'm sorry, did you just say it's Hindi? Yes, we all speak Hindi here, but only as a second language. We are in line with the Vampire Council decree of English being spoken completely."

"No, I didn't say Hindi. I said Hindu. As in Hinduism?"

"I'm afraid I don't understand that word," said Sajan.

"It's a religion, and the architecture of this palace is all very Hindu temple. You don't see the connection?"

"We are not religious here, Jake. That would be against Vampire code. Surely you're mistaken. No one here has ever even heard of these religious fantasies of yours. Now, because the chamber of the Raani is so sacred, Jake, I'm going to have to ask you to remove your shoes before we go any further."

I laughed as I took my shoes off. "This is so Hindu. Am I the only one who sees that?"

"And over there. This fountain is here so one can wash their feet. Please, both of you oblige."

I stepped into the streamwater, the coldness feeling refreshing, and washed my feet. Not that they were even that dirty, but I was happy to follow their etiquette.

"Big Horn, your feet are turning all the water around you brown!" I said, repulsed.

"That's why I'm washing them downstream of you, Crazy Kid."

I wrinkled my nose. "When was the last time those filthy things actually saw water?"

"This morning, believe it or not. You try walking around barefoot everywhere and tell me how dirty your feet get."

"I would never! I'll give you a pair of shoes if you like."

"Were these footwear worn by my ancestors?"

"I doubt it, not unless your ancestors were rocking Nikes way ahead of the trend."

"Then I'll pass as well, and learn to accept my dirty feet."

"I will need to process both of you through security before you are allowed to go anywhere near the royals, of course." Sajan pointed to a door towards the right side of the room. "The men's security chamber is right over there."

"You can take me first," I said, looking at Big Horn scrubbing his feet.

Sajan led me into the security room, and I marveled at how kind and sweet his energy was. Even though the two looked nothing alike, there was more Parker in him than in any other man I had met. Though obviously, appearances could be deceiving.

"I'm afraid it falls on my shoulders to make sure not a single article of contraband is permitted in the royal chambers," he said when we were alone in his small security room. "I'm going to have to ask you to remove all your clothing."

"All of it?"

"Yes."

"Don't you have a metal detector or a full body scanner you could employ instead?"

"That's me. I'm the metal detector and the full body scanner here." It was clear he had no idea I had been referring to a machine. Oh, how quaint these vampire societies were. "I hate to ask this of you, but these are the rules. The only way you'll be allowed through. Now, I can understand if this makes you uncomfortable. I admit, I've never had a human back here. I could find a human to inspect you if that would make you more comfortable. After all, we have a woman here to inspect all the females who seek entrance."

"No, I'm fine, really."

I started to take off my clothes. I did notice all the bruises that still covered me everywhere, and that reminded me that my face at that moment really was not what I looked like at all. It certainly wasn't up to the standard this beautiful man was setting, but I tried not to linger on that. He set all of my hard things (cellphone, wallet, belt, pocketwatch, etc.) into a drawer, letting me know I wouldn't be able to take them in with me. He took my clothes and started feeling over every seam.

"What is that for?"

"Just making sure there aren't any secret compartments in your clothes concealing anything that might be a danger."

When he was done and I was naked, he led me to a pair of metal wrist shackles hanging from the ceiling.

"Please put your hands up into the shackles."

"What is this for?"

"This is for my own safety while I inspect you. Standard procedure."

"Do I have your word that you won't submit me to anything I don't agree to while I have my hands up?"

"You do. And I swear you can back out of the procedures at any time if they become too much for you." Somehow, I trusted him.

I put my hands up, and he fastened the cuffs around my wrists. "Normally, I would wear gloves when doing this, for both of our protection, but you're completely virus free, aren't you? Being the One?"

"That's one of the few benefits of the gig, yes."

"Well then, I'll leave it up to you. Do you want me to wear the gloves? Would they help you mentally?"

Normally I would have said yes, but he was a nice, incredibly attractive person. "When was the last time you washed your hands?"

"Just moments ago."

"No gloves. That's fine with me."

"Can you open your mouth? I need to be sure there's nothing hidden there."

I opened up and he put his thumb and forefinger in my mouth, which tasted just as clean as he promised. Rather nice, actually.

"Good, very good," he said soothingly as he removed his fingers.

His eyes moved down the naked skin of my body until he reached the first obstructed area: my crotch.

"I'm afraid I'll have to physically touch this area, do I have your consent? It's the only place I'll need to touch you." his voice was so calming, how could I protest?

"Yes, go ahead."

He lifted my penis up gently and checked underneath, feeling my balls quickly as well.

"Do I pass?"

"Indeed, I'll untie you. Oh wait, I almost forgot. None of the vampires I screen have another cavity for me to inspect, but you aren't built like we are, are you? I'm sorry, there is another place I'll have to touch you, if you permit me to." He moved around to look at my rear.

"You won't let me go without this?"

"I'm afraid not."

"Well then, I don' r really have an option. Please proceed."

"Thank you. Do you want me to put a glove on for this?"

"It doesn't matter."

"Given that this is so unusual for me, I don't have any lubricant. Do you want me to lick my fingers first?"

"Whatever. Just get it over with."

He licked his fingers and spread my cheeks. "Here it comes."

When he stuck his finger inside me, it felt so good, I actually had to concentrate my whole energy on not starting to get hard, as that would have been totally mortifying.

"NOW have I proven myself sufficiently benign?"

"Yes, completely." He untied me. "So sorry to put you through that. It is the one of my least favorite parts of my job."

"It's okay."

"You can put your clothes back on, just keep the shoes off."

I got dressed again, though anything that could possibly be used as a weapon was kept from me. Big Horn came in, his feet up to my standards of cleanliness.

"Ah, Mr. Big Horn, I'm afraid I'll need to give you the same sort of strip search before I permit you entrance. Please discard all clothing items."

"But I'm barely wearing anything," he said.

"The loin cloth and all your jewelry will have to come off."

"Crazy Kid, you might want to cover your eyes."

I laughed at him. "Big Horn, it's impossible to even look at you briefly in your loin cloth without unintentionally catching an eyeful of some fraction of your equipment."

"But there's a big difference between catching a glimpse of me and seeing me in my full glory."

"Fine, I'm shutting my eyes." I did so.

Soon, I could hear Sajan had Big Horn in the same shackles over his head. "I'm watching your eyes, Admiral. One slightest glance towards my phallus, and I will not be pleased."

I heard Sajan ask for permission before putting his newly latex-gloved hand in Big Horn's mouth. Afterwards it seemed like he was looking at his rear-end.

"You've had your anus stitched up?" Sajan asked.

"Yes."

"That means I won't have to touch you there. But I'm still going to need to check under your penis to make sure you haven't concealed anything underneath, do I have your permission to touch and look at you there?"

"No, I absolutely do not permit that."

"But it's the only way I'll permit you to move forward."

"I don't let anyone touch me there, ever."

"Even with my gloves on?"

"Even then. You see, I'm a Special, and my instrument is the nexus of my power. I consider it sacred ground. Having you touch it or even look at it would be unacceptable. Can't you just look with your eyes, just this once?"

"Your instrument could easily be concealing some danger behind it."

"I'll take a vow on my ancestors that nothing is there."

"I can't take your word for this. I am incapable of bending the rules. I have to see behind it. What if I use my hands to cover your penis with modesty sock, and then inspect with my eyes only the cloth-covered instrument?"

"I guess that will be fine. But can Crazy Kid be the one to touch me?"

"As long as I can see behind it, that would be fine. But I cannot take his word for it."

"Why would it help to have me be the one?" I asked.

"Because I'm close with you. You are more like my own hand to me somehow. Wait, no don't open your eyes!"

"You expect me to do this with my eyes shut?"

"Yes! I don't want you to see anything you don't have to."

"How bizarre that I'm permitted to touch something I am not allowed to actually look at."

With my eyes shut, I moved his way and felt with my hands until I got to his crotch.

I tried to conceal the little gasp of surprise that came out as my hands touched his unit and felt how astoundingly large it was, even soft. I moved my hands down from base to head, feeling that it was definitely uncut.

"You don't have to feel him so thoroughly!" said Big Horn. "Just put on the covering."

I used my right hand to grab the wonderful head and lifted it up.

I put the sock over his dick carefully.

"What about the balls, Big Horn? Are those sacred to you too?"

"Of course!"

"Well then, I'm going to need another sock, because there's no way they are going to fit in this one."

Sajan gave me another piece of cloth.

I used my left hand to lift up his weighty balls, which really barely fit in one hand, and put them in the sock.

Big Horn made me keep my eyes shut when Sajan looked carefully at him.

"Yes, that will do, thanks."

Sajan unlocked Big Horn and let him put his loin cloth back on.

"Alright, please come with me," said Sajan.

He led us out of the security room back into the entrance hall, and then through the largest doors into the heart of the palace. I felt like I saw a shadow moving across the floor, and I turned to look in its direction, but whatever I had seen either disappeared before I could get a good look at it, or was just my imagination.

The chamber we entered absolutely took my breath way, it was so beautiful. A massive, circular room filled with green and gold colors, everything just screaming ancient Hindu temple. The walls and pillars were all shimmering with green and gold shapes meant to convey leaves and branches. Which was apt considering around the edges of the room, trees were actually growing, feeding off the light of numerous open skylights above us from the gorgeous curved ceiling.

But the main reason for the beauty lie what was in the center of the room, a several story tall ancient Hindu statue of a woman glittering in gold. I noticed she clearly had four arms, and I pointed it out to Sajan.

"That is clearly a depiction of a Hindu Goddess of some sort. Isn't it obvious? Everything around you has religious origins, whether you chose to believe it or not."

"She is not a goddess. That is a rendering of Shristi Shankar, the first Shankar vampire who lived a thousand years ago. She was a tremendous leader."

"No it's not," I said. "Are those the arms of a vampire? No. Hindu goddesses, on the other hand, were often depicted with multiple arms like that, probably in an effort to convey their supernaturalness. This is probably a statue of Parvati , Lakshima, or even Durga."

"Stop this foolish talk of religion, please! This is not a goddess. Shristi Shankar was a special whose ability was having four arms, something no other vampire in history has possessed. It was said that unique power so impressed the people they crowned her queen, and her people have ruled ever since. Now shush, her royalty arrives!"

"HER royalty?" I asked.

"Yes."

"You're led by a woman?"

"Of course!"

"Is it because there's no other male of her line?"

"The Shankar's are a patrilineal matriarchal society. Though the male Shankars are told by the females who to marry and when to reproduce, it is their daughters that rule, always the eldest in line."

A woman came through a door on our level and looked us over carefully, as Sajan bowed.

"Is that the queen?" I asked him.

"That's the Queen's royal advisor, Salahakara Ogra."

I figured she was this Blood's Vasos or Cornelius.

I realized that the headdress of the central statue was actually a chamber with windows. I could see a beautiful woman enter the room, dressed in formal beauty, with gorgeous, deep brown skin, clearly a vampire.

"Is that the Queen?" I asked.

"She is the Queen Mother, a female vampire from one of the ruling families who married the queen's father. Lady Chunni Menon."

Then another figure moved into view.

"That is the Devanshi Shankar, Her Excellency."

"Her dress is painted blue! That's totally a nod to Kali's blue skin, a Hindu Goddess!"

"Your words are swirling with ignorance!" said Sajan. "Everyone here knows Shristi, the first Shankar Queen, had blue skin as a part of her special ability. Every Queen since Shristi has worn blue as a tribute to the beauty of the first Queen."

"And what about the large red mark on her forehead? That's clearly a Hindu mark!"

"It is not! It's the mark of the Queen, only she is permitted to wear it."

Devanshi moved forward so that she was fully in view and looking down at us. With the almost otherworldly dress and totally statuesque gaze, she seemed frighteningly intimidating, though also filled with supernatural beauty. She was adorned with beautiful, colorful clothes and jewelry that seemed somewhere between the adornment of a Hindu goddess mixed with the height of medieval Indian female fashion.

Sajan bowed as soon as she and her mother looked upon us.

Sajan motioned towards me. "Raani, Your Excellency, this is the One, just as Lady Menon predicted."

"Good day to you," I said. "I invoke the power of the Vampire Council."

"Hmm," said Salahakara Ogra, and she started to write down some notes.

"A queen's ears are far too delicate to hear the patter of male humans," said Chunni Menon. "Sajan, translate for this beast."

"Raani, he says he invokes the power of the Council."

"Just as you told me he would, mother," said Devanshi. Her voice was a lot more delicate than I expected, and that's when I realized underneath all that make-up, this was a teenager. Made to look older, but still not yet a woman.

"My daughter knows and accepts her role as the Shankar Blood leader in the re-formed Vampire Council. She is so bored of this human that she will vote to see him killed. Unless he can provide to us a reason for his survival."

"There must be something I can do to earn the vote to live," I said.

"Stop speaking, your human male words are like fingernails on chalkboards to the Queen!" said the mother.

"I'll do the negotiating, then," said Big Horn, stepping forward. "I'm not a human, but a vampire just like the Queen and Admiral Devar."

The mother put her hands over Devanshi's ears protectively, as if Big Horn had just said something crass. "The Queen cannot hear male vampires of other Bloods unless they bow and swear fealty to her. Do it now!"

"I refuse," said Big Horn.

"Sajan, remove this insolent beast from the Queens pure gaze."

"Yes, Lady Menon."

Sajan escorted Big Horn out of the goddess statue room, and I followed them.

"I should have never chosen a male to negotiate for me," I said. I rushed outside of the building, Big Horn in tow, until I saw Helina and Pavlov. "Big Horn's been demoted to dog-sitter. Helina, I need you to negotiate with the Queen for her vote to save my life."

Sajan had Helina wash her feet, got a female security officer to screen her behind closed doors, and soon the three of us were walking back into the statue room.

Helina stepped forward. "Queen Shankar, I am Princess Helina Petrov, the person next in line to the Petrov throne. Please allow me to speak for my friend, Jake Groves."

"I'll allow it, Princess," said Chunni.

"What can Jake do that would convince you to vote to spare his life at the Vampire Council?"

The mother whispered to her daughter.

"The human man can kill my adversary in The Raajya West, Shah Jibril Bahar. He rules in the Arabian city of Badiya Ahmar."

"Why do you wish him dead?" asked Helina.

There was more whispering.

"A female is supposed to rule in Badiya Ahmar, but all the female Bahars died out centuries ago and he has avoided having a single female heir all that time, making him the only option of a ruler. Raajya West is subservient to Raajya East, technically, but he has become so powerful as a despot that there's no easy way for me to gain control of him. That's why the human has to do this. As an outside party, he would have no connection to me. If he does this for me, I will keep him alive."

I gave Helina a look of desperation.

"And there's nothing else we can barter with?" she asked.

"Nothing," said the mother.

"If we were to do this, we would need a signed contract guaranteeing you will vote with us at the Council," said Helina.

Lady Menon looked at Salahakara Ogra, who nodded. "You will have it. Sajan, please show them out."

Sajan kneeled again and then led the two of us out of the room. While Helina was getting her things back from the women's security room, Sajan led me into the men's one to hand me my possessions.

"Good luck to you," he said.

"Thanks, Sajan."

He was almost going to leave, but then he came back. "Listen, you seem like benevolent soul. There's something that I find quite touching about you."

"Thanks, you've touched me as well, Sajan. More than literally, I mean," I said, pointing to the shackles above me.

"I'll ask you. Are you from a family of any esteem in any of our Bloods?"

"Nope, just a poor, human family of no importance."

"Did you rise to some position of accomplishment or importance in the other Bloods? Some official occupation?"

"No. The only real occupation I've had has been student."

"And did you marry someone of importance in some other Blood?"

"Nope."

"Then as the head of military here, as your Admiral, I am so far ahead of you in position, it's not even comparable."

"I suppose so. Are you trying to brag, or impress me?"

"I am no braggart, Jake. I am trying to impress the fact that I am in a position to give you well- meaning advice and guidance, to help you as best I can."

"Ah, I see. Please, advise away."

"Alright. Please keep in mind that the Queen didn't issue you an order, she gave you a choice. You can chose not to get your hands dirty and the punishment will only be that she won't give you her vote. She's one vote of six. That won't be the end of the world."

"What are you telling me?"

"I'm asking you to keep you not to risk your life on this matter. Be safe."

"I will. Luckily, because I've already invoked the Council, that gives me physical protection. Thanks, Sajan."

"I look forward to seeing you alive and well again, Jake."

Helina was already outside talking to Big Horn by the time I got out there. "Yes, I have a portal to Badiya Ahmar, luckily. But what exactly is our endgame?"

"To assassinate Jibril Bahar," said Helina.

"I'm not killing anyone," said Big Horn. "We don't even know he deserves death."

"Devanshi made it sound like he was some sort of tyrant," said Helina.

"But we're not going to kill anyone unless he absolutely deserves death and killing him would save innocent lives, like killing your father did," I said.

"Of course not. I would never suggest killing for any other reason. I'm one of the good guys here."

"So, we'll go to Badiya Ahmar, and we'll try to befriend the Shah, all three of us. We need to get inside of his inner circle so we can find out what kind of man he is."

"And if he is a lowlife killer of innocents, we'll use our proximity to kill him."

"I am not going to kill anyone!" said Big Horn. "I've sworn an oath to my people not to kill!"

"No one is asking you to break your oath, Big Horn," I said. "If killing needs to occur, I don't mind getting my hands dirty again. Actually, that would not be an accurate statement at all. I hate killing, but I am capable of it."

"I am in the same boat," said Helina.

"And what if it turns out he's not a villain?" asked Big Horn.

"If we can ascertain that he's a not the megalomaniac killer the people here seem to think he is, then he won't die. And we might consider coming back here and blackmailing Devanshi by threatening to expose to Jibril her request to kill him."

"You get more calculating and ruthless with every day that passes," said Helina. "In this world, that's the only way you'll survive."

Big Horn opened up his portal for us, and we stepped into an alley of Badiya Ahmar. It wasn't until we left that passage that the city really came into view, making me tingle with visual pleasure.

The center of the city held a gorgeously blue spring, water glistening in the hot desert sun. Around the springs were traces of shrubs, but besides that, the only trace of greenery in the city were palm trees. What a stark contrast to the lush Indian jungle we had just left. The streets were sandy, and beyond the outer city walls were surrounded by serene dunes.

The city was populated with denizens who all looked Arabian in ethnicity and all dressed in medieval (or earlier) Arabian garb. Their horses looked to be all Arabians, and there were just as many camels in the city

The city was carved out of light-colored adobe, looking much like pictures of Arg-e Bam that I'd seen, but much more grand and more Arabian somehow. And those were just the standard homes, I realized. The notable buildings had a much more Islamic beauty to them, every piece an elaborate, eye- catching exquisiteness, yet still managing to use lighter materials that seemed to blend into the desert surroundings. These building were often capped with grand domes.

It was that sort of style brought to the extreme that we were approaching at one side of the city, and the first thought was that this was the city mosque we were looking at, before realizing mosques wouldn't exist here and instead I was witnessing the royal palace. The palace was even grander than the Taj Mahal, filled with jutting minarets and covered with round, sandy domes. Arabic calligraphy was decorated all over the gorgeous archways of the building. Horseshoe arches jutted high into the air.

In the front of the building was a man sitting in a chair, looking like he might be of some importance, perhaps the Shah himself. A number of shirtless guards with puffy pants and flat, curved swords surrounded him.

"Look, the guards are letting people approach him," I said. "But it looks like they are only letting one person talk to the man at a time , see? Probably for security reasons."

"I'll go talk to him," said Helina. "That would be the safest move."

"No, this is my mess we're in, I have to be the one to approach."

"Are you sure?" asked Big Horn.

"Yes."

"We'll be watching if you need us."

I left my friends and walked towards the palace. The guards warily held their swords up around me as I approached the seated man.

"Are you the Shah?" I asked hopefully.

The man laughed. "I'm the head of the Palace Guards. Do you have a gift for the Shah you want to leave with me?" he asked, his accent strongly Arabic.

"No, but I need to see the Shah."

The man laughed. "I've never permitted anyone to meet the Shah before today. Why should you be the exception?"

"Because I'm the One. Do you know what that means?"

"Yes I do. Oh, I'm sure you're the One. I'll just take your word for it, and get myself killed when I try to introduce you to the Shah. Ha! Unless you can prove it you're the One, the only thing I'll believe is that you're a big, fat number two."

"What do you expect, me to pull out some picture ID that says `The One' on it?"

"I expect you to do something to prove the matter to me."

I pulled my pocketknife out of my pants. I cut my left forefinger. "Taste my blood," I said. "I promise it will taste unlike anything you've ever tasted before."

"I'm a human, you fool." I looked closely at him and realized he was right.

"Alright, Mr., um..."

"Mr.Tawfeek

"What exactly do you expect from me? How can I do something One-ish?"

"Do something magical."

"Huh?"

"I want you to do some magic for me. If you can make me believe you're magic, I'll let you talk to the Shah."

"Magic, huh? Sure, I can do magic." I reached into my pocket and fumbled at my phone without extracting it. I pressed buttons, but nothing was happening.

"If you think playing with your own ass qualifies as magic in the desert, you are a fool. Though with an ass like that, I'm sure you can find yourself some other line of work here."

Finally, something happened, and the phone started to play my ringtone. "Ah, see there? You wanted magic? Well, I just magically created that music out of thin air. Can you let me through now?"

He yawned. "You're not the first person who has tried to fool me with modern technology," he said. "I am not impressed by your video screens or noise making devices."

"What kind of magic do you expect of me?"

"I really only would be impressed by one thing. We have all these old myths we tell our children full of Arabic supernatural beings that are obviously nothing but make believe. I want you to make those legends come to life. If not, I'll never let you see the Shah."

I was totally stumped. "I'll be back."

"Ha, not likely."

A couple hours later, I was coming through an inn-room doorway with newly acquired bags in my arms and Big Horn behind me. "Nice room," I said to Helina as I looked at the adobe walls. We were in the living room area, with two bedrooms and bathrooms branching out in two doors

"How could you afford this? I thought they wouldn't take your Rubles here?"

"I found a sufficiently shady character who was willing to trade a silver necklace of mine for Rupees in town."

"I told you I didn't want you hawking off your personal things," I said to her. "Your necklace is important to you."

"It was, at one point. But not so much after those were-things totally chewed it up and spit it again, rendering it both disgusting and totally useless. Were you as successful back in Russia as I was here?"

"I was," I said, pointing at the bags I had bought with the Rubles she had given me.

"I noticed that the Tawfeek character is no longer in his seat," said Big Horn.

"I guess even moronic security officers need to take lunch breaks," I said. "This could be our only time for you to place a portal opening right in front of his post without being seen."

"What about the rest of the guards?" he asked.

"Helina and I will create a distraction to draw them away."

"We will?"

"Yes, we will."

"I don't like that smile on your face. I should let you know that I absolutely refuse to distract men in any way that involves any kind of dancing. Oh, add to that list any sort of undressing as well, completely unacceptable."

"Not exactly what I had planned."

We left the privacy of the inn, and while Big Horn took a position waiting behind a palm tree for his cover to be created, I took Helina to a secluded part of the outer wall of the palace where a great amount of sand had accumulated in a massive pile.

I pointed at it. "Helina, I'd like you to meet our distraction."

"What on earth do you expect me to do with a beach-load of sand? I told you already, stripping is off limits for me, so I'm not laying out in any bikini you may have used MY rubles to buy today."

"We're going to create a sandstorm that's going to push those guards off their posts."

"There's not even the gentlest breeze in the air today. Good luck with that."

"Helina, you have the power to move this sand with your mind."

"What? This isn't hair this time, Jake. Did you forget the odd limits of my power?"

"Helina, listen to me. When we were being attacked by were-beasts, when one of those things almost killed you, you were able to move the dirt around you to bury it, all with your mind. It was incredible."

She scoffed. "I don't remember that at all."

"That's because you were unconscious at the time."

"That's ridiculous!" she said. "Wasn't it totally dark at the time? Are you sure you could even see any of this clearly?"

"It was dark, but I know what I saw. Even if you don't believe it yourself, I know you have the power to lift all this sand up and launch it at the guards."

"That's just silly."

"Please just try! Focus on the sand like it was hair and try to move it!"

"Oh, fine." She looked at the sand. "Sand, I command you to levitate! See? Nothing is happening. I do not have this power."

"Last time, you had your eyes shut. Try that."

"Okay." She shut her eyes.

"And your face didn't have an annoyed look on it. You looked furiously angry. Try looking angry."

"You'd better not be taking any pictures of me with that phone of yours. I look ridiculous doing this."

"I'm not."

"Mmm, this is me being angry. Still no sand action?"

"No," I said. "Maybe it will only come out if you are in a life threatening situation."

"I will not consent to have you try to do anything to me that will put me on the edge of death just so we can prove your whims wrong. Just trust me on this one, Jake. I can't move this sand. I just can't. Time for plan B."

"I didn't make a plan B."

"Then I'll just have to create the distraction. Do the first thing that pops into my head. Here, toss me your shirt."

I removed my shirt and handed it to her, leaving me bare-chested. "What do you need it for?"

"I don't need it. I just didn't think you'd like me getting blood all over it." She popped her fangs out and used them to create a huge gash down my arm.

"Ow, that hurts!"

"It's only temporary! Now just lie here on this soft bed of sand you worked so hard to find, feeling good that you made yourself useful after all, and try to pretend to look helpless."

"Why is it that every plan you vampires come up with seem to involve blood being spilt?"

"Since you are my best friend, I'm going to pretend I didn't hear such a stupid question from you."

"You know how much I hate blood, especially when it is gushing out my own body!"

"Well, you're going to have to face your fears sometime. This is the perfect opportunity to grow. Now stop talking and start crying."

"I'll do my best."

Helina left my view, going to the palace entrance. I smothered blood all over my chest, trying to make it look like I had a much larger wound than was really there.

"Help, help! My handsome, AB negative human friend is bleeding all over, and me, being just a feeble woman, can neither close his wound nor carry him to a doctor. He needs some big, strong vampire males like you lot! Yes, that's it, come with me, he's right over here. No, he is so wounded that this will take all four of you, please."

Moments later, she led the four vampire guards into my area, and I tried my hardest to look like I was crying helplessly, showing them the wound.

"How did this happen?" asked one of them.

"Uh, a bite," I said, the truth just popping out.

"A bite?!" he said, angry.

"He means an animal bite," said Helina. "One of those camels that seem to be ubiquitous around here. Vicious creatures."

"Yes, awful things," I said.

"Alright, sir, we'll take care of your wound," said the guard.

All four of them surrounded me, looking down and my bloody torso with hunger, their fangs popping out.

"Absolutely no biting allowed," said Helina. "When it comes to your mouths, your tongues are all he needs to be touched with. And there will be absolutely no removal of any sort of sex organ from your, um, puffy trouser things."

"Yes, but please take your time with this, I want to be sure every wound is extra, extra licked closed," I said, trying to buy Big Horn some time.

The guards started to lick my upper body, and they all made exclamations about how my blood tasted so delicious, but luckily kept in control.

Very more quickly than I could ever imagine, I felt my phone in my back pocket vibrating, which was Big Horn's sign he had accomplished his work.

"Okay, that's it, I'm good now, get off me."

"But you told us to be thorough," said the guard.

"I'm totally healed, so no need now."

"You heard the man, OFF!" Helina clapped her hands.

The guards got off me and I stood up, thanking them for helping.

"Pavlov, I'm locking you up girl because the last thing I need right now is your interference."

She made a sad whimper as I shut her in the dining room.

"Helina, here's your make-up. Please put this on."

Helina took it from me, opened it, and made a look of disgust. "Is this lip gloss? Bright red really isn't my color. This is the last time I let you pick out my cosmetics."

"That's not for your lips, it's for your skin."

"Jake, I know my features are a bit pallid, but bright red rouge isn't going to fly."

"It's not rouge, it's costume make-up, Helina. It's for all your skin. You need to look like an ifrit."

"I'm sorry, did you just sneeze?"

"No, I said the word ifrit. It's the type of Arabic creature we are playing you off as."

"Obviously you are under the false impression that I have not a single drop of dignity inside me. I refuse to look like the world's sickest measles patient of all time."

"Helina, I'm sorry to ask you to shred your dignity here, I'm not doing this with any sense of sadism. But this is the only way I can see the Shah, which in turn is the only way I'm going to not get the whole Shankar Blood to vote to kill me. I already have one vote in that direction from the Vampire Council, and there's three other Blood leaders who might turn out to be even worse jerks than Jericho."

"He's right, Helina," said Big Horn. "Your dignity is a small price to pay for his life."

"Fine," she said, grabbing the red paint on with an angry sigh.

"And this, Big Horn, is your make-up."

I gave him a packet of blue.

"What, you expect me to wear that awful stuff too?" he asked.

"You are supposed to look like a genie."

"I'm not wearing this White Men's make-up! There must be another way!"

"Big Horn, your dignity is a small price to pay for Jake's well-being, obviously!" said Helina with a certain level of glee.

"Fine, I'll do it. But I don't want to be blue. I want to be red, like Helina. Red is closer to my skin color anyway, and it would be fitting given how many times you White Men called me a damn stupid Red."

"No, I there's not enough red for you, Big Horn, there's not enough there. Helina is much less muscular than you, and she's wearing more clothes. When I give you the go-ahead, just take this into the other bathroom and put the blue on all over your skin."

Helina held the red up to her face. "I'm going to look like the world's largest steamed lobster."

"I bought this outfit for you in town. It's very ifrit-ish."

She examined the garments and frowned, stripping down to her underwear. "These are really skimpy. Is that supposed to be a bra underneath the proper dress?"

"No, that's the top."

"And these pants are totally see through. Uh, this ifrit thing you are dressing me as, are you sure that's not the Arabic word for bright-red prostitute?"

"It's a fire demon. I always seem to recall they were dressed pretty skimpy, so this looks believable to me. At least I got it black, your favorite color, and not the bright purple ones that I first saw. Just make sure to put some red around your chest and back. And the red covers your skin tone so you could totally pass for Arabic. Luckily your hair is already black."

"Oh yes, I'm so lucky that my father burned me so badly when I was young that my hair permanently turned black. Thanks Dad!"

"That's not what I meant and you know it."

"You know I have a dark sense of humor."

"But before either of you start putting makeup on, I thought we should do a dry run through of the actions. Once you are all dressed, we will only have one shot at this. Now, as a fire demon, I need you to breathe fire, Helina."

"Oh no, I told you I can't do that."

"But you're a member of the Petrov Blood, and every single fanged vampire of that Blood is able to breathe fire. I believe that power has been repressed, like a traumatic memory, but it still exists."

"Nope, not going to happen."

"Helina, will you please try for me?"

"Oh, if I absolute must." She shut her eyes.

"Now, really try to release some inner steam as you exhale."

She let out a large breath, but no fire appeared. "Ugh, I sound like a sick cat hissing. Nope, nothing."

"I don't understand that," I said.

"I'm sorry my vampire powers have been so terribly disappointing to you today. I don't know why I can't do that anymore. Maybe when my father burned me so badly that my hair singed, my throat somehow got damaged as well? Does that mean I won't be able to be an ifrit?"

"You won't be able to be a really cool one, but I'll settle for ordinary one today. Tell me, those underwear you're wearing, are they important to you? They'll probably get ruined."

"Nope, they aren't."

"Big Horn, can you fill up this tub with water please?"

He filled up her bathtub with cold water.

"Helina, rub this clear liquid all over your body."

She did so. "What is this?"

"It's a flammable gel that will keep burning for some time. Big Horn, you'll need to take this lighter and light her on fire."

"What? No! I did not sign up to be anyone's birthday candle today!"

"Helina, you're a strong vampire from the Petrov Blood, and this flame won't even scathe you."

"That may be true, but I have a horrible fear of fire. You know that."

"Well, wasn't it just you who told me that I needed to face my fears? This is your chance to do the same in a safe, controlled environment. And you really don't need to do anything here except walk back and forth while you're on fire."

"Fine, I'll do my best."

"Big Horn, light her up."

"I never thought I'd be doing this to anyone before," he said.

He put the flame to her, and instantly she started to burn. It was really powerful. Luckily, I had already removed anything from the room that was flammable. "Okay, Big Horn, open up your portal, but for now, just make the destination your camp."

He opened his portal in the hotel room, and a circle to Texas appeared.

"Big Horn will be the first through. Helina won't come through until I give her this motion with my hands."

"I'm walking through the portal."

"Good, now just stand there and wait. And now come back through, good. And now, Big Horn, close the portal again on this side."

He did so.

"Now Helina, jump in the water to put the flames out. Helina?"

She stumbled on her way to the water.

"She's fainting!" I said.

Big Horn swooped in crazy fast and used his hands to break her fall, and then he pushed her into the water, dowsing her flames.

"Uh-oh, Big Horn, your hands!"

His hands had caught fire, and only my motioning towards the water set him to put them out as well.

"Wow, I can't believe I just fainted, that was mortifying," Helina said. "I promise it won't happen again."

"You didn't get burned at all, did you?" I asked.

She looked down at herself. "Nope, pretty much intact. My underwear even got better than before, now they match my hair."

"Okay, both of you start putting on your paint now."

Big Horn grabbed the paint and walked into the other bathroom.

"Crazy Kid, I need more paint!" came Big Horn's deep voice a few minutes later.

I walked over to the bathroom he was shut in. "How could you be out of paint? There was so much there!"

"Like you said, I'm a big guy. So just slide me some more under the doorway."

"I don't have more. I'd have to go all the way back to get some."

"Well then, the blue thing just isn't going to work on me. I'm sorry."

"Big Horn, let me take a look at this. I just don't understand."

"Oh, alright, come in."

I stepped into the bathroom and looked him up and down. His head and shoulders were already painted, and looked fine. His arms, back, chest, and torso were totally uncovered. "How on earth?" I asked, not understanding how he had used his whole bottle of makeup just on his head alone, but indeed I saw it was empty.

And then I looked down for the first time, and noticed he had removed his loincloth, and his legs and feet were covered with blue. He was holding his hands in front of him to hold onto his unit in order to keep me from seeing it. I laughed to see his muscular butt completely smothered in blue.

"Ack! You used it all on your lower body?"

"Well, I have muscular legs, they took a lot of paint to cover. And I have a big phallus, Crazy Kid. There was so much paint required just to cover all of that."

I gasped. "You painted your dick? Really?"

"You told me to paint everything!"

"But here, I gave you this bag which has your costume in it! Genie pants! You never had to cover your lower body!"

"I didn't know about that."

"Okay, well, I'm not giving up. We'll just have to try and move the paint from your legs to your upper body. But before I can help, I'm stripping down. The last thing I want are clothes permanently stained the color of the cookie monster. And no, I don't expect you to get that one."

I started to remove my clothes and fold them.

"By the way, thank you for keeping your hands constantly in front of your penis. I could always die of shock if my delicate eyes fell on it."

"I'm not doing this for your protection, Crazy Kid. I'm doing it for my own."

"I promise my gaze isn't going to burn away your dick."

"I haven't let anyone see this piece of me since my special abilities were given to me by the spirits of my ancestors. I love my ability, and the power comes from my phallus."

"If you've never shown anyone your penis, how can you know doing so would take away your powers?"

"I can't be sure, but why would I even risk the matter?"

I took off my underwear and folded that too.

"Whoa, if you're going to be nude, I'll shut my eyes," he said, shutting them closed.

"I really don't mind you seeing me naked. Sadly, my private parts do not have any super powers. Actually, maybe I'm not so sad about that one."

"Still, if I'm asking you not to look at my penis, it's not fair to look at your nudity."

"I can cover my dick with my hand."

"I wouldn't want to see your butt."

"But I am looking at your bare butt without any problem."

"Yes, but you are a bottom and I'm a top, so that's the part of you I'd be most tantalized by anyway."

"I am not a bottom!"

"So are you telling me that seeing my butt is making you wish I wasn't sewn up back there so you could top me?"

"You have a very attractive butt, especially all covered in blue. But I have no desire to lick you there or top you in any way. The idea repulses me."

"Then you're a bottom, clearly."

"Just because I am not a top doesn't make me a bottom. I'm just not into that sort of sex."

"You are and you just can't admit it to yourself."

"For the first time ever, you sound just like Syd when you said that."

"Syd told you that because he was trying to get you to let him top you. He didn't really have an understanding of truth like I do. And I can assure you, whether you know it or not, whether you ever accept the truth about yourself or not, you were meant to be a bottom. That's not me trying to seduce you. I mean, if I can't let you look at me, how would I ever be able to top you? No, I have no compromising designs on you, so I tell you that just as a friend."

"I believe you think you know that about me, but you're wrong, I'm sorry. I refuse to keep arguing with you about something that has nothing to do with you. Your paint is drying, so let me help you as soon as I can."

While Big Horn kept holding his junk with his hands, I used my bare hands to grab some blue paint from his muscular thighs and deposit them onto his chest. I was lucky the paint was still wet and pliable. As I rubbed the paint onto his hairless pecs, I realized how turned on I was getting as I covered his nipples with blue, and I reminded myself that this was not a lover, just a friend, and tried to keep myself from getting aroused. I covered his abs with a more business-like attitude.

I turned him around to get his back. I used the paint from his muscled butt as well as his hamstrings to coat his muscled back with a fine blue sheen.

"Don't forget my arms, Crazy Kid."

But there just wasn't anything left on his legs anywhere to put on those, the paint on his lower body had dried by then. And then I noticed a goldmine: his pubes were completely saturated. I dove my hand there.

"Hey, watch yourself!"

"I'm not going to touch your dick, just your pubes."

I used the paint I dug with my fingernails out of his black hairs to coat his muscular arms.

"That's weird, why is some of this paint seem red? Did you get splashed by Helina somehow?"

"That's not red paint, that's just some blood."

"Big Horn, this is not the time for you to be biting into blood packets!"

"Those aren't from packets. It's my blood."

"What? You're bleeding?"

"From the burns on my hands. I'm not a Petrov Blood vampire, I can't handle the fire like they can."

"Wait a second, you have burns all over your hands and yet you covered them with paint? Didn't that hurt?"

"The pain was and is intense," he said dryly. "The paint irritates the burn tremendously. But I understand that I need to have my hands blue."

"No you don't, part of your outfit includes gloves. Let's get this off your hands, make the pain go away. Here, let me look at them."

"No, if I move my hands you'll see my phallus."

"I won't look down."

"We are surrounded by mirrors. You'll see it somehow."

I sighed. "I'm shutting my eyes now." I walked in front of him, with him facing towards my back. "Now, let go of your crotch, good, and put those hands around me. Hold on and press your unit against my body. If you do that, I won't be able to see anything."

"Alright, if you don't mind getting paint all over you."

"I'm going to shower after this anyway."

He hugged me with his long, muscular arms from behind. I could feel some of the wet paint get on my back, which gave my spine chills. I felt his wet pubes rub my tail bone and his weighty dick splash onto my left butt cheek.

"Okay, I'm opening my eyes now."

"Yes, do it."

I opened my eyes, and there he was behind me, which I could see through one of the mirrors. With his eyes shut, a passing witness would have thought we were lovers, taking his closed eyes for romantic bliss.

"Okay, I'm walking towards the sink now, so keep with me."

He nodded, and I led him in that direction. Perhaps because he was worried his dick would slip out when he was walking, I felt him shift directly behind me, his hugeness hanging in my crack, smothering me with hot paint. I tried not to get turned on as I felt his squishy massiveness move against me there, back and forth as we walked to the sink.

Once we were there, his arms were so long that I could easily pull them around me and wash his hands off in the sink. Once the blue was gone, the puss-filled blisters of his burn came to light. I cleaned them off as gently as I could, with Big Horn not even making a sound, no matter how much pain he was in. I bandaged them and put them in his costume gloves. Then I walked him back to the shower.

"If you're going to let go of me, then I`ll need to put my hands in front of my phallus again before you continue to paint me."

"Just make sure not to actually touch yourself with the gloves. Hold them in front of you."

Pretty soon, he was standing there naked in the shower with his hands blocking his crotch. I went back to spreading his paint out.

"I hate to say this, but everything has dried up. That is, except for that super-powered phallus of yours. Do you mind if I strip it of as much wet paint as I can?"

"Only if you shut your eyes during any time that part of me is uncovered. You have to swear you will."

"I will, I swear." I shut my eyes.

He pulled his hands away finally, and I felt the massive uncut monster in my hands. It was beyond saturated with paint. There was so much weight to this part of him, both between his unit proper and his large balls, that there was room for a ton of paint.

I realized very quickly that there was too much paint here for me to scoop up in my hands, and going back and forth with multiple trips seemed excessive. Plus, I was worried the paint would dry too fast, so I realized what I needed to do was to get as much of the paint on my body with my eyes shut, and then open my eyes and use that paint to coat him with.

I dropped to my knees and pushed his floppy unit against my chest. I rubbed it all over my arms and chest, and then mopped up all the paint off his balls with my stomach. And then I ended up actually milking the thing with my hands like an udder, even more paint dripping onto me.

"Okay, cover it again," I said.

He quickly covered himself once more with his hands, and I opened my eyes again. This time, it was me who was noticeably blue all over. I hugged him, rubbing the paint from my upper body on his stomach and arms.

"Success! Now, put your pants on!"

He pulled his pants on while I pinned his hair back into a bun. He again protested when I put a fake goatee on his face, but I convinced him.

"There, you look perfect now!"

He looked in the mirror in horror at himself. "This may be the first time I am able to think of a plus side for my whole tribe being dead, for they won't be able to see me dressed like an utter fool."

I showered the blue paint off and dressed, and found Big Horn and Helina waiting for me in the main room. I smiled at seeing Helina in her finished costume. She had even re-arranged her Edwardian haircut into a much more appropriate Arabian one.

"Alright, Mr.Tawfeek, I'm ready to show you I have enough magic to bring old Arabian fairy tales to life."

"You've got one shot to bedazzle me," he said, sitting with his arms crossed.

I pulled an Arabian oil lamp out of my bag and handed it to him. "I want you to inspect this lamp carefully to make sure it's completely ordinary. Rub away at it."

"It's ordinary. Nothing happens when I rub it."

"And same with me," I said. "When I rub this lamp, nothing happens either. But I'm going to use a spell to turn that lamp into a magic lamp. Ready?"

"Yes."

"Shalakazaam!"

At that moment, I reached inside my pack and quickly ignited a smoke bomb. Smoke filled the air around us quickly.

"See? I the spell was a success! Now, next time someone rubs that lamp, a genie will appear. Watch this."

I pushed a button on my phone in my bag, sending Big Horn a message, without anyone seeing me do it. And then I rubbed the lamp back and forth.

"Nothing is happening."

"I just didn't rub hard enough. This genie must be sleeping. Genie, time to make your appearance known!"

I rubbed again, and this time I could hear the portal open. The smoke obstructed the portal hole, but Big Horn jumped out, looking like he appeared from nowhere.

"Master, how can I help you?"

"I want you to summon me an ifrit, Genie."

"Yes, Master."

And then Helina appeared through the smoke, all lit up perfectly, and Mr.Tawfeek and all the guards were completely floored.

"Thank you, Genie and Ifrit. Now, I assume that proves my magic sufficiently?"

Everyone clapped, except for Mr.Tawfeek. "Wait a second. When I was a kid, magic carpets were always my favorite part. Either you summon a magic carpet, or I'll never let you pass."

"A magic carpet? Seriously?"

"Yes, right now."

"Um, I, well, I can't do that, sorry."

"Well then, guards, please banish this man from the city."

And then something happened that was so miraculous, I wondered if God intervened himself. A magic carpet appeared from behind me, flying through the air.

"You ARE magic!" said Mr.Tawfeek. "We're you just pulling my leg before?"

"Ah, yes, exactly. To heighten the drama."

I looked at Helina's face, and I realized something: she was making that carpet fly. That meant it must have been made out of animal hairs or something, I supposed. She was giving me a slightly smug look on her face as if to say she was making up for when her powers hadn't worked with the sand.

I had no idea if Helina's powers would be able to lift someone who was riding a carpet, so I said, "Alright, I'm sending all of these magical items away before they do any harm."

Big Horn carrying the lamp, Helina, and the carpet all went through the portal, and then the portal closed up. I waved away the smoke.

"Alright, Mr.Tawfeek. Time to make good on your bargain."

"Yes, Mr. One. Guards, take him inside with the other tributes of the day."

Two guards brought us inside, very quickly to the Shah's throne room, and again I lost my breath at the site of its beauty. The room was completely devoid of any green or blue colors. You couldn't even see the blue sky through any windows, the room was totally lit up by gorgeously carved torches. All the shapes and pillars of the place were so beautifully Arabian in style.

But this is where the Islamic architecture ended: the room was filled with gorgeous statues of larger than life snakes. Living creatures were not suitable representations in real Islamic art, so this was moving away from tradition. Not one of the snakes was green in color. Instead, the snakes were reds, yellows, browns, or even black. Some of the tiling patterns seemed to actually resemble snake scales.

The throne was on a raised platform with stairs leading up from the base level. The throne itself was carved out of giant black and gold snakes, creating a seat and armrests with their bodies and then merging onto the wall behind the throne, sprawling that wall in massive black stripes.

Around the base of the floor, I thought at first I was looking at mound of sand on the ground before realizing I was seeing lumps of gold nuggets. Gold coins and glittering treasure were all over the room, looking like I had stumbled into a treasure trove.

There was a line of well-dressed Arabian citizens in front of me, waiting to make their way to the throne. They seemed to be carrying some sort of offerings in their arms, many of which looked like treasure.

I came in on the far side of the huge room, and as far away as I was from the man on the throne, I could tell he was a huge man knotted in glistening brown muscle. His face was the epitome of Middle Eastern rugged handsomeness, so masculine. He was almost completely naked, except for slippers, a large, royal turban on his head, and snake-shaped jewelry covering his body. He had chains, necklaces, and bracelets, all metal, which seemed to enhance all his muscles and make him that much more intimidating.

I got in line and started to move towards him. People weren't daring to climb up the steps, they seemed terrified of the man. They were going only as far as they had to, bowing to him and pledging their allegiance to him, calling him Shah Jibril Bahar, the half-god ruler. They were telling him what they had brought as an offering to him, most often gold, sometimes even their finest piece of livestock. And then they quickly left the room entirely.

As I got closer, I realized that Shah Bahar wasn't even moving at all. I realized he wasn't a man at all, but a carving of a man. These weirdos were worshipping a statue, one that was gazing out at them, totally frozen.

But as I got closer still, I realized that those were totally real eyes I was seeing. He wasn't a statue, this was a real vampire. But there was something very strange about him. He wasn't moving in the slightest, wasn't even breathing, blinking, or even looking around.

His face was large and strong, with a large, cut jaw-line, wide chin, large brown lips, and a straight, prominent nose. His face (as well as his thick body) made him look unbreakable, there was nothing delicate about it. His eyebrows were thick and his eyes handsome. He had a black beard that wasn't closely trimmed yet not too long, but the hair was dense and black.

His body was dense with muscle and covered in veins. His muscles were bigger than any vampire had had seen, bodybuilder size. His skin tone was light-brown, lighter than the Indians we had just left behind, but a slightly different tone to it than a Hispanic guy would have. Thick brown hair covered his forearms. His round pecs with gorgeous brown nipples also were covered with black fur. This fur ran down the center of his taut abs before hitting his large, black pubic patch, which covered the top of his dick. His thighs were also had a good covering of fur, and his musclesd calves especially.

And I got close enough to see his penis was very much made of flesh, that wasn't something that could be faked on a dummy. He was soft but massive and veiny as the rest of him, the skin just as gorgeous light-brown as his body. What was interesting was that massive piece of him was surrounded by snake jewelry was well. What looked like metallic, scaly snakes wrapped around his member and each of his huge balls (which had a bit of that black fur on them). And then there was a more elaborate piece at the tip of his penis. It was a dark silver cobra head encircling the man's soft penis, with beautiful red rubies serving as eyes. The cobra's mouth was open, its fangs out, and where its forked tongue should have been, instead came the man's huge, tan-pink penis head. It gave his penis an otherworldliness, and just added to the overall intimidation factor this man had.

An old man holding a snake appeared in line behind me. "Is that really the Shah? How come he doesn't move?" I asked him.

"He's the oldest vampire ever, the first of his kind. He's been alive for thousands of years. He no longer needs sleep, sustenance, or blood to survive. Centuries pass in the blink of an eye."

"So, is he sort of hibernating?"

"Vampires are forced into hibernation after a long time without blood. But he is so old, he can't hibernate. So, he just exists like this, waiting."

"How long has he been sitting like that?"

"It's hard for me to say. Some say the last time he moved was a century ago, and even then, it was just for a few minutes."

I was completely amazed by this. All of these people were treating him a like a god, and he was sitting there passively. That's when I noticed the clock on the wall had the time in a very small section. Most of it was devoted to the date, down to the year.

"Can he even see any of this?"

"Many people think he doesn't see. And yet, everyone here knows there's a chance he could wake up every time they go before him. Like me. I'm here delivering a fine, pet snake, a very nice gift. Snakes are his favorite animals, so my gift, I know, is sound. But some of these others here who have less to give. They risk the chance that they will insult him and he will kill them for their insolence."

"Wow! So who is running this kingdom if he has been asleep this whole time?"

"The Shah's viziers. But each time I've come, I've never seen them."

"How many times have you been here?"

"Why, every year, of course. Today is my birthday. And it is for everyone in this room. We all come on our birthday to offer to him the fruits of the last year's work. This starts from age 25 on."

"Are you all from this city?"

"Not all. Some of us are from the villages in the Raajya West."

For the first time, one of the youngest looking tributes approached the Shah without any treasure of any kind. She bowed down to him, and then started to undress.

"What is she doing?"

"She's turning 25. That's the end of her public education and the entrance into her adulthood. This is a rite of passage for people turning 25. They go before the Shah. And if the Shah does not respond to them, they will never need to offer themselves in such a way again. And this girl, so bravely being the first one today to offer herself in that manner, and not showing any sign of fear."

It was clear she had practiced exactly what she needed to do. Once undressed, she walked up the stairs to his throne level with her head down in a bow. She knelt down at his slippers and whispered something I couldn't hear. And then she stood up, climbed up on top of the throne and sat on his lap.

She grabbed a beautiful snake dagger that was sheathed at his hip, and reached up and made a bold incision into her throat without the slightest wince. She replaced the dagger.

And then she pressed the wound on her neck to vampire's lips, letting her blood drip into his mouth.

She stayed there until one of the guards said, "He's not responding, you can get up and go now."

She got down off the throne, dressed, and walked out the room looking more confident than ever.

I noticed that the young woman standing in line in front of me, a vision of striking beauty, looked upon all of this with pure terror. She was shaking and sweating so badly she seemed ready to run out at any second. Clearly she was scared for her life.

In the front of the line, I noticed another young man looking very scared. "I can't do this, I'm going to end up dying, I know it!" The poor guy started to cry.

Two other young men close in line to him, a muscular, handsome one, and a skinny one, came to support him.

"You're going to be fine, Khalid," said the skinny one supportively. "Try to be brave and I swear this will be over in a second."

"But I've been having nightmares about this day my whole life!"

"Look at your ugly face," said the handsome, muscular one. "And your blood type is as unremarkable as your face. If anyone has anything to fear, it's someone as good looking as I am."

Behind me, I could hear a couple folks chatting, and I realized they were talking about the pretty girl in front of me.

"Oh, look, that's Jalila. I've wanted to see her beauty for a long time."

"They say her beauty only comes along once in several generations."

"Everyone is sure that once the Shah lays eyes on her, he'll wake up for sure and take her as his meal. How could he stand to refuse?"

I realized why the poor thing was trembling and sick-looking with nervousness. She thought she was heading to her death. What poor souls all these people were. Basically just human slaves, here to be gobbled to death by their leader right in the prime of life.

I didn't want to see this girl suffer some horrible fate right in front of me. Was there any way I could make her less beautiful?

"Alright, you're up!" one of the guards said to the poor, scared Khalid.

"Be strong!" said the skinny friend.

Khalid was actually choking back tears as he approached the throne and bowed. He started to remove his clothes. He actually tripped over a step as he made his way up to throne. Everyone laughed at him, but he recovered and knelt at the Shah's feet, whispering.

"No more stalling, get up there!" yelled the good looking guy.

Khalid continued to cry as he sat on the Shah's lap. It was like the fun and magic of sitting on Santa's lap as a kid but turned into a hellish, terrifying version. I was feeling more and more like I wanted to kill this guy to free these people from this terrible ritual.

Khalid somehow pulled out the knife, which was absolutely shaking in his hands.

"Cut yourself!" yelled the good looking one.

Khalid shut his eyes and managed to cut himself in the throat, put the knife back. He kept his eyes slammed shut with fear as he somehow made himself lower his neck to the Shah's mouth.

"Can I get down now?" he asked.

"Not for a few seconds!" yelled the handsome one.

"Please, no, please, no, please."

"OH MY LORD!" screamed the handsome one. "The Shah just moved! He's awake! And he looks so hungry!"

Khalid actually let out a terrified scream, jumped, knocking off the turban of the Shah, and then fainted there, right up on the lap of the Shah.

I noticed the Shah's hair for the first time. He wore an old-fashioned, Arabian haircut, looking like something meant for nobility. His black, curly hair was a couple inches long, and a curl came down the center of his forehead. His hairline was low.

I could see that the handsome guy was smiling, he had clearly yelled just as a cruel joke. What a jerk he was.

But the girl in front of me did not see he was smiling and fell for it as well. She gasped in horror, thinking the Shah had woken and taken Khalid as a meal, and jumped backwards out of fear, colliding with me.

I could have grabbed her then to keep her from falling. Instead, I purposefully tripped her, knowing that she'd never know the difference.

As she fell to the floor, I got out the end of the red paint Helina had used and splashed some on her face, all without her noticing it, she was so scared.

When I helped her back up, she had red spots all over her face, making her look either like she had awful acne or she had the measles. Totally unsexy.

The guards had to carry Khalid off the Shah's lap as the handsome guy continued to make fun of him.

The skinny guy was next, and he went through the routine trying to be brave but showing some trembling hands at times. Once again, the Shah did not move after tasting his blood.

Then the handsome guy was up, and even though he seemed cocky and cool, I was nervous for him, given that he was the first one who was good looking.

He cut his neck and put it to the Shah's lips. Once again, the Shah didn't budge. Was it because he was into women more? The people talking had seemed so confident that the woman would have been his taste.

A few minutes later, after a bunch more gold and jewels were dropped off as offerings, Jalila was up, and she was totally terrified, her knees were trembling. She climbed up the stairs, knelt down at his slippers, whispered to him, and then got on his lap.

She was almost as terrified as Khalid had been, stopping short of crying. But she couldn't see the state of her face. Still, I was nervous he would still awaken when she put her blood to his lips.

But nothing happened. The guards told her to get down.

She stumbled off his lap. She was so moved, she couldn't even put on her clothes again, just started to cry. I felt good I was able to protect her.

The guards were looking at me, expecting me to make my offering. I told the people behind me to go first, I could be last.

That's when I noticed something that shocked me. The handsome guy had just finished dressing, and I could clearly see the wound on his neck was already gone.

"Wait a second, that guy's just pretending to be a human! He's really a vampire!" I pointed him out to the old guy with the snake.

"He's not pretending to be anything, he obviously is a vampire. There have a couple in here today."

"Wait, so the vampires have to give tribute just like the humans?"

"Yes, of course!"

"And does that mean all of you are slaves to the Shah?"

"We don't have any slaves here! We are all free people!"

"Ah, but that freedom comes at a steep price. If you don't pay him your finest possessions, he'll kill you!"

"We aren't forced to come here!"

"You're not?"

"No, it's our choice! Some selfish people choose never to visit him, but those folks are frowned upon by the rest of us. We consider this a great honor."

Right then, Jalila looked at herself in one of the mirrors in the room. "No, what is that on my face?" She angrily poured water on her hands and washed off the paint.

She walked back up the throne, pushing aside someone else who was dropping off a camel.

"My Shah, someone cruel has tricked me by covering my face with red splotches, hiding my true beauty. I beg you to look at me as I really am. Please, pick me to feed on. Have your way with me."

She sat on his lap again and put her neck wound to his lips.

"How can you resist the blood and flesh of such a beauty?"

I realized that what I had taken for tears of joy when he didn't awaken the first time had actually been tears of anguish. She hadn't ever been nervous about getting killed, had she? She had worried he wouldn't wake up, or she was worried he would choose someone else instead.

Her tears spread as he continued to be totally impassive.

"No, you have to pick me, I was told my whole life that you would pick me. My family has nothing, this is the only hope they have. I want you kill me, I'll live forever in the fairy tales of the girl so beautiful she woke a god."

But no matter what she said, he never budged.

"I'm so beautiful, and I know how to make a man feel good! I can be the most pleasurable kill you've ever had!"

She crawled between his legs and started to grab his massive penis between his thighs, moving around the cobra decoration.

"I can make this feel so good!"

She started to stroke the cut monster. When it didn't stir in the slightest, she lowered her face to it.

"I'm sure this will wake him."

She started to lick and then suck on that huge morsel of brown flesh, so desperate for something to happen, rubbing her hands all over his muscles.

But there wasn't the slightest sign of him stirring.

"That's enough!" said one of the guards.

Two of them tried to pull them off him, but she kicked them away. "No, you can't take me away, I have nothing to live for, this is all I ever prepared myself for in life!"

It took three guards to finally pull her off of the Shah. As they carried her past me, she looked angrily at me.

"You were the one who did this to my face! You want him all to yourself! Well, he'll never pick someone as plain as you, never!"

They removed her from the room.

The next young person to go up, a man, said his whispering louder than anyone had before, and I was close enough to hear. "I willingly hand over my life, blood, and body to you, Shah, for you to do as you please with."

I realized something. It was going to be impossible to judge if this Shah deserved to live or die without waking him up. Because, if he truly was asleep for centuries, all of these bizarre rules could have been invented completely by these crazy people or his viziers. I needed to wake him up.

I didn't know of any way to wake him up other than how these people were trying. I approached the floor where people were leaving their offerings.

"Hello Shah, I'm Jake Groves, pleased to meet you."

I started to walk up the stairs to his throne.

"No!" barked a guard. "No clothed people allowed!"

"I am not undressing!"

"Then you will not be allowed to move any further!" He grabbed me and held me in place.

"Oh, alright. Fine."

I took off my clothes, folded them, and set them aside with my bag.

Once I was naked, the guard let me climb those stairs. I knew they all expected me to bow down at the Shah's feet and swear myself over to him, but it wasn't going to happen.

"I don't offer myself to you at all. I just want to wake you up."

The closer I got to him, the more beautiful and strong his body looked to me, all covered in serpentine chains and bracelets, but nothing else more than a turban and slippers.

I sat on his strong, muscled legs, his thigh hair tickling my bare butt delightfully. I grabbed the knife on his side and tried to make the tiniest incision possible on my throat.

I put my bloody wound to his lips.

"Wake up and drink."

As soon as the blood ran into his tongue, I felt a definite firming up of a massive organ underneath me. At the same time, I felt his fangs come out, erect. Were these just automatic bodily reactions to my One blood?

But no one else in the room could see those changes.

"Get off him, he's not moving!" said that obstinate guard.

"Just give me a second!"

"No!" He waved his arms, and suddenly a gang of guards were coming up the stairs.

"Just give him some time, he was reacting!"

But they forced me off of him and carried me out, smothering off my protests.

"Take that trash out and throw him on the street! He is banished from the palace."

They grabbed my clothes and bag and carried them along towards the exit of the throne room.

My head turned back, I saw an amazing sight: the Shah's eyes finally blinked open. And then he took a breath.

He locked eyes with me, and then he stood up.

The guards couldn't see this because they were pulling me away from him, but everyone else in the room saw. They all fell to their knees in a religious sort of shock, some of them fainting, totally humbled. They all bowed to him.

He moved towards me like a blur, and then all 8 of the guards were flying away from me, hitting the walls so hard they passed out. This from just the slightest attack of his, that's how strong he was compared to them.

Before I could even hit the ground, he caught me.

He cradled me in his arms and resumed where he had left off, putting his lips to my throat and drinking me in, his scruffy beard hairs tickling my throat. He immediately made such a sweet sound of ecstasy as he tasted my blood. I felt my body react as soon as he put the fangs inside me, and I was almost lost.

He stammered something in a foreign language. Was that Arabic? It sure didn't sound like it. I had heard Arabic enough from Ahmad to recognize the sound.

"I can't understand you. I only speak English."

"I said, `I know your taste anywhere, little brother.'"

"I'm not your brother. Look at me, I look nothing like you."

"No, but you've used a spell to conceal your appearance, I'm sure of it." He went back to that foreign tongue.

"What language is that?"

"Oh, how do you say it in English? I'm afraid my English is barely passable. Sumerian. My first language."

"I am not your little brother, I'm sorry."

"No, he's long dead, that's right. But you taste just like him. I know why. You are his blood."

"Yes. They call me the One. My name is Jake Groves."

"The One. Jake. Yes. You are my, how do you say? My grandnephew."

"Really?! You will have to tell me how that is even possible." I guessed when people didn't age, anything was possible.

"I will, there's so much to tell you, Nephew. That's why you taste just as good as the best blood I've ever tasted."

"But you will have to stop drinking it, Mr. Bahar. I need to tell you I've already met with the head Shankar and told her that I'm invoking the Vampire Council, which means no one in her Blood is allowed to hurt me until the Council convenes and votes on my fate. That protection extends here as well."

"I'm not going to kill you. You're my family. I'm here to help you."

"I've never had any family member be leaking goo all over me from his penis before."

"Well, just because we are family, doesn't mean we can't, how do you say in English? Make love?"

"Yes, that's exactly what it means!"

"Oh, I'm sorry, that's right. This modern world has such a bad taboo against incest. So strange to me."

"Listen, now that I know you're my great uncle, I'm going to have to ask you put me down so I can get dressed."

"Does that mean I have to stop feeding off you?"

"Usually, it does."

He licked my neck wound shut and set me down.

When he bit into his own hand wrist, bleeding all over everything, I started to feel faint. "What are you doing now? I hope you weren't so mad about me stopping you from feeding off me that you took it out on your poor wrist."

"Your body and face are so banged up and bruised that it's impossible to make out who you really are under all of that. Lucky for you, I'm so old that my blood will heal even bruises."

He used his blood to wipe all over every bruise on my face and body, healing me instantly.

"There," he said. "Now everyone can appreciate your true beauty."

"Thanks. I feel a little weird standing here with you all naked talking in front of all these people."

"People?"

I quickly found my clothes on the ground and put them on, picking up my bag too.

"Yeah, the couple dozen people who have been on the ground praying to you this whole time?"

"Ah, those people, I see them now. I have an intimate dining room. Want to join me for a bite to eat?"

"Yes, I'm starving."

He carried my bag for me, hooked my arm, and led me through the halls. I tried not to use this vantage point to gaze down at his massive, hairy muscles or even worse, his handsome, cut dick.

We passed a servant in the hall who nearly fainted when she saw tall Shah Jibril Bahar walking by. She composed herself and bowed as we went by.

When the second servant reacted similarly, I asked, "Doesn't it bother you to have them bowing to you like that?"

"It bothers you, doesn't it?"

"Yes, I think it's bizarre. No one should have to show that much deference to anyone else. I think it's rude to these poor people."

"Yes, no, that's quite right. No, of course I have always thought the way they tend to treat me is strange, but you know what? No matter how many times I pull these people on their feet and tell them that they are being silly, it never does any good. They always end up back on their knees the next time."

"Did you know what your citizens are coming here to do whenever it's their birthday? It's just awful."

"No, what?"

"They come here to give you their year's best bounty, or even worse, they come to offer up their lives for you in case you wanted to drain them of blood! And they believe that if they refuse, you might kill them."

"Preposterous! I would never permit such actions to occur had I been conscious for any of that. I will go to my heads of government, whoever they will be at the moment, and tell them to end those visits starting tomorrow. Nephew, I want you to be proud to be my kin."

"Thanks for listening to me. If I can get you to be as good to your people as possible, then I will be proud. And I will be even prouder still if your erection goes away finally. Everyone is staring at the thing."

"It's hard to keep my cobra at bay when I have your blood in my mouth and your rare bloodtype in my nostrils, not to mention your beautiful skin against mine."

"Don't you own a pair of pants you could put on to cover yourself up at least? Those chains, necklaces, and bracelets barely cover anything."

"I used to have pants, but they would decay away after years sitting on my throne, and turn into horrible messes. I realized that I needed only to wear metal clothes on my body that can sustain a centuries without use. The royal turban and slippers are the only exceptions, because servants can replace those when I'm sitting without waking me. Ah, here's the dining room." He pointed to a nearby set of doors. And then he motioned over another servant who was walking nearby. "Hello, uh, sir."

The servant dropped to his feet and kissed the Shah's slippers. "Hello, Esteemed One."

"Really, that's not necessary. I don't need you on my feet, I need you on yours. My nephew and I want to eat a meal in the dining room. Think something can be brought relatively quickly?"

"Yes, my liege. How large of a feast should be prepared?"

"It's up to the wonderful new guest I woke up for. Nephew, how large in your hunger?"

"Please just bring something modest," I said. "Both in taste and in size."

"Modest, of course." He ran off.

"Why, do you think, are they so prone to treating you like you're a god?"

"Well, I'm the father of all vampire-kind, you know. The first and oldest vampire. And since I'm by far the most powerful vampire alive, I'm not sure I could even die at all. Given that, why do you think they would all protect me so thoroughly well? It's because I've told them that if I ever did die, so would too all my descendants."

"You mean, all vampires?"

"Right. All vampire-kind would be wiped out of existence."

I was shocked, and I remembered what I had been asked to do by the Shankar women. If I were to follow through with that task, it wasn't just the one man who would die. It was who knows how many thousands of vampires there were out there as well, including the Devanshi Shankar. Clearly they did not understand the ramification of their request of me. I was becoming more and more convinced that they were the schemers and this guy was the good one.

"But my logical mind is tickling right now," I said. "How do you know what will happen to your offspring when you die, considering you obviously never died before?"

He smiled. "A lot of clever folks have asked me the same thing, and this is what I told them. I was the oldest sibling in my family, and the first One, who I adored, was my youngest sibling. But there were others, different creatures. All of us had offspring who mirrored ourselves."

"Was one of them a werebeast?" I asked, noticing just saying the word made me a little scared.

"Yes, he was. And the other one was a satyr."

"Really? Outside of Greek mythology, I've never heard of them. Are they still around today?"

"No. My brother, the oldest and first satyr, was killed by a werebeast, a couple centuries back. And then once he died, all the other satyrs in the world all simultaneously keeled over and died. And now there are no more satyrs, and never will be."

"Wow, I'm sorry about your brother dying."

"It's okay, I was never close with him. The only one I ever truly loved was my youngest brother."

We entered the dining room, which was absolutely huge and very fancy.

"Is this really what you call an intimate space?" I joked.

"I may have mixed up intimate with private. I'm telling you, my English is anything but strong."

"Should we sit on at the head and foot of this huge table and shout at each other while we eat?"

"No, we'll make this an intimate dinner yet, you'll see."

He sat me down at a chair on a long side of the table, and then he sat down in the chair immediately to my right. He was so big that his naked knee was pushed against my clothed one.

Pretty soon, servant upon servant was delivering fine platters of Arabian food and drink to our table. I saw the guy who we asked to get the food, and I laughed at him. "I asked for modest. This is a larger feast than any Thanksgiving I've ever had."

"This is modest."

"Mr. Bahar, I hope your appetite has been fully awakened after all these years of no food, because I may need you to finish my uneaten portions."

"Since I got the pleasure of being awakened by you, all of my appetites seem more than intact, thankfully. And don't call me Mr. Bahar ever again."

"Oh, sorry, do you prefer Shah?"

He squeezed my hand. "You are family. To you, my first name is fine."

"Jibril, then?"

"Jibril is what these people know me as. It's my Arabian name. But it's not the first name I've held."

"What's that?"

"Marutuk. That's my Sumerian name. What my little brother called me. I'd love to have you call me that. Uncle Marutuk."

"Uncle Marutuk it is."

"So tell me, Nephew. How many spells have you cast so far?"

"Ha. Zero, actually. Ha ha, you're looking at me like I just failed a spelling test."

"I'm not disappointed at all. You are what you are."

"Well, I've only been the One for a matter of months. I don't have the slightest clue how to cast spells. The only thing that makes me stronger or different from a normal human is that I can't age or get sick, and my blood tastes different."

"Correction: tastes extraordinary. So good I would need to use Sumerian to express myself. So, my little brother had a grimoire, a book of magic he created, filled with spells."

"What happened to it?"

"It was destroyed long ago. But I think I remember a few of his spells. One of his favorites I remember like it was yesterday. I could teach it to you tonight, if you'd like."

"I'd love that! I haven't had anyone who'd known how to help me build that part of me until now. That's superb, Uncle Marutuk!"

"Well then, stick around. I'll try to remember all the other spells I heard him use. My memory is a little fuzzy whenever I wake up, but the longer I've been awake, these details all come trickling back slowly. Just be patient with me."

"I am a very patient person. I'm so thrilled you can help me."

"I feel honored being your last tether to all those spells. I am here to help you. Every spell I remember is yours to learn."

"Wait a second. Are there spells to bring loved ones back from the dead? I mean, with their souls intact. Not some wicked resurrection spell that brings back monsters." I thought of Parker and Alik, and even of Vadim and Petro and Vadim's mother.

"I'm sorry. That's just not on the menu, I'm afraid. Once a body dies, assuming it truly is dead, that's it. There's no bringing those people back, no matter how powerful their loved ones become."

I was saddened by this. What good was this magic if I couldn't bring Parker and Alik back? "Is there even a spell to talk to the dead?"

"There's no such thing. Only the living."

"No ghosts or spirits to commune with?"

"No. The dead will never talk to you. I'm sorry. I suggest moving past the dead and start to focus on the living."

I smiled at him. "I promise to focus on new, living friends."

"I'm so thrilled I get to bring such a sweet smile to your face. Oh, and I may have a plan to keep that smile there. Try this fatayer, it's my favorite dish."

He grabbed his meat pie with his right hand, turned towards me, put his arm around my neck, and leaned in to put the food to my mouth. I tasted it.

"Yes, this is quite scrumptious, thank you."

But even after he lowered the pie down again, he still had his arm around me.

"Given how close we are sitting, I can't help but notice that your dick just got hard again," I said to him, looking down at the thing getting stiff inside his cobra head jewelry. "And I know there can't be any trace of my blood left in your mouth after all this spicy food you've been eating."

"No, sadly, your flavor has long evaporated. But being so close to you is casting a different sort of spell on me, I'm afraid. With this fuzzy memory, I can almost convince myself you are my little brother. You have his sweetness."

"And thinking of your little brother makes you hard? That doesn't make sense to me."

"I loved my little brother."

"You mean, as a family member? Or as a lover?"

"As a lover. I was totally, head over heels in love. Romantically."

I made a face. "That's incest! Gross!"

"You have to understand the world we lived in. Incest wasn't even a word for us. There was nothing unseemly about having a physical relationship with a family member. What was wrong to us was an adult trying to sleep with a child or teenager. But what happened between two consenting adults, or even two teenagers who were close in age, was never considered unethical. That whole incest taboo came around much later, when people started realizing that people who were related were producing offspring that tended to have illnesses. But we non-humans never found that side effect to be true in any case."

"So, you and your little brother had a sexual relationship that both of you consented to?"

"Yes, of course. And it might make you feel a little better about all this that I had no full siblings. He was my half brother."

It didn't make me feel any better about the situation. To me, a sibling was who you were raised together with. Even if one child was adopted, that didn't make incest any more right. But, at least it made me feel a little less gross at being so intimately close with this man, as he was actually just my half- granduncle.

"But even if we had had all of the same blood, that wouldn't have stopped us from getting together. We loved each other so much. I think about him all the time, and he's the only one I've ever loved, after all these years. And now, sitting here by you, hearing your voice, it reminds me of his. And your blood smells like his. I know you think I'm coming on strong considering I just met you, but I feel like I've known you for ages. I feel like you were supposed to wake me today, I have this gut feeling that tells me you and I were meant to fall in love, more in love than I ever was with my brother. Do you want to feel just how affectionate I am for you with your hand, just so you know I'm not misleading you?"

"I don't have to touch it with my hand, I believe you. And I think that all of that emotion is very endearing. And I like you so much, I'm going to cut you a deal. I promise to put aside all of my preconceived notions about what two related people should and shouldn't do so I can listen to your stories about you and your brother without cringing in horror, and instead feeling happy for you two."

"I would love that, yes."

"And in return, I want you to try and respect my own notions of what is and what is not right, which means I will never feel comfortable being romantic with a family member. If I'm going to be calling you Uncle Marutuk, I need to see you as a modern uncle, which means you will need to accept that the two of us may be affectionate, but that affection is completely platonic."

"Are you sure I can't convince you otherwise?"

"I'm sure. As long as we're related, I do not want you to see me as anything other than friendly."

"Alright, I really don't have a choice but to accept. I can't force you into a romantic relationship. We'll just be close friends, if that's all you'll agree to."

"Very good. And I'm going to start off this wonderful friendship by moving seats."

I grabbed my plate, stood up, and walked over to the seat across from him, and sat down there.

"In my day and age, sitting right next to each other is kind of a thing for lovers to do. Friends and family would be more likely to sit like this."

"Alright, I'll sit across from you. At least looking at your face will make me realize how little that part of you looks to my little brother. Though you are just as handsome as he was. Oops, am I allowed to say that?"

"Yes, just as long as you don't comment about how sexy I look, those sorts of compliments will be fine."

A finely dressed man entered the room. "Wow, the servants told me the esteemed Shah had risen again, but I would not believe them. Now I see the truth for myself. This is a joyous occasion, truly."

"You look just as I remembered you, Vizier Bazzi."

"I've served as the ruler in your honor this entire time. It is my privilege to let you return to your rightful place as Shah. It will please me to have less to do, though of course my services are here as you need me."

"I want you to meet the man who woke me up. Jake, meet Vizier Bazzi."

I looked over this vampire, dressed in the outfit of a very important Arabian official. Even though the man was smiling at me, there was something about him that seemed sinister. Perhaps it was because he was oddly skinny for a vampire. Or maybe it was that his face was so sharply angular. I shook his hand. "Pleased to meet you."

"I have heard that you woke up our Shah with the taste of blood so special, it aroused him from a century long slumber. You must be something indeed."

"That's all true," said Marutuk. "I know you are a very busy man, so we won't keep you. But tomorrow sometime I'd like you to catch me up on all that has been going on. There may be changes that need to take place."

"Yes, my Shah. Have a great night." And he left.

"Dessert is served."

The servants left two trays of food at our spots with silver lids like the ones fancy hotels used to keep meals covered before leaving us alone again.

"I didn't ask for dessert," I said. "I'm a healthy eater."

"Oh come on, one dessert is not going to kill you. I think it's worth peeking at, at least."

I lifted the lid off the plate, and jumped back in surprise. Instead of dessert, my plate held a hissing, coiled up cobra.

I tried to jump back before it could sink its angry fangs into me, but I knew it was too late, that I'd get bitten for sure.

"Stop!" said the Shah, standing up and raising his hand.

As if the snake was just another obliging servant, the snake stopped at this shout and turned around to listen to him.

"Alright, your services are no longer needed here. Please be on your way."

The snake slithered off down the table and out the door, leaving me confused.

"Was that a poisonous variety of snake?"

"Deadly."

"Okay, you totally were wrong about one dessert not being able to kill me. Maybe in these parts, cobra is a delicacy, but to my Western sensibilities, that was the worst dessert I've ever had."

"It's not what I envisioned when I pictured you feasting on cobra, that's for sure."

"Someone tried to kill me just now, didn't they?"

"I'm sorry. It's just that, and I'm not even sure how this is possible, but some people seem to get jealous of anyone who wakes me up from a slumber. It's very strange, something I try not to encourage at all. But it seems whoever did this forgot that I'm not just the oldest vampire, I'm also a Special. My Special ability has given me an odd sort of sort of influence over snakes."

"Oh wow. So that's your only Special ability?" It didn't seem like that would be very useful at all.

"No, I have two other abilities. Other than that everything I can do any old vampire in my Blood would eventually master."

"What are your other abilities?"

"Even though I have gotten my fair share of viruses over the years, I cannot spread them myself to anyone. So, it means I never had to be quarantined."

"That's cool. And the other one?"

"Well, I can supernaturally tell exactly on the planet where I am. And once I've been somewhere, I can memorize that location if I choose to."

"Oh cool. That means you could never get lost in the desert, I suppose."

"Nope, never gotten lost in my life. It's funny how unrelated that ability is to the whole snake thing, unless maybe snakes have supernatural location abilities as well."

"Does talking to the snakes really make a difference?"

"Probably not, but I still like to pretend so sometimes. No, the snakes seem to see me as family. I think they think my big cobra down south is their father. I'd try and chase down who tried to do this to you, but in my experience that has proven impossible to nail down. A long time ago, another soon to be lover of mine was killed. That's why I must insist as long as you are in the Raajya West, you stick by my side, so I can always protect you. At least until you have a few defensive spells under your command."

"That's really nice of you."

I pulled out my phone and noticed I had gotten messages from Helina. She and Big Horn were worried about me. I told them not to worry, that I was staying with the Shah, who somehow was my uncle. I knew Big Horn didn't need a place to stay, as he always went home to camp every night, but I considered asking Marutuk to let me invite her to stay with us. But I decided that if I was in so much danger in the palace that Marutuk wanted to stay with me at all times, would she really be safe on her own in here? I decided not to risk it and asked her to keep staying at the inn in town for now, and asked her to look after Pavlov.

"I haven't been to my bedroom in over a century, so I hope it's still there."

He picked up my bag for me grabbed my hand, and started to guide me down the hall and up stairs.

"Don't you think hand holding is a bit too intimate?" I asked.

"Maybe for you Americans, that's where you're from , right?"

"Yes."

"But here, male friends hold hands, and nothing is romantic in their relationship."

"Alright then, when in Rome I suppose."

"Yes, still here and still just as I left it."

His bedroom was gorgeous. Dazzling, circular pillars all over the outside edges of the room all held lanterns, casting red firelight into the room. It wasn't the largest room I had seen, but where it lacked in floor space, it made up for in vertical height, as I was looking up at a domed ceiling that went up a couple stories high, making it look like a carved out phallus, and the fact that it was totally decorated in circling black snake designs made it seem even more phalllic.

And then there was the huge bed, taking up most of the center of the room. It wasn't that the mattress was larger than normal, it was that bed itself was a giant, black and silver carving of another snake head, this time the giant snake's open mouth cradled the mattress of the bed.

"You sure do like your snake theme, don't you?"

"I didn't pick the snakes, the snakes picked me. But once they did, I made the best of matters. Look, even the sheets are fresh!"

"Can I point out how majorly nice it is of your servants to always expect you to wake up even after all these years, keeping the place clean and fresh?"

"It is rather nice of them, isn't it? I'll be sure to express my gratitude." He set my bag on a dresser.

"So, where is the couch that I'll be sleeping on, Uncle Marutuk?"

"There isn't one."

"Well, I guess I could sleep on the floor."

"No, you will not. Sharing a bed with me is the only way I can be sure you're safe. If you were on the floor, some intruder could kill you before I even wake up. If you're in my bed, I'll be able to protect you for sure."

"I thought you were so old, you didn't need to sleep?"

"That's only when I'm still with inactivity. Once I'm moving again, I need blood and I need sleep. That's why you need to sleep with me. Two male friends in my homeland share beds all the time when it's the only option. Don't worry, Nephew Jake, Uncle Marutuk will take care of you."

"Oh, alright Uncle Marutuk." I went over to the bed. "Which side do you prefer?"

"Either."

He took his turban and slippers off. He jumped on top of the other side of the bed and sprawled on his back.

"I hope you are wearing more clothes than that to bed," I said.

"These are the only clothes I own."

"Well, you can borrow a pair of my shorts."

"Listen, Nephew of mine. I'm not suddenly sleeping naked because you are here, I always sleep like this. The nights are way too hot to do anything else. And honestly, in these parts, male friends would be nude around each other and sleep nude together without it ever being sexual."

"Well, you can sleep how you want to, but I normally sleep in shorts, so that's not going to change. Can I take a shower?"

"The bathroom is right through there."

The bathroom was much more dimly lit than the bedroom, with just one torch lit, casting a lot of it in shadow. Even through the room was large enough, there was a lot of just empty accent spaces filled with tiles, and not much space devoted to function. Two sinks, one toilet, and a very long, two-person shower that was built into the back of the room that didn't have any curtains, glass, or doors.

I started up one of the showerheads and started my shower. There was something kind of eerie about showering in such low, flickering torchlight that cast moving shadows all over the walls.

And then I thought I heard a sound, and turned around quickly to see if someone had snuck in on me. But no one was there; it must have just been the running water playing tricks with me.

A little later, I again thought I heard something. I told myself I was being silly, getting scared at nothing but an eerie room.

That's when I felt something coiling around my ankles. I darted my head down to see a snake encircling my feet. My heart almost blew out of my chest.

"Marutuk, come quick!"

I didn't have to shout twice. Almost as soon as I had said the panicked words, he came running into the room, still in his snake chains and jewelry.

"A snake! On my feet!"

"Just don't step on it!"

He hopped into the shower and grabbed the snake.

"Was this another attempt to kill me?" I asked.

"I'm not sure this time. I found some other snakes in the bedroom. I think that this whole palace has become overrun with them since the last time I was awake."

He pulled it from around my ankles, and carried it outside.

"I feel like I can hear others in here," I said. "More slithering sounds in the shadows."

He came back in the bathroom. "I think we should follow the rules I set. If I'm not going to let you sleep outside of my bed, surely I won't let you be alone in any room. We should share a bathroom too."

"Alright, I guess we must."

He walked over to the toilet and started to piss. It was interesting seeing him do it with that cobra jewelry still surrounding his stalk.

"You know what I just realized? It has been a century since I last bathed. Literally! I feel sort of gross. I'm going to join you in there."

"If you must, but you can use the other shower head all the way over there."

"Uh, okay."

He came over and started up his shower. The water was making all those tight muscles look even sexier.

"There's more snakes over here, and they are looking awfully angry."

"I think they feel protective of me. They see you as an intruder, for whatever reason."

"Hey, snakes. We are family. That's my uncle. I'm a friend. They aren't listening to me. Tell them!"

"Snakes, that's my nephew. I'd be devastated if anything happened to him, so stay away."

"I still don't think that's working."

"That's because they can see us. We don't look related at all."

A snake I hadn't even seen before came from who knows where above me and fell onto my shoulder. I yelled, shook it off me, and ran over to Marutuk's showerhead, hiding behind his huge body and hugged his back.

"Ah see? That's working beautifully."

"What is?"

"Us touching. When we touch, they seem soothed. We'll just have to share a shower."

"Okay, but I'm going to try and get a little bit of space between us."

I stopped touching him and continued to wash myself. Almost immediately, the snakes started to lunge at my feet.

"Ack! Help me!"

This time, Marutuk came up from behind me and pressed himself against my back, holding me from behind. "We'll just have to finish our showers like this. We can help finish washing each other."

He started to wash the front of my body. As soon as the fear of the snakes passed, I started to realize what a sexy situation this was, being pressed against all his wet muscles like that.

"Are you sure washing each other is something friends would do here?"

"Sure, why not? Nothing sexual about being clean."

"Then how come I feel a rock hard pole pressed against my butttcrack back there? What about that screams just friends?"

"Hey, I'm sorry. My pet cobra has a mind of his own. I cannot keep him under control. But just because he's ready for a fight doesn't mean I'm thinking any unsavory thoughts about you. It's just an automatic response to being so close to a beautiful mouse-hole. If you turn around, he might go down."

"I don't want to turn around," I said.

"You have a hard penis too, don't you?"

"No, I do not! If I got a hard penis over my uncle, I don't think I would ever forgive myself."

"Let me see!"

He spun me around, and I concentrated all my energy on keeping all sexual thoughts out of my mind as the tip of his hard penis hit my stomach. I would not get hard.

"It sure looks plumper than before."

"I will not get a hardon from my uncle, I refuse."

"Not even if I wash off your dick?"

"Not even then."

He washed up and rinsed my dick.

"See? Because I don't associate anything my uncle does with anything sexual. That's just wrong."

"Alright, if you really are so good at us just being friends, you wash me. See if you can do it without getting hard."

"Fine. I will. Because I'm not thinking any sexual thoughts at all."

I grabbed the soap from him, and started in on his huge arms, soaping up those hefty bis while I counted backwards from 100. I washed his crazy-hot pecs and tight nipples, and those that bulging eight- pack of abs with businesslike attitude. And then I washed his hairy, super-muscular legs as well.

"There, all done."

"Aren't you forgetting one small detail?"

"Did I?"

"My cobra needs washing!"

"Oh, right, no problem at all. I won't get aroused in the least."

I started with his massive brown balls, each one separated by one of his snake chains. I kept the image of my disappointed mother in my mind the whole time.

And then I started in on that huge, veiny shaft, a perfect, glistening stick of meat, so much more impressive hard than it was soft, which was already beyond huge. It stuck out at a ninety degree angle from his body, looking like another forearm.

"You can feel free to scrub underneath the metal," he said.

And that meant I had to spend even more time polishing his cut shaft.

"And now the head."

I scrubbed the huge, brownish-purple dickhead. What had seemed before to just be shiny from the water I realized was sticky with precum, so I washed it away with my fingers. That's when I needed to think of myself cut and bleeding in order not to get hard.

"See? It is possible to go five minutes in close proximity of a family member without getting the least bit aroused. Now, let's rinse off and dry off."

"I admit, you are much more in control of yourself than I am. Can I give you a respectful hug to congratulate you?"

"Of course."

He reached up and pulled me into a tight hug, his hard dick against my soft one, his hands at my back.

And then I felt a huge finger slip past my sensitive butthole and inside me. The action sent shivers through me, and I lost control.

"What are you doing? It can't possibly be a Middle Eastern tradition to help your friends and family keep this part of you clean as well!"

"I'm just checking something there so I know which of the spells to teach you tonight. Ah, now I know. Oh wait, what have we here?"

He smiled deviously and grabbed my hard dick in his free hand.

"Seems like someone isn't as in control as once previously suspected. And I guess I just stumbled upon your on button."

"Okay, I'll admit, you turn me on tremendously."

"As do you."

"But that doesn't mean it's right, or that we should give into those attractions and commit sin."

I pulled back from him.

"Okay, okay, I hear you."

"And what could my spell possibly have to do with that part of my body?"

"You have a normal human rectum in there."

"What did you expect?"

"Well, how do you think my little brother ever passed on his line if the One's sperm cells come out dead?"

"Did he learn a spell to reverse that curse?" I asked.

"Well, if he did make his sperm functional again, I never knew about it. What he did do, fairly early on, was to change his rectum into a male vampire's secondary reproductive system."

"The one that mimics a females?" I asked. "Do you have one of those intact?"

"No, I cut mine out almost immediately. It's gone. But I can help you cast a spell on yourself to get your ability to bear children back. How does that sound?"

"It sounds like a dream! I was so sad at having lost that part of me before. I'd always wanted children of my own. I knew I wanted to be a father as early as I can remember. I will be so much in your debt if you can help me change that. Wait a second. When you talk about spell-casting, you aren't referring to anything devilish, are you?"

"What do you mean?"

"I don't want to make a deal with the devil to make my dreams come true. Anything that will end up bad for me or anyone else is strictly off the table."

"No, your power is not evil, Nephew. Doing magic does not channel badness in any way or have any bad consequences. The spells I will teach you tonight will be physically painful for you in the short term, but have no long term negatives. And they are in no way dangerous to anyone else. That's not to say there's not spells you could use that could be dangerous. It's like all these Arabian, curved swords all the guards have here. A weapon can be used for good or bad, depending on who wields it."

"Okay, as long as I know that going in, I'm totally devoted to making this spell work."

"That's good to know. Because it's not going to be an easy night for you. These are major changes you'll be going through."

"I'm committed to doing whatever it takes."

In the courtyard of the Palace, whose Arabian harmony was beautifully lit up by moonlight, Marutuk pulled a lever on the wall, and a huge disc from the ground started to slide open, revealing a hidden, circular pit that was maybe 40 feet in diameter, and a couple stories deep. The pit was covered in snake carvings, but instead of the carvings being beautiful like inside the palace, here they actually just seemed intended to scare.

"The spell needs to be done at the bottom of this pit," he said. He set up a long wooden ladder on the edge.

"Should I go first or you?"

"I don't want you doing any of this on your own, it's too dangerous. How do you feel about a ride on my back?"

"Sure." I got piggyback on him. Some of the chains he had on made it easier to hold on.

I was worried my weight would throw his balance, but he got onto the ladder easily, and started climbing down quickly.

"Whatever you do, do not try to stand on the ground when we get to the bottom."

"The farther down we go, the more it sounds like there's a sharp breeze coming from down there, yet I don't feel any updraft."

"That's not wind."

"That's what I was afraid of. This is a massive snake pit, isn't it?"

"Yes. It's where they breed."

"And why do we need to perform the spell here of all places? I can think of a few other places I'd be more comfortable performing a painful spell."

"Because this is a very powerful spell you are casting. You need the energy of the snakes to cast it. It was the same when we did this for my little brother."

"You're not talking about sacrificing the snakes?"

"No, don't worry, the snakes will be fine. We are just using their life-energy. And part of my job is to make sure we can use their energy without you getting killed."

"That's kind of an important job there. I expect you to take it seriously."

"Your safety is as important to me as my little brother's. You are the second One I've ever seen. I woke up after a century just to help you. I'm not taking your life lightly. And that's why it's critical you listen to my every command when we are down here, and quickly."

"I will, I promise."

I tried to look down. I thought I could see snakes all over the place crawling all over each other and on everything else. As we got closer to the bottom, I realized the ground was covered with huge, metal spikes.

"Oh great, as if this room wasn't unpleasant enough, there's killer spikes all over the place. What purpose could those possibly serve, besides possibly skewering me?"

"The snakes like to wrap themselves around those. Don't worry, I won't let them hurt you."

When we got to the ground, Marutuk very carefully stepped from the ladder to the soft sand between the spikes. He moved us around the spikes until we came to a stone dais raised a few feet above the ground. Marutuk tossed away all the snakes on the alter.

"Lie here," he said.

"Of course. What a pleasant bed this is."

I got down and sprawled myself over the warm stone of the dais, laying down. The snakes were hissing in every direction around me. I wasn't phobic of snakes like I was of blood, but knowing they were poisonous just exacerbated my fear of them. My heart felt like it would burst out of my chest and the spell hadn't even begun.

"First, take your clothes off. You need to be naked for this spell."

"Alright, I did just tell you I'd do whatever it takes to makes this spell work."

I removed all my clothes until I was totally naked.

"I'll make sure to grab those for you when we're through with this, don't worry. Now, I'm going to hold onto you tightly so they know I care about your safety."

"Yes, please do."

He reached down and held onto me with those muscular, furry arms.

"Are you ready to begin?"

"Yes," I said. "Not that I am raring to move forward, but I can't think of any advantage to delaying."

"Okay. So, there's actually two different spells we'll be doing today. The first is much the by far simpler spell. I'm going to have you repeat the actual words to the spell, but just as important it is to say the spell just as I say it, you need to focus on the action of the spell taking root in your body."

"I understand."

"Close your eyes and focus on your physicality. The first spell you need to focus on is kind of an anesthesia spell for yourself. It's going to numb your pain, make you feel relaxed, and make you feel good. You might get a tab bit hallucinogenic, but that's okay too. Are you ready to start?"

"Yes."

"Good. Repeat after me." He started speaking some strange language.

"Is that Sumerian?"

"It's a long-forgotten variance on Sumerian that has magical powers for the One. The spell needs to be in that language for it to work, and you have to say it correctly. All of my little brother's spells were in this language."

"Sorry, start again."

"Remember to focus on your body taking those effects!"

"I am."

He started again the words of the spell, and I repeated it a word a time, all the while focusing on the changes needed in my body. The spell took a while to get through, but I realized it was because there was a smaller sentence or so that I was repeating several times. I concentrated on memorizing those words just in case I needed to repeat the spell later for whatever reason.

As soon as I finished the last syllable of the spell, it was weird how quickly the spell took root. The physical effects were much more immediate than any injection would be.

I opened my eyes. "It's working." It was so thrilling to know I just successfully completed my first spell, and I squashed out any fears that Marutuk could be misleading me.

"Just let the effects take over your body. Welcome them."

It felt a lot like Liquid Fire, only without any warming sensations, and a lot more soothing. I felt numb all over, but I also oddly felt very sexual. I didn't know if I'd be able to stand up anymore.

"I'm ready for the next spell."

"Mentally you may be, but physically you're not."

"What do you mean?"

"This is such a powerful spell; you need to use the life force of all these snakes. Right now, most of them are too far away from you to serve much good."

"Well, can you bring them closer? I mean, safely?"

He turned in a circle and motioned towards me to all the masses of writhing snakes. "Snake brothers, your father cobra commands you to come."

It was incredible how well they responded, hundreds of snakes moving all around the dais, covering up any trace of spikes or sand, surrounding Marutuk's body up to his knees.

"Can you feel their energy now?" he asked me.

"Yes, I can. This is so bizarre!"

My vision started to get blurry. The snakes seemed to be speaking to me, all hissing together at me. I could actually hear their words in the hisses. I knew I was starting to hallucinate.

Even weirder, as I stared at Marutuk, who was standing by my feet, his penis was moving. I thought at first he was getting hard, but that wasn't what it was. His penis started to slither and slink around like a snake, moving in a manner that would have been impossible for any human limb to. I was riveted by it, and yet, I knew I must have been seeing things.

After a bit, that cobra head sculpture around the middle stalk of his unit started to be affected by my hallucinations as well, coming to life, its eyes blinking and fangs dripping, his penis hovering around me, looking ready to bite.

"Do it. Do the spell now."

"You still don't have enough power."

"Get me more power!" I had turned into someone else, I was absolutely begging for it. I could not wait.

"In order for me to get you enough power for you to perform this spell, the snakes need to be all over you. Touching you."

"That's fine. Do it. No, wait. They'll bite me! I can see their anger."

"You're right, they will bite you. No matter what I say, they will bite you. They see me as their father cobra, but you are just a threat to them."

"There's no way to keep them tamed? How did your brother do this?"

"I was inside of him the whole time."

"Are you sure that's the only way? You are my uncle!"

"I know it goes against your boundaries, but it's the only way you'll ever perform this spell. If they see me mating with you, they'll start to think you're their mother."

"Fine, do it. Quickly."

Marutuk lifted my ankles over his shoulders. "First I need to lube you up."

"Yes."

He moved his head down between my legs. His facial skin, which had always been hairless, turned to brown scales. When he opened his mouth, his fangs were out, but this time, they seemed even more serpentine. As did his tongue, with came out long, smooth, and forked. I knew I was still hallucinating.

He used that tongue to lick inside me.

"That's enough," I said when he seemed to be lingering.

He moved his head off me.

"Stick it in me."

When I looked down at his penis, there wasn't anything there anymore. Instead, the largest, thickest brown cobra I had ever seen protruded from his crotch, its tongue flicking at me. It chilled me to the bone.

The snake's tongue licked my hole. And then its head dug its way slowly into me. I was in a lot of pain as the whole snake pushed inside me.

"That's enough! Don't screw me, there's no need. Just hold it in like that."

"Alright. Snake brothers, cover your snake mother with your bodies. Welcome your mother home."

Snakes started to slither over my naked body, giving me shivers. Soon, they completely covered me, their hisses ringing in my ears, only my mouth uncovered. I knew I wasn't hallucinating that part.

"Okay, you have the power to charge this spell now. And here's what I want you to focus on."

"Yes, tell me."

"Your body is going to change. You will never again need to defecate. Instead, all solid food you ingest will be absorbed in your stomach. You can still become overweight, so nutrition still matters for you, unlike us vampires. Where your guts once were, now there will a uterus and ovaries, which will start producing your eggs immediately. Your rectum will be attached to your uterus, meaning sperm entering there that reach the ovaries can impregnate you. These eggs will have X chromosomes only, meaning you can conceive either sex. Once pregnant, after nine months the baby will need to be removed. A vampire like me could use their blood to keep you alive through this procedure. And the baby will need a nursemaid, as you won't have female breasts. Any normal contraceptives or birth control can be used by you to keep yourself from conceiving. Got all that?"

"Yes."

"Keep this vision of yourself in your mind as we do the spell. And focus on draining the lifeforce of these serpents for power. Alright, repeat after me."

He started in on his Sumerian again, with me repeating each word. I tried hard to think about all of these changes to my body. Think about how much I wanted kids one day.

The spell was much, much longer to repeat than the last one had been, it seemed like I was talking forever. There was no chance of me memorizing it.

When the last word was said, I didn't even know it was over until I started to feel a sudden, deep pain inside my stomach.

"It's working. I can feel it working!"

The pain got more intense, and I became more and more thankful that Marutuk had given me that first numbing spell.

"Your cobra jewelry. Did you take that off your penis or is it inside me?"

"You were watching me as I put it in you, remember?"

"No."

"Do you want me to pull it out?"

"No! I have this driving need for it inside me. I need you to screw me with it."

"I've been waiting for this. My brother needed the same thing."

He started to push in and out of me, thrusting. I felt a pain inside me, but what should have been the pain of his serpent jewelry scratching my insides, instead it felt like a giant snake was chewing away at me.

But the pain was welcome, I knew I needed it. Needed to bleed.

Marutuk dove his arms through the snakes and grabbed my head, holding me hard their as he thrust away at me for what seemed like ages.

And then I felt him start his orgasm, his whole body driving into me with more and more force.

"Are you ready for my serpent seed to be spilled all over inside of you?"

"Yes, yes! I need it!"

He reached the edge, flexed all his muscles, and my insides were covered, with additional seed gushing out all over the dais.

I came too, and then I passed out.

Sometime in the night, I woke up to hear Marutuk's voice. "I have something about myself that I need to tell you. But only when I've come to trust you." I sighed, gave a silent prayer to God, and then fell back asleep.