Evil Is a Man

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

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

MAY 6th

"I can feel it! Yesterday, I thought you were crazy, but this morning, I can feel it!"

Marutuk, still inside me, grabbed my hand and placed it on my stomach.

"See?"

"Yes. There he is."

"That's my Cobra-God-Son! He's just like his father! So big and strong!"

"Yes, just like his father," I agreed.

Marutuk kissed me over and over. "Holding him is making me want you all over again. But this time, I'm going to fuck you while I hold onto him."

And so, he started to screw me again. At least that time, he was too focused on the baby in my stomach that he was holding in his hands instead of on me, so I could get away with not getting off myself or requiring me to do much to get him going.

He blew another load inside me and then pulled out.

When he carried me into the bathroom to wash up, I noticed that his slime-covered snake-penis was uncharacteristically lethargic, hanging limply between his legs with its eyes shut.

Bathroom activities weren't really meant to be done by someone who won't set you down for even the briefest moment. With his arms holding me up, he was mostly relying on me to be the hands for us both in there. Luckily, he didn't require much himself, and just held me up while I brushed my teeth or shaved. But he did shower, which meant I was the one who had to scrub us both down with soap as he held me under the water spray.

I felt sick as my soapy hands broke a chain on my new ornaments from a jewel, causing it to just hang there limply. I stifled a gasp and pretended like it had never happened, moving my hands away from my jewelry entirely.

"Okay, all done," I said.

"You didn't get your chest yet."

"I don't feel very dirty on my chest. It's fine."

"I can see a huge splash of Cobra-God seed all over it."

"Oh, that? Well, it makes me happy to keep it there. It turns me on to have a piece of you on me to, um, smell, all day long."

"Wow, I never knew you were so dirty."

"Only with you, I guess."

"That's very alluring. But I'm pretty careful about not having my seed just lying around where one of these crazy women or bottom male vampires can use it to impregnate themselves. I insist that you wash it off."

"Oh, alright."

I reached for my chest with the soap, trying very hard not to break anything else this time. I carefully washed away his goop from my nipple.

I finished the job, and moved my hands away finally, feeling relief. "There."

And then another chain snapped, this time I wasn't even touching it.

"What was that?!"

"What?"

"Your chain!"

He pulled at another chain on my chest, and it broke in his hands.

He gasped. "This is a piece of crap!"

"What are you doing? I'm sure it can be fixed."

"No, this is a slap in the face to you, a slap in the face. He gave me horrible craftsmanship." He ripped the jewelry off my body and threw it away.

"Even if chains need to be replaced, the jewels are still jewels!"

"Who's to say they are real jewels at all?"

He angrily carried me to his apartment front door, opened it, and screamed at a guard to get the doctor.

"I need you to spend the morning with the doctor while I hunt down this man and take care of him for what he did to insult us both."

"Are you going to hurt him?"

He said nothing.

"Come on, Marutuk, you can't lie to me anymore, I'm the bearer of your child."

"Yes! Yes, I'm going to hurt him."

"Can't you get your point across without hurting him?"

"I'm not sure."

"Well, if you hurt him or anyone else, I can't love you anymore. You keep that in mind."

The doctor knocked, and Marutuk angrily opened the door. I could tell poor Tahir could see his anger and was worried it was directed at him. "Take him, Doctor! For the morning. Keep your clinic locked!"

"I will, God Marutuk."

"Remember what I told you!" I said to Marutuk as Tahir carried me away.

"I'll be resentfully having your stupid requests ringing in my head all morning!" he snapped back at me.

As soon as we were safely alone in his clinic with the doors locked, Tahir set me down on my feet. "What was all that about?"

"Just trying to guilt Marutuk in order to get him to stop killing people."

He eyed my nakedness with annoyance and tossed me his robe. "Will you please put this on now?"

"I don't know. Marutuk sure wouldn't approve if he saw me in this."

"That would be one in an endless list of things we've done here that Marutuk would not approve of, and that excuse certainly never stopped you before."

"I might just leave it off. It's a hot day. Oh, come with me, there's something I want you to feel."

"Where are you going?"

"To your bed to lie down with you. I want you to help me feel this lump again."

He followed me, shaking his head. "I'm not getting inside you again, Jake. If that's the only way to make the baby appear again then I can wait for a couple days when it's large enough to feel without that action."

"Would you at least stick your fingers in me?"

"No! We're supposed to be just friends!"

"Fine." I pressed my stomach. "Lucky for you. it's big enough now for us to feel without any of that. To your bed."

"Couldn't you just lie down in one of the clinic beds?"

"What's the difference?"

"One is made for medical patients like you, considering I'm a physician, and the other is smack in the middle of my most personal, intimate space."

"Well, it's way more comfortable that your hospital beds, and I'm the one who is pregnant, so I get to decide."

"Fine, but only because you played the pregnant card."

I walked into his apartment and said hello to the three mongooses before going to his bedroom. I jumped into his bed.

He walked over to side of the bed and put his hands over my stomach. "Where do you want me to feel?"

"Do you really want me to answer that question truthfully?" I joked.

"No. Where can I feel the fetus?"

"Can you at least get into bed with me and feel it like that?"

"There's absolutely no need."

"This is not about being my physician, Tahir. This is about being a good father. Part of being a good father means taking care of me during the pregnancy, and right now, I don't need a cold doctor's hands touching me. I need the caring hands of the father of my fetus."

He sighed. "Fine, I'll get into bed with you."

"Will you give me the support I need? Hold me?"

"I suppose."

He started climbing into bed with me.

"You aren't going to get naked first?" I asked him.

"Absolutely not! That's where I draw the line."

He took his fez and slippers off, but left the kaftan on as he jumped into bed beside me and put his strong arms around my neck. I led his hand to the lump in my stomach.

"Feel that?" I asked. "Isn't he incredible? I feel like he's already twice as big as yesterday."

Tahir started to cry again. "He's absolutely splendid! He's going to be the most loved child there ever was! How have you been feeling?"

"I've had no trace of morning sickness. No trace of anytime sickness, really."

"Not even extra tiredness?"

"Not really. It's weird. I feel energized."

"No pains or aches?"

"Not at all. In fact, my body feels better than normal. That baby is doing my body well."

"You know, ever since that trip to the sea, you've just had this glow about you."

"You mean, of happiness?"

"No, not an emotional glow. A physical one. It's hard for me to describe. But just seeing it is enough to bring me to happy tears."

"Everything brings you to happy tears, Tahir," I said.

"That's not true. Just my loved ones. Guess what I accomplished yesterday when you were gone almost the entire day yesterday at your feast?"

"You finished a new model sailboat?"

"Something a little more important than that! You don't give me enough credit."

"I would have been proud of you if it was the sailboat, that wasn't disappointment in my voice."

"I figured out how we can get away from Marutuk."

"You did?!"

"Don't get too excited. This is just a rough idea, not an actual plan."

"Tell me."

"We can fake your death. And if it's after the pregnancy, fake the child's death too. While secretly, Big Horn will take you both to safety."

"Wait a second," I said. "That plan doesn't involve you!"

"It will be too suspicious if we were trying to make it seem like all three of us died."

"No! I want no part of any plan that doesn't include you as well."

"But listen. Once Marutuk realizes you're dead, he'll be extremely depressed. I know him enough to know that. He'll go back into his throne room and freeze again. This time, likely for a thousand years, not just a hundred. When he does, I'll just leave. Big Horn will sneak me out."

"Let me think about this," I said. "Tahir, while you're holding me like this, I want you to feed from me."

"No. I'm just going to be getting my blood from the packets, like before."

"But I thought we agreed I could always get a transfusion if I needed to?"

"That was before we stopped being romantic partners. Now I think it's highly inappropriate."

I was absolutely determined to win this game. I jumped out of bed and walked into the bathroom. I grabbed his razor and very lightly cut my knee, which hurt more than I thought it would, but I wasn't going to admit that.

I came back in the bedroom. "Oops, clumsy me, I just accidentally scraped my knee."

"Funny, the last adjective I'd ever describe you as is clumsy."

I put my knee right up to his face as he was lying in bed. I was happy to see his fangs pop out as he smelled it. "I guess you'll just have to lick it healed."

"You know, there's this wonderful medical invention that you may never heard of because you're not a trained physician called a Band-Aid. That should do perfectly."

"How can you resist my wonderful tasting blood that's right in front of your lips?"

"I've been a vampire physician for ages. Resisting blood is not the least bit difficult."

"Well, what would Marutuk think when he sees me with a Band-Aid on my knee? He's trusting you not to let me walk."

"Fine, you win, I'll heal your wound."

I smiled as he moved his fanged mouth towards my knee. His sexy tongue flicked out of his tan- brown lips and came within millimeters of the blood.

And then he used his left fang to cut the tip of his tongue. He placed this over my wound and dripped blood onto it. "Did you forget that vampire blood heals wounds too?"

He smiled as my wound healed itself and disappeared, without him ever actually touching me.

"You are the worst," I said to him, laughing.

"Do you promise now to stop trying to seduce me?"

"I offer no such promise! I hate losing."

"This is not a game, Jake!"

"Oh yes it is!"

MAY 8th

Two days later, Marutuk made an announcement in the afternoon. "I've found another craftsman to take on your Cobra Mother body-jewelry. This time, instead of entrusting their good craftsmanship, I want to be there personally while it happens."

"You don't have to give me any of this stuff. I don't need any luxurious items to be happy."

"I know that, you tell me that all the time, but I do need to do this. For my own sanity. But unlike the last one who worked on this, his workshop is in a town on the very edge of our border. I'm going to leave tonight, and come back tomorrow morning. I decided, since you know how much I love you and how much affection you've been showing me as long as I meet your demands, I would give you the choice of either coming with me or staying here until I return. I should warn you, this is by no means a vacation. It will be filled with tedium. It doesn't matter to me which option you chose."

"Well, normally I would love to go with you, but it sounds like such a busy trip, I'm just not sure. You know how exhausted this pregnancy is making me," I lied.

He nodded. "That's sort of what I figured. I'm going to have the doctor look after you like I normally would for the night. I feel a bit odd about having him staying overnight in my room, so I thought I would ask him to keep you there, in his clinic. Are you okay with that?"

"Yes."

"I'm going to ask that he hold onto you all night and not fall asleep. I trust myself to be able to fall asleep and still keep guard over you over the night, as I can be up at a moment's notice. But he is nowhere near as strong as me, so the only way I'll feel right about leaving you is if he never sleeps. He can stay up and sleep tomorrow. Hopefully, if all goes well, tomorrow I will have your permanent body adornment, one that finally will make it immediately apparent your rank in this city, just like mine does. But in the meantime, I've noticed the looks people give you being naked. They relate that to being unimportant. So, I want you to wear clothing from this moment forward. You have a closet full of clothes that were given to you during the courtyard feast the other day, but while those garments are world-class in their design and expense, they would be things that the richest people here might already be wearing. I cannot have you wearing something someone else will be wearing too."

He pulled something very familiar to me out of the closet.

"That's why, I want you to start wearing the clothes you brought with you. While not being as beautiful as those that the mother of my child should be wearing, they do have a couple things going for them. They aren't worn by anyone else in Badiya Ahmar. And they give you an air of mystery. And they have pockets, so you can keep your translator and your wallet around again."

"Sounds great!"

He helped me put my clothes on, and I secretly wished for something to go wrong that would keep him from ever getting the hideous jewelry for me again.

"Okay, I'm ready for you upstairs now," I said to Tahir that night in his clinic.

"You're allowing me to go to bed now?"

"Yes, but first you need to put on this."

"Another blind-fold? What for?"

"Just do as instructed! Blindfold on!"

After he was good and blind, I pulled him upstairs and into his apartment. I pulled him into his bathroom.

"Okay, you'll want to kick off your shoes and your hat."

He did as I told him to.

"And now, you'll want to take off the kaftan too."

"Jake, how many times do I have to tell you, I'm not going to be getting naked in front of you."

"Don't say I didn't warn you. Here, let me help you take a big step up."

I guided his feet one at a time over the edge of the bathtub and into the warm water.

"Good. Now, sit."

He sat down and absolutely soaked his kaftan in water. "Now I'm all wet. Is this whole surprise just some feeble excuse to get me naked?"

"Okay, blindfold off."

He opened his eyes and looked at the bathtub in front of him.

"Surprise! What do you think?"

At first, he said nothing, and I thought he was just annoyed that I had gotten him wet for nothing.

And then he started to cry, and I realized he was never mad, just too emotional for words.

"You, you--" he stammered. "You brought the sea to me! Is that sand I see all over the bottom of the bottom of the tub?"

"Yes. I have to admit that was the easiest part to procure given our Badiya Ahmar setting in which every surface seems to sweat sand."

"I don't care if it was easy or if you had to hike to the Sahara desert to bring it back, it still is so sweet of you to do. And it brings back memories squeezing it between my toes! I love that!"

"Taste the water."

He did. "Salt water?"

"Sorry if your kitchen salt needs a refill after this."

"It's worth it! And you hung a cloth on the ceiling that is the exact same color blue as the sky we made love under! This is magical!"

"The mongooses are jumping all over me."

"They must just be super happy to see you. You haven't been over here as much lately."

"Can I lock them out of the bedroom for now?"

"Sure."

After they were outside, I said, "There's one more part." I pulled my phone out of my slacks and took it over to him. "Look at this. I have a video of the ocean on loop!" I held the phone out to him.

"I've never seen anything like this! The sea, just like it was for us!"

"And do you hear that, Tahir?"

"Waves! Oh, heavenly waves!"

He set down the phone right next to the tub on a counter, where it was easy to see.

"Jake, get in here with me."

I took off my clothes as quickly as I knew how, and once I was naked, he pulled me into the bathtub with his wet, muscled arms.

"Like I said, everything you do just makes me love you more and more."

After a couple days without any romantic affection from him, it felt so good when he kissed me. Not just appreciatively, but with love.

"That didn't feel like a friendly kiss, Tahir."

"You win, Jake. Is that what you want to hear? Not just by a nose, but with a brilliant check mate. Because you brought the one place I can control myself to me."

"No regrets?" I asked.

"Only that I didn't take my stupid kaftan off in the first place."

"I can turn that problem into a solution in three seconds flat."

"That's a feat I will have to see to believe."

I pulled him to his feet in the tub, and I pulled the wet kaftan off his body as fast as was possible, and threw it aside. "And while we're at it, I thought Captain Farhat might want to come out for the occasion."

I grabbed his pirate hat, which I placed nearby, and set it on his head.

"Ahoy, matey! I do believe ye actual time of accomplishment was three times as long as what you boasted it to be. Now, since I am the captain and you are my only crew member, I have the authority to punish ye poor behavior, which could be considered rabble-rousing, mutiny, with corporeal punishment."

"My oh my, what did I sign up for?" I asked, smiling.

"You should have known a buccaneer's life is filled with nothing but scallywags, lad! You be lucky you don't get keelhauled or a marooned somewhere. Now, ye be lucky I be fresh outta cats o' nine tails, or I'd give ya a real lashing, bucko. I'll just be forced to give ya a taste of my own cat, this very weapon right `ere." He shook his massive, soft dick at me, laughing. I loved watching how much the thing would swing to and fro with all its weight as it moved.

"Ah a taste of your cat sounds like the kind of corporeal punishment I can support."

With him still standing up in the tub, I slowly knelt in front of him. As I went down, I let my fingers move over his wet muscles, loving their size and tautness. I moved my hands over those giant, tan biceps, covered in veins. How was it that even those veiny forearms didn't have a hair on them, and yet Tahir told me before he never shaved anything but his face? I licked and kissed those bis, arms muscles, drawn to them. And then I kissed each of his barely hairy armpits.

Those gorgeous, muscled pecs, totally symmetrical, neither one having the slightest bit of hair on them. I licked all over those tan skin, realizing that the best part about not having much body hair was that it made him about as lickable as a man could ever hope to be. I licked each one of his small, hard nipples, the darkest colors on his chest. They tasted wonderfully.

But I had to keep moving down, so I moved my lips down his taut, hairless 8-pack. I licked the inside of his belly button, and then moved down as far as I could go, to the ripped, tan thigh muscles above his knees, loving the hairlessness of him there too. I licked up his veiny thigh muscles. And then I licked along the two cracks of his V-shaped muscles between his hips and obliques that I always loved so much.

This led me to his minimal, black pubic bush, which just formed a cute line right above the base of his dick. I kissed the surprisingly soft hairs there, and then I pulled his pole to the right, and took in the view of those huge balls unobstructed. Naturally hairless, the two globes were perfectly symmetrical. I licked at the left one, relishing how surprisingly smooth he was there. I sucked on his nut, and then switched to the other side.

I could not hold myself back any longer, I licked at the girthy flesh of the base of his tan stalk. I cocked my head and put his whole thickness against my lips. And then I slowly dragged my lips downwards, tasting more and more of his hefty, soft dick. When I got to his purple-tan, cut head, I was so turned on, I felt like I could come just by tasting it. But I finally did, moving my lips around the hefty head and tasting his dickslit with my tongue and he moaned. I move my lips up to the rim of his head, sucking on the whole thing all at once.

And then I moved my head upwards, taking more and more of his soft dick in my mouth at a time, licking each inch of him, trying to get all of his flavor and swallow it down. I moved hungrily up until I had devoured the whole thing, my chin being kissed by those smooth balls, and his silky pubes tickling my nose. I held myself there for as long as I could, inhaling his manly, sweet scent.

Finally, I pulled off him. "I never thought I'd say this, but tasting your cat has made me realize just how scrumptious such a fine specimen of cat can taste."

"Well, when I said a taste o' me cat, I didn't mean with ye mouth, I meant it with ye skin! So, about face and get ready do get yer lashings!"

"Aye aye, Captain."

I turned around, and he used his floppy, wet dick to playfully whip my body from my neck to my back. "Ye be lucky, me beauty, that my love for you is tuning me too lily-livered to hit ya any harder." I felt his start to whip me on the top of my butt, which felt great. He pulled open my cheeks and whipped me a couple times with his huge flesh-stick against my sensitive hole.

He turned me around again and pulled us both down into the water, so I was sitting on him in the tub.

"As punishment, Captain Farhat will just have to shower his love all over you, my beauty."

He grabbed my head in his hands and he kissed me, love flowing into his kiss just as he had promised. Quickly, I felt his huge dick turn hard, slapping me in the belly.

When the kiss ended, I noticed Tahir's hard dick was so long, the head popped up above the waterline as he sat, which was adorable.

"Captain, your dick looks just a periscope in the water!"

"Periscope?"

"Sorry, wrong century. A telescope."

"Ye captain didn't dismiss ya!" I jumped out of the water.

I hurried back from his bedroom and jumped in the tub. "Look, now I can make your dick into a ship of its own!"

I tied a little paper sail to the top of his tan-purple dickhead.

"Captain Farhat approves, me beauty!" He started to sail his miniature ship around the bathtub without even touching it with his hands, just moving his hips around. "But if me ship needs an island to plunder. Turn upside down."

I did as he asked, facing away from him and putting my knees on the bathtub floor, with my butt and back up above water, looking like an island.

"That's the finest desert island ol' Captain Farhat has ever laid eyes on. Too bad me ship is so swollen with me coxswain. Ah, there we are, prepare to drop anchor!"

I felt his hands rubbing my butt.

"My, my, my, I do believe that's a cave on that island, probably filled with pirate treasure! I do believe this is the motherload they always talked about in stories!"

With the paper sail clearly removed, I felt him place his wet, precum-leaking dickhead, so impressively large, against my hole. What he didn't know is that I had already put Parker's serum inside me, so I wasn't afraid of the pain for once and welcomed this.

"Argh, this booty hole be sealed off! Prepare to fire my largest cannon into the cave-hole, and let the plundering begin!"

I felt him push into me.

"Shiver me timbers! Captain Farhat never prepared that the motherload inside this treasure chest be so beautiful, I end up dead as a poor lad sent to his death in Davy Jones locker."

I twisted around until I was facing him, keeping him inside me. "I think it's time for Captain Farhat to retire for the evening. I want my sweet Tahir back."

"He's so gone," he said, throwing the hat off and out of the bathtub.

"Glad to see you again, babe. Did I ever tell you just how much of a weirdo you are?"

"Another modern term I'm not familiar with, I'm afraid."

"It means you are a bit odd."

"Isn't that a euphemism for straight-jacket-insane? I guess that's true about me."

"Not at all. It means you're lovably quirky. Emphasis on the lovable."

I kissed him, and there was so much love in his kiss. He was sitting with his knees up above the water and his feet on the porcelain. He used his thighs to support my back, with my thighs straddling his chest. This position once again let me have control, as I used my legs to move me up and down.

Tahir put a tender hand to the lump in my stomach as I continued to ride him. "I love you so much. And we are going to have the best child that ever walked the earth."

"I can't wait to see you as a father, Tahir."

"I can't wait to see you as a father as well."

"And thank you for using the word father instead of mother. That means so much to me."

"You are not a woman. You are my man. The man that I love. You know what?"

"What?"

He grabbed my phone and handed it to me. "Hold this."

I held onto my phone as he stood up out of the bathtub, holding me against my body, staying inside me.

"Where are you taking me?"

"I realized, I don't need the water, Jake. As long as that sound is playing, I can stay myself. I can make love to you just like Parker would have, without ever hurting you."

When I realized he was going to set us both on his bed, I said, "You're going to get the bed all wet!"

"I don't care!"

He put me on the bed, back against the mattress. He set my phone on his nightstand, and then held me and looked into my eyes, still inside me. "Are the waves something you can play every time we have sex, Jake?"

"Of course."

"Then I will always be able make love to you." He kissed me happily. "Which means there's no reason anymore why I shouldn't accept your proposal to be your boyfriend."

"You've made me enormously happy."

And then he put his words into action, proving himself a capable Parker clone in bed. He continued to kiss me sweetly as he stroked my legs with his hands, holding them above his shoulders. He moved so gently back and forth at first that I eventually had to use my body to make him move more quickly.

His cut dickhead was rubbing back and forth against my prostate, giving my body shivers of pleasure that rocked me up and down.

Just like Parker, he waited until I came before he came. My climax was intense, filled with my emotions for Tahir and visions of him as a father. When he came soon after, it was to words of love, and once again telling me he was flooding me with his love-milk, and how I would be the only one ever he could say that to with all honesty.

"In the interest of you becoming my next Parker, he used to sleep inside me at night. Is that something that would interest you?"

"Interest me? Are you kidding? It sounds like a dream come true. Are you sure that wouldn't hurt you or keep you up?"

I still had Parker's serum inside me, I knew. "No, I'd find it romantic."

"Will those waves be playing all night?"

"No. The batteries will die. Too bad we aren't in your clinic right now, which is totally filled with outlets."

"Actually, I convinced them to let me put in an outlet by my nightstand, under the persuasive argument that I needed an electrical alarm clock to absolutely guarantee I could be up when I needed to be for my role as a physician." He grabbed my phone and plugged it into the nightstand. "There, now I can be completely confident that I can keep in control tonight. As an ode to my friend Parker Logan, lost to us both, I will spend the night loving you just as he did."

MAY 9th

"We still have time, Tahir. He's not supposed to be back for another three hours."

"And what happens if he gets here earlier than expected?"

"The clinic is locked. He'll knock to get our attention, and we'll come then."

"No. It's much too risky. We do not have time to make love again."

"Okay, I can see the sense in that. But you're so hard right now. You can't deliver me to back to Marutuk in that condition. I know how insanely virile you are. Are you really going to be able to keep your dick down when you carry me back to him and you smell my blood?"

"No, but I'll have my kaftan blocking me. He'll never see it."

I rolled my eyes. "Tahir, you need to know that your kaftans are so tight and so thin, everyone can see everything right through them."

"Are you serious? That's mortifying."

"Yes, I'm serious. You cannot hope to hide your excitement from him or anyone else with eyes."

"But we don't have time for me to make love to you again. We just don't."

"That's okay. Why don't you just bite me now?"

"I don't want to hurt you."

"You won't be taking much, just enough to get you off."

"Alright, bearer of our beautiful child, you've convinced me."

He bit me, sending his sexually arousing venom through my veins event though I was already so horny from feeling his hard dick pressed against my prostate all morning, and he started to shoot. His semen once again filled me up, and he finally pulled out of me with a kiss.

Neither one of us thought we had time for another bath, given that the old water was still in the tub, so we had to go down into the clinic shower and use those much less romantic facilities.

Seeing his hairless, taut muscles under the water spray beside me, his dick still swollen and leaking, drove me wild.

I grabbed the soap and approached his body.

He shook his head. "I'm completely covered with my own love-milk, Jake."

"I see that."

"I don't want you having to clean me like this. I can get it myself."

"I'm the one who arm-twisted you into getting in this position. It's my responsibility to clean you off. At least let me do that much for you."

"If you insist."

Although I really didn't have time to enjoy the cleaning like I wanted to, I cherished every second I allowed myself as I lathered up every tan, warm muscle of his body, taking a lot of pleasure in cleaning off all the cream. I spent perhaps too much time with his handsome dick and balls themselves, not being able to resist getting them thoroughly cleaned off with my fingers.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm washing all of that love-milk of yours out of me. As much as I love it inside me, something tells me Marutuk would not share my opinions."

"I want to wash it out of you!"

"That's gross!"

"Jake, it was me who did that to you. I should be the one to clean it out. And I think I will be able to do a more thorough job than you, in any case. It's my turn to insist."

"Alright. If it doesn't gross you out."

"If anything, it will risk me getting erect again while I'm doing it. But don't worry, I can control myself."

"Then go ahead."

He smiled at that directive, and I felt his fingers carefully clean me out.

"Wait. Tahir, rub your eyes!"

"Whatever for?"

"You don't look the least bit tired!"

"I just had the most wonderful night of my life. Of course I'm not tired."

"He asked you not to sleep all night in order to keep me guarded, remember? You can't look so refreshed."

"That's right. You are ever brilliant, Jake." He rubbed his eyes and faked a yawn. "How's this?"

"Much better! Okay, go."

He left the clinic and carried me to Marutuk's room. He must have heard us coming, because he opened the door before Tahir could even knock.

"Thanks, Doctor," he said, patting Tahir on the back as he grabbed me from him. "You are excused now."

"Yes, God Marutuk." Tahir left and shut the door, yawning just as I asked him to.

As soon as we were alone, Marutuk's smile came. "You don't know how torturous this night has been, not being able to love my Cobra-God-Mother for so, horribly long. I was so mad with unfulfilled lust for you it was making me want to rip off the head of that craftsman every time he did something that I thought was a waste of time."

"But you didn't kill him, did you?"

"No, I didn't. I kept thinking how if I did as I desired, you would refuse to love me today. And I couldn't go another hour without your love. I am going to call off all my plans today, and we are going to spend the entire rest of the day in bed, making up for our lost night."

He kissed me. "Sounds nice."

"But first, I wanted to prove to you that my night away was worth the price. Behold the true shell of a Cobra-God-Mother!"

He motioned towards the edge of the room, where he had laid out a new set of jewelry that seemed just as hideous and feminine as the last pieces. "It's beautiful, thank you."

"I can't wait another second to get this on you. Once we do, I cannot resist screwing you over and over again with you looking as physically worthy of drowning you in King-Cobra-God seed as ever. Get those clothes off, we are done with those."

I pulled my shirt off, and tossed it aside. I took my shoes off. His arms holding me were preventing me from getting them off on my own, so he had to help me with those.

"Wait, what is this?"

He picked up my pants and pulled out my wallet, tossing the rest on the ground.

"That's my wallet. Thanks for taking it out. I'll just need to leave it somewhere here since I won't have a place to carry it with me anymore."

He set me on the bed, letting me go, and he turned his back to me and knelt to the ground.

"Marutuk, what's wrong with you."

"I'm sick."

"Sick? With what? Is there anything I can do to help?"

"Perhaps."

"Just tell me how. Should I get the doctor?"

"No, that is the last thing you should do right now." He tossed me my wallet. "Obviously you know I control snakes of all kinds. Well, did you also know I'm a bit of a collector as well? There's these wonderful species of snakes that's about the size of a large worm. Threadsnakes. Look in your coin purse, Jake."

My heart pounded as I opened up my wallet's coin purse and discovered a tiny animal that barely looked like it could be a vertebrate at all. I pulled it out. Suddenly, it sank in just why the mongooses had been acting so agitated around me the previous night, causing me to evict them from our room. They had smelled that snake on me.

"I put that there, just to keep an eye on you. I honestly had forgotten all about it until just this second ago, when I get close enough that the little snake was screaming for my attention. It has pretty limited senses, but it still could sense what you were doing with Dr. Farhat in his bed, who was treating your rump in a way that was eons away from being doctorly. One night apart and you fuck the doctor!"

He moved towards me, pulled his hand back, and slapped me. Only, he pulled the slap back just before he hit me, only scaring me.

I started to cry. "I'm sorry, Marutuk, I'm so sorry."

"Were you trying to break my heart?"

"No. Listen to me. I was even sadder that you left me alone than you were. I was devastatingly lonely without your touch, and unlike you, I was just too weak to control myself. The doctor had nothing to do with this, please don't blame him."

"He promised to keep guard over you! Since when did keeping guard mean fucking you?!"

"No, it was me who ordered him to do it. He didn't want to, he so didn't want to, but I ordered him to, telling him I was the mother of your child, and therefore he had to listen to my commands." It was so strange how, just a few months ago, I was one of the worst liars ever, and here the lies were just pouring out of my mouth. I supposed anything was possible when it meant protecting the ones you cared about.

"He was never supposed to follow your orders, never!"

"I told him if he didn't do it, you would end up killing him for disrespecting the carrier of your child. He had no choice but to listen."

"He should have told me the second he dropped you off!"

"He told me he was not going to keep this secret from you. But he gave me an hour to tell it myself, or else he was going to come clean."

"Why did you ever think I would be okay with this?"

"Because, he's the one other person you've asked to screw me in front of you. He's the only one I figured you had already approved."

He opened the door. "Guards, bring the doctor to me!"

Moments later, Tahir came in the room, shutting the door behind him. "You need me, God Marutuk?"

As soon as he saw me sitting on the bed with tears running down my face, he knew.

"Doctor, I did just as you asked me. I told him exactly what I ordered you to do to me last night, since I was so lonely."

"I told you not to listen to his orders, Doctor!" Marutuk cried angrily.

"I'm so sorry, God Marutuk. Just please don't hurt Jake or Helina, that's all I ask."

"Doctor, for betraying your Cobra-God in this manner, you deserve to be punished."

"Yes, I understand."

"Take off your clothes."

"Yes, God Marutuk." He stripped down, and I wondered if Marutuk had some sort of sexual punishment in mind.

"I want you to climb into my leverage tank that Helina is already in, and join her. Let the snakes bite you and put you to sleep. If Jake doesn't anger me enough to cause you harm, I'll give you back your position after a suitable time has passed in which you will have proved yourself sufficiently penitent for your betrayal."

"Yes, God Marutuk, your order is my command."

Tahir bravely climbed up the glass tank and jumped up and into the pit of snakes. I looked him in the eyes, tears continuing to flow, as I watched him sink down until the snakes were over his head, seeing snake after snake bite into his gorgeous, tan flesh until he shut his eyes in pain. The worst part was when one of the snakes bit into his gorgeous unit. At least I hadn't lost him, I told myself. I was already blaming myself for this whole fiasco, as I was the one pushing him into this.

Marutuk picked me up and carried me out of the room, with me still naked. "Where are we going?"

He didn't answer me, but it became all too clear as he carried me outside and opened the hatch to the snakepit. I started to feel nauseous just seeing those snakes.

After he had set me dais, I tried to reason with him. "You can't do this to me."

He ignored me, instead summoning all of the snakes until they were slithering all over both of us.

I hated these spells because they were the unpredictable wild card in my plans. No I understood why Tahir and lied and told the doctor it would hurt me.

"You can't make me do a spell, Marutuk. You know how much it saps me. It'll hurt the baby."

"Don't worry, we are not here for spell casting."

"Why are we here, then?"

"To get friendly with our snake children. So friendly, in fact, that I'm having one of the smaller snakes go inside your most precious of places. Feel that?"

I felt a small creature slither inside my hole. It sent shivers of horror through my entire body, and I squirmed and tried to pull it out.

"If you are going to fight back, my snake children will just have to keep you still."

After a moment, I felt large snake after large snake wrap around my body and keeping me from fighting back, incapacitating me in the worst way.

"I'd like to introduce you to one of my sons, a ringneck snake. He's small enough to easily climb inside you. But not too small to not be able to taste."

I felt the snake climb through my chute and embed itself completely inside me, a horrible, horrible feeling.

"Lick through that cervix, my son. Lick and tell me what you smell."

I felt the very strange sensation of the snake doing just as instructed.

Marutuk closed his eyes for a moment.

He opened them, anger in his eyes, and he slapped me across the face. This time, he didn't pull back at the last second. This time, my whole face stung in pain and my jaw was numb.

"This is Dr. Farhat's child! You betrayed me in every conceivable way!" His eyes were moist with furious tears. "I'm going to kill him."

"No, please, no. He doesn't even know about this, Marutuk."

"How could he not know he fucked you?!"

"He didn't. While he had me in his clinic looking after me, he had to go to the kitchen to get me food. While he was gone, I snuck into his apartment without him ever realizing. I already knew how virile all vampires are, just swimming in semen, but I knew that since he never had sex with anyone, he must have masturbated all the time. Sure enough, when I broke in, I found a couple rags filled with his semen. I used those to inject myself with before he came back, and he never knew what I had done."

"So, you were the only one who knew," he said to me. "Why would you do this? Just to trample on my heart?"

"No, that's not why. Because you were going to kill Helina if I didn't get pregnant!"

"Why didn't you just allow me to impregnate you like I asked you to?!" he roared.

"I tried! I tried so hard, I did everything I could to make my body let you impregnate me, but nothing ever worked! It just would not allow it!"

"And now, I'm going to wipe away all your lies, forever."

"What does that mean, Marutuk?!"

He said nothing, but I felt that snake start to bite into me, on the inside, hurting me so badly I started to scream.

"You like that? That's the feeling of my snake son biting through your cervix."

I shook my head back and forth, pleading with him. "No, you can't do this. You can't do this."

"Yes, I can! I'm a god, I can do whatever I want."

"You CAN do this, I know you CAN, but I'm begging you not to! Please! Listen to me, we can just tell everyone it's your child! The doctor doesn't look that different from you, he is of your Blood."

"He is not my child in there, and never will be!"

"No one will ever have to know! Think about how embarrassing it would be for you, the Cobra- God, to tell everyone who has been celebrating my pregnancy that you really could never get me pregnant, that it was the baby of another man! You can spare yourself that if this stays between us two, right now, and we'll just call the baby yours. Please, Marutuk!"

"Let me mull that over. You know how important my image to these people is."

"Exactly. Would you want these people whispering that you are infertile? What kind of God is infertile? You and I don't even ever have to discuss this again. In my head, I won't even remember who the father is. And you will be the only father this boy knows. Please, please don't kill him. Ah! What was that?!"

"Consider that stabbing pain in your gut my answer to your request."

I felt the snake chew into my uterus, horrible pain rippling through my body.

"No, no, no!"

"Oh, very much yes, yes, yes! Say your last goodbye to our fabricated child! Snake-son, eat up this imposter's fetus!"

I felt the snake start to chew, felt blood pour into my chute, and I knew it was over. "You monster!"

"Me, the monster? You're the one who lied to me, you're the one who cheated on me! Deceived me just like my little brother did! And you know what? If I could have chewed up the fetus that he promised would be mine, the fetus that ended up being my sister's I would have! I am finally getting my revenge through you!"

I passed out in atrocious horror as the gravity of how that snake just eating a tiny part of my body would have on my future. I felt all of my romantic notions of Tahir and I as fathers extinguished forever.

I woke up in his bedroom, the horrible reality hitting me all over again like a ton of bricks.

"You're healed because I used my blood on you. It shouldn't be more than a day before you are ovulating again and ready to try again."

He grabbed my chains and jewelry and carried it towards the door.

"I'm throwing this into the trash. You are not and you never will be worthy of this anymore. You're not the person I thought you were. From now on, you will be naked. Let the others know that you are nothing but trash to me."

He carried out the jewelry and threw it violently somewhere outside before coming back.

"Lucky for your sake, and the sake of Helina and Dr. Farhat, I'm absolutely determined to father your children. So, you'd better find a way to get pregnant with MY Cobra-Seed this time, or they both die. I'll let them go a week after you are pregnant."

"If the doctor is up there, how will you know if I'm pregnant? Will you pull him out to give me tests?"

"No. I can't ever trust him again as my doctor. I called a doctor from the city to move into the clinic and take over Dr. Farhat's clinic. He's arriving tomorrow. I'm going to have the cleaning staff clean out the clinic and his new apartment tonight in preparation."

I had to stifle a gasp. "They can't do that."

"Why not?"

"Because. Because every time I saw them try to clean the clinic, I had to stop them from breaking all the machines down there. Look, your people are stuck in another century, and they are atrocious at maintaining machinery. If you let them clean up in there, the doctor will be so shocked at the broken machinery, he will hold a grudge against you forever. First impressions are vital, and you need your doctor to not secretly hate you."

"Wouldn't it be just as in poor taste to make the doctor clean the clinic up himself as his first task when he arrives?"

"Yes. That's why I'll volunteer to help. I am from modernity, in which people all know how to deal with electrical machinery. And I was studying Engineering, so I'm even more equipped to the task. Leave the whole clean up job to me."

He narrowed his eyes at me. "I know what you're trying to do, and it won't work."

"You do?"

"Yes. You are so transparent, it's laughable. You're trying a desperate attempt to get in my good graces, hoping that I will change my mind about the jewelry and chains and put them on you."

"You got me."

"Well, I already threw it away. You trampled my heart to pieces, Jake. No amount of cleaning will ever mend it."

"You caught me. But my offer still stands. You said it would be a day before you could impregnate me again, so might as well have me being put to something useful, Marutuk."

"Yes, get to it already. And those mongooses that keep the clinic snake free need to be given water as well. I don't want the new doctor getting any snakebites."

I rushed through the clinic, cleaning as fast as I possibly could. Luckily, Tahir had been a pretty clean guy, and there wasn't much there that needed tending.

I went for his apartment as soon as I was done. As soon as I saw those mongooses, I started to cry. But I could not let myself get emotional over the lost baby. I had work to do. I told myself that I hadn't wanted to be pregnant so young anyway. Told myself it was all for the best. The lie made me functional.

I gave the mongooses water and let them out to hunt. I grabbed a large box and started to pack everything that was Tahir's except his furniture. It was absolutely critical no one discovered Tahir's sailing items. If Marutuk saw them, that might push him over the edge.

I packed all of his clothes and mementos carefully into boxes and carried them down to the clinic. I contacted Big Horn and told him I was finally ready.

The portal appeared, and Big Horn stepped through. Even though I knew he would just be there momentarily, it felt so good to see the face of a friend.

"Yes?" he asked. "What's this emergency you need me for?"

"Thanks for coming, Big Horn. See these boxes? I need you to open a portal to Tahir's parents and give them all his things. Tell them their son will be moving in with them in a week or two."

"Wait a second. Crazy Kid, did you bring me out here with an emergency message just to have me help you move? Because that's a move straight out of the book of Syd Logan, and I'm sick of it."

"I am very much in a state of crisis right now, Big Horn. Marutuk still has Helina, and remember how last time you took us to the sea so that Tahir could impregnate me? Well, Marutuk found out, put Tahir in the same cell Helina is, covered with snakes and constantly getting bitten. And Marutuk just chewed out Tahir's baby just after I had accepted and embraced the two of us being fathers. Now, if I don't get pregnant with Marutuk's child, and I cannot fake it this time, two dear friend will die. Oh, and to top all that off, if you don't get Tahir's stuff out of here right away, Marutuk will probably kill him. So, you tell me, Big Horn. Does that qualify as a true emergency, or not?"

"While no one person should ever have that much misfortune in an entire life, I'd say it really is just an average week for you, Crazy Kid. Therefore I'm not sure it would qualify as an emergency."

"How sad and true that statement is."

"Luckily, I don't care or not if it is an emergency. I'd help you move even in the most benign circumstances. Because I care about you a great deal. As long as you don't start misleading me, like Syd, I'll be glad to help."

"Thanks Big Horn."

"So the clinic is now safe for the doctor to arrive tomorrow morning?" Marutuk asked me, back in his bedroom.

"Yes, God Marutuk."

He yelled suddenly, scaring me. His fangs popped out and he bit me. Next thing I knew I was paralyzed. Oh, how much I hated that feeling. I had hoped I would have seen the last of it, but nope. There I was lying on the bed, trying to regain control over my muscles.

"I couldn't stand to listen to the sound of your voice. Even when you are praising me, the sound hurts me all over again. So tonight, you're going to be paralyzed. I know that it seems I can't impregnate you while you're paralyzed, but that won't be happening tonight anyway."

That night, he wouldn't even touch me. He placed me on the very opposite end of the bed. Not that I was complaining.

MAY 10th

In the morning, I spent my time trying to break free of the paralysis. I focused on every muscle over and over again until I felt twitching. The twitching became outright control.

Marutuk noticed me breaking out of his paralysis sooner than expected. "I'm having the new doctor come up and see if you are ready for mating again. If not, I'll be paralyzing you again."

"Yes--"

"Nope. You don't get the privilege of speaking to me again. I don't want to hear another word from you until I give you permission to speak. And that goes whether I'm here or not. In case you are wondering if these snakes can hear you, yes, snakes have hearing, and they will tell me if you speak."

I nodded to him.

There was a knock at the door, and Marutuk opened it.

"You summoned me, God Marutuk?" asked a deep-voiced man in an accent I wasn't used to.

"Dr. Runihura, come in."

The new Tahir walked into the room. Dr. Runihura had no sign of Tahir's physician's kaftan. Instead, he wore an outfit that looked not the least bit Arabian, instead seeming like wearing the garb of an old Egyptian temple priest; that was why I hadn't recognized the accent, it wasn't Arabic. He was a handsome vampire with a totally shaved head, giving him a severe look. His facial structure too did not look exactly like the others here.

The first thing he did was look askance at Tahir and Helina in the giant vat of snakes. He recovered amazingly fast and looked at me with a smile as if he had never noticed the human decoration.

"Doctor, I brought you up here to help Jake."

"So pleased to meet you, Jake."

"There's no need to address him, doctor. He has sworn he will be silent until I give him permission to speak again. Just yesterday, I removed an existing errant fetus from his uterus. I used my blood to heal him, but I need you to make sure everything is in working order."

"Oh my. What instrument did you use for the procedure?"

"A snake, actually. I had to rip through his cervix to do it."

"Oh my!"

"Can you take a look now, please?"

"Sure," he reached into his bag. "Let me put my gloves on."

"There's really no need for that. You think he's a vampire bottom, I'm sure, but he's actually the One. He's used his spells to change his reproductive system to match that of a vampire bottom. But, he can't get sick."

"Oh my, I'll skip the gloves, then. That might actually make this less painful. Jake, I need you to lie face down on the bed, but with your legs hanging off the edge here so that your body forms a ninety- degree angle. Do you know what an angle is?"

I nodded, and got into the position he wanted. I turned my head around so I could see what was going on as best I could.

Dr. Runihura put some sort of lubrication on his fingers and pushed them inside me. He had his head down and he was eyeballing me as well.

"Everything looks fine. I see no sign of yesterday's trauma."

"Great! So does mean he's ovulating? Should we start having sex right now?"

"Actually, God Marutuk, I can't tell that just by handing him like this. I'll need to take him down to the clinic and give him a procedure there."

"No, I don't want that."

"Don't worry, God Marutuk, I'll make sure he's properly anesthetized, of course."

"I'm not concerned with any of his pain, not in the least. I don't want him going down to the clinic because I want to lock him in here at least until he gets pregnant. Can't you bring your things and do the procedure here?"

"I'm afraid not, God Marutuk. Not without rebuilding this bedroom."

"Wait a second. I was told that you had a special ability that helped you in medical procedures as well."

"That's true. I have a superb sense of taste."

"Is that something you could make use of here?"

"I could taste whether his is ready to be impregnated, but that would require me sticking my tongue inside him. I feel like that would be a violation of your property, God Marutuk."

"Can you do this without getting aroused?"

"I believe so."

"Then I want you to prove it. Pull your phallus out, and I'll be watching to make sure it doesn't get hard."

"Yes, God Marutuk."

Dr. Runihura pulled out his long, slender dick and dangled it out in the open for all to see. It was a good looking, circumcised piece of meat with no sign of hair at all. If he had pubes, I couldn't see any.

Soon, I felt his tongue licking the outside of my hole. And then, it moved inside me, licking all the way inside me. "Oh my yes, he's ripe!"

"Thanks Doctor, you can put your phallus away and leave us to it."

"Yes, God Marutuk." Dr. Runihura bowed and left the room.

"I've thought of a new incentive to let me impregnate you, Jake. Until you're with child, no more eating or drinking for you. Any washing in the bathroom will be done with me watching you to make sure you don't try to drink that water. When I'm not here, the snakes will be guarding anything with water. And don't think this means I won't be feeding from you."

Marutuk started to screw me. He had dispensed with any sort of kissing or foreplay, as well as lube. He entered me fiercely, taking glee when his snake scales cut my insides. All I could do was lie there and bury my head in the bed, praying for the pain to end. He didn't bite me to feed until the very end, not taking any bit of the pain away.

After that, I settled into a rhythm. Marutuk would come and rape me, and then lock me in there alone. It had been a day since I had been given food, and I my stomach was growling painfully. And I was parched with thirst.

Marutuk left me my phone, which he still considered to be just a translator, and I was free to use it to check goings on in the world, which was great. But in terms of contacting my friends and loved ones, I soon discovered that even though I had all the free time in the world to talk to them, there was only so much lying to them that I could stand.

And so, I spent most of my time in that room just lying on the bed, staring at Tahir. I'd be looking at Helina too, but she was still away from the front of the glass, just as Marutuk had moved her before. I could only clearly see her by moving to the backside of the tank.

Tahir was the one whose naked body was pressed right against the glass. I spent so much time looking at this gorgeous man, and swearing to God that I would end up saving him. Looking at his closed eyes, which somehow seemed sadder than ever, just made me cry. I wanted so badly to talk to him out loud, but I worried the snakes would hear it.

He had all of his hefty muscles in the front side of his body pressed against the glass. And his massive, tan penis was in that position as well. I wanted to badly to touch the glass, but knew that would only get them both killed.

MAY 12th

Two days later, Dr. Runihura shook his head one more time. "Still no luck, God Marutuk. Not pregnant."

"Thanks, Doctor."

The doctor bowed and left us alone.

For the past day, I had been so weak I hadn't been able to get out of bed on my own.

Marutuk came over and he slapped me hard against the face. "You are unable to get pregnant by me! I know why now. It's because you're in love with Dr. Farhat!"

I shook my head.

"You have my permission to speak!"

"I am not in love with Dr. Farhat!"

"I keep seeing you look at him. I see the way you look at that phallus of his, Jake. You keep wishing you were getting fucked by it!"

"No, I do not love him, and I promise you, you will get me pregnant. Just be patient with me. I keep trying each time to tell myself to get pregnant. I just need to figure out the magic trick to my body. I'm almost there."

"The magic trick is, you have to be in love with me. You aren't ever going to be in love with me! And so, you know what? You are worthless to me. Totally worthless."

"No, I'm not. I can still bear your children! Who else is going to make your dreams of starting a new Blood come true?"

"Empty promises. You aren't capable of having my child, and I'm sick of having you here, sick of having to look at Dr. Farhat."

He climbed up and pulled Tahir's naked body out of the tank of serpents.

"What are you doing with him?"

"I'm taking him to the clinic to have the doctor give him antivenoms. I need him awoken, fed, and at full strength."

"Why?"

"I'm giving you both your chance to get out of here."

He left me alone there to worry.

I was so weak, that even though I was insanely anxious, I ended up falling asleep.

Some hours later, the door opened, and I shook myself awake. My gorgeous Tahir walked in, still totally naked, and seeming conscious and totally healthy looking almost brought me such relief. I wanted to cry, I wanted to tell him how much I cared for him, but Marutuk came in right behind him, so I held back my emotions.

What was strange was that Vizier Bazzi followed the two of them in as well. He had something in his arms.

"Dr. Farhat, for your years of serving me loyally, and Jake, because I really do believe that you tried your best to give me that child but it just wasn't going to happen, I'm going to give you a chance at life that I bestow on others who served me well but ended up failing me. I'm going to have you take what I call the Sand Trials. If you end up surviving the test, then you will have proved your right to survive, and I'll let you walk out of here alive."

"No, we aren't agreeing to this test," I said. "Jericho Logan used to invent horrible, sadistic games from his victims to play, telling them if they won, he would free them. But he always ended up killing them anyway, just without their dignity."

"I am not Jericho. I do not lie. I have the Vizier make these contracts up, contracts that are completely valid both in The Raajya East and The Raajya West. Vizier, please, I order you not to tell any lies. Tell them the truth in it."

"The contracts are totally valid," said the Vizier. "And those who beat the trials are always let go, and end up going to their freedom."

"See?"

"But in full disclosure, only perhaps one in ten, if not less, survives the Sand Trials."

"There must be another option," I said.

"Death. Death is your other option. Is that what you want? If not, you'll let me sign these contracts."

"Wait a second," said Tahir. "You can make me go through these trials, but Jake's life is protected by the Vampire Council."

"The Vampire Council has no sway over me. I'll kill all of them, save for the Shankar queen. And the Shankar's would never reprimand me for doing away with a One. I'll kill him now and sort out the red tape later. Vizier, are the contracts ready?"

"Yes. I have one for each of them." He unrolled the parchments.

"Wait a second, this is in Hindi. I can't understand it. Tahir, can you?"

"No."

"It says you each must complete the Sand Trials and survive before you win your freedom. Once you've won these terms, you will have 24 hours to exit The Raajya West. If you are caught reentering our borders after that point by your own volition, the contract will no longer be valid."

I wondered if he could use the twenty-four hour rule to try and kill us if he somehow made our transportation out of the city harder than it should have been. Luckily for us, we had Big Horn to help us. I gave Tahir a look, and I could tell he was thinking the same thing.

"Where do we sign?" I asked.

"You don't need to. Only God Marutuk."

Marutuk took a quill and signed both contracts. "Let's get the trials started."

"Wait a second, Jake is dehydrated and starving. He can't even walk on his own to these trials, let alone partake in them! Please, God Marutuk, give him a day to recover, just like you restored my health. Otherwise, he cannot be expected to compete."

"Request denied. The Vizier will confirm, he won't be the first one to compete in those physical conditions or even worse ones. It just will make proceedings far more interesting. Another option is, you can rip up his contract, and I could just kill him right here in front of you, is that preferred?"

"No."

"Then, Dr. Farhat, should I carry him or will you.?"

"I will."

"Quite right."

Tahir gave me a look of apology before he picked me up gently and nestled me against his tan pecs. I was dreading what was coming, but a part of me was thrilled just to have this man be touching me again in any context.

Marutuk and the Vizier led us downstairs. By the time we got outside, we had a few other Arabian, shirtless guards with swords following us too.

"The Sandfalls," I said, as soon as I realized where Marutuk was taking us.

He smiled. "You should have realized, nothing I build is merely for beauty alone. Everything always has its wonderful purposes as well. Guards, have them turn off the sand."

After a moment, the eight raised sand aqueducts went dry, stopping any sand from falling. By the time we got to the center of the structure, there was no sand left in the octagonal basin, with all the sand having gone through the grated floor.

Marutuk pulled a lever, and this grate floor turned away and disappeared into the wall, leaving an octagonal shaped hole in the ground that was three feet deep, with solid metal ground underneath. This ground was probably twenty feet across.

"Jump down," Marutuk said, pulling Tahir and I into this hole and onto the octagonal floor.

There was a wheel on the wall with each side listed with four sides with symbols that I realized were roman numerals. Two, four, six, and eight were on there. At the moment, eight was on top. Marutuk turned the lever until it was at two.

Marutuk pulled me away from Tahir and set me down on the ground against the edge of the wall. He used a rope to tie my legs and body to the wall. Twenty feet across from me, on the other side, were ominous looking chains. Marutuk fastened them around Tahir's torso and legs. He jumped out of the hole and shut the gate again over us, sealing us inside. And then he took the key to Tahir's chains and hung it on a chain over the grate. Then he disappeared.

We heard more machinery engaging, and suddenly the floor we were on started to lower. And lower. And lower. I realized we were essentially at the bottom of a very large well, only with no trace of any water.

As we continued to be lowered, the floor, which before had seemed solid, started splitting up into pieces.

"Jake, be careful! Hold onto something!"

I grabbed onto the ropes, but the floor never gave way beneath us. Small amounts of floor remained directly beneath us, right against the sides of this well. The rest of the floor pulled into slots in the wall. The area beneath us was filled with sand.

The floor stopped moving down when we were perhaps a hundred feet underground.

"Start the sand! Go ahead and begin, we'll leave you to it!"

Two of the eight sand aqueducts started, pouring sand down on us two different areas. It was actually very pretty in the daylight coming through to see it. That is, until I looked at the sand to my left and realized there were bone-dry skeletons there, and I screamed.

"Fear not, Jake," said Captain Farhat. "You know what this is? This could be a pirate booby trap we've fallen into on a pirate island that we've found together in our sailing adventures." He smiled his pirate smile at me. "We'll get through this together, matey!"

"You're right, this is just a fun little adventure with my boyfriend. Nothing to be scared of."

"I think I spy the blade of a cutlass, buried pirate treasure that may be useful to us, within grabbing distance of you, lad. Look to your right."

I turned and looked at the sand to my right. There was something buried there. I stretched my right hand as far as it would go and dug my hand through that sand, trying to uncover it.

I screamed again as my hand touched flesh, and pulled back.

"It's just a dead knave. Dead men tell no tales, and they can't fight ya when ya want to plunder their booty, neither. Nothing to fear, mate."

I turned back to the dead body and dug into the sand, uncovering more and more. I found there was a knife, but it was right against what was obviously this man's scabby, cut-off penis.

I forced myself to reach forward, grab the knife from the dead man's crotch, and pull it towards me.

"You got it!"

I started to cut away at my rope bindings. In about a minute, I was completely free of them.

"Yes, brilliant, Jake!"

I used the frayed rope pieces to tie the knife safely to my outer thigh, where it would be accessible if I needed it.

I could not stand up on my own, but managed to crawl over to his side of the well and hug his body. I kissed his sweet, brown lips. "I've been dreaming about being able to kiss you like this forever."

"Jake, listen to me. I need you to follow my orders now and do something." His pirate side was completely gone.

"What?"

"I need you to use that knife on me. Kill me, drink my blood, and eat my flesh."

"No, that's just stupid!"

"You can't survive this without food and water. You can't even walk on your own!"

"That's not the answer."

"Look at me, Jake. I'm chained to the wall. You can't free me. That sand is just going to keep falling down, and I'll be dead sooner or later anyway. Better to have you benefit from my death."

"No, I am not doing it."

"Then give me the knife, Jake. I can do it for you. All you'd have to do is feed on me."

"Stop asking me that, because it's never going to happen. If it's the baby you're worried about, I have some bad news."

"I already know. I could hear most of what was being said in that snake tank, I just couldn't move or open my eyes." He put his hand on my cheek. "I'm heartbroken that our fantasy isn't panning out as we imagined, but you are going to be the best father ever to some lucky child in the future, you'll see. I hope you know I always loved you more than the baby anyway."

I was brought to tears as I moved to hug and kiss him again.

"Wait a second. We're not alone!"

"What do you mean?" I asked, looking around.

"The body! He's breathing! He's alive!"

I dropped the knife and dug into the sand, pulling out the man. He was a handsome white guy. I could see he was alive, but his eyes were shut. "Sir?" I hit him on the cheek lightly but he showed no response. "Tahir?" I pulled at his eyelids, and saw nothing but vacant, green eyes.

"Do you think you could roll him towards me? I don't want to needlessly use up your energy."

"No, I can."

I pushed the guy along the sand floor and into the Tahir's arms. He looked him over carefully for a minute.

"He's brain-dead, Jake. Probably due to asphyxiation down here. There's nothing we can do for him now, I'm sorry."

"Poor guy." Perhaps it was best considering his penis was cut off.

Tahir's face lit up. "Jake, if you won't kill me, you could eat this guy!"

"No, I am just not capable of that!"

"But I could be the one to kill him and feed it to you! You wouldn't even have to look!"

"No, not going to happen!"

I heard a laugh far above us, and next thing I knew, a black something, about the size of a small hand, was falling from a hole in the roof of the well to the ground. I screamed as I realized what was jumping around in the sand in front of us: a massive, evil-looking scorpion!

"Careful Jake! If Marutuk dropped that, we can assume it's poisonous!"

At that point, the sand was up to Tahir's mid-calves. The scorpion seemed to be going straight for him. I grabbed my knife and went over to defend him.

Because Tahir's dick was so large, it was hanging down and touching the sand level beneath him. Which meant the scorpion was moving right towards his penis, its tail poised to strike. Tahir could not do anything because his lower body was locked in place.

"You keep away from my boyfriend's junk!" I yelled.

I ran over and stabbed the scorpion through its body the SECOND before it delivered the sting to Tahir's poor penis, killing it.

"Thank you. Now, will you at least eat the scorpion?"

"There isn't any meat on here to eat! It's all shell, and no water!"

"Then you need to eat the brain-dead guy."

"No."

"Do you have a better proposal?"

"What about if I drink your load? I already know you produce a lot of love-milk. Is it nutritionally beneficial?"

"You know, that's not a bad idea. Vampire semen has more water than normal semen."

"And babe, I know you. The fastest way to do this is if you were to drink my blood. Go ahead and bite me."

"No, that will only dehydrate you more. But you already are bleeding. I can smell it on you."

"I am?"

"Sure you are. I'll just lick clean your existing wound."

"Where am I bleeding?" I looked around, worried.

"Inside you."

"Oh, that's right."

"But I don't want you wasting energy trying to get your body in position for this. You just relax and I'll do it."

He lifted me off my feet and turned me upside down. I lifted Tahir's soft dick and put the head into my mouth. At the same time, Tahir bent my legs and supported my body as he stretched towards my hole.

I felt him invade it with my tongue. He went as deep inside me as he could.

The first taste of my blood made him instantly hard. The second made him start to gush into my waiting mouth. I was so thirsty; my parched throat was absolutely begging for all the liquid he could give me.

He licked my inside wounds away completely, and then gently set me down on my feet again. I licked away the last drops from his dick.

"Thanks babe, I feel a lot better already."

"You know what? I think I might be able to get you another one of those."

"Really? Even with all my blood gone?"

"Your rear is like a magnet for my dick, did I ever tell you that? I think if I get inside it, I can pull off another load."

"That's fine! Just don't come inside me accidentally."

"I promise to hold off."

With his dick still hard and wet from my saliva, and my insides still wet from his tongue, his dick went in me easily. I was so numb still from the thirst and hunger that I didn't even feel any pain. He started to thrust back and forth inside me from behind.

He cried out. "Mmm. I could do this all day and all night."

"Uh, no actually, you could not do that. I'm the one watching more and more of this sand covering up your body. We don't have time."

"Turn around and kiss me."

I did as he asked, getting a loving kiss from him as he kept on thrusting.

"There we go, that did it!"

"Wait, not inside me!"

I pulled him out of me, whipped my head around, and dove onto his unit. There was a time I would have never sucked anyone like this who had just been inside me. I was lucky that the spell I had cast making my rear into that of a male vampire's also made that part of me totally clean at all times. Given not even urine came through me there, I was even cleaner there than a vagina.

So, it didn't faze me when I put my mouth back on his dick and sucked like my life depended on it.

After I drank it all down, I said, "Wow, you really should market this stuff to Gatorade! And this stuff even tastes better than at least 90% of any of their flavors as well. I feel loads better! No pun intended. Over and over again, you keep on being my hero." I kissed hm.

"It's hard for me to take credit for acting heroically when all I've had to do so far in this trial is sit here conveniently tied up, requiring me giving my partner all of my instructions, including saving one of my appendages from certain death from as scorpion sting. And then when I finally do get to use my muscles to take action, it's all to use your gorgeous body to get me off sexually. Hero, huh? I'm pretty sure that my behavior is not what the Ancient Greeks had in mind when they coined that word."

"Well, clearly they had never met you." I kissed him again.

"If you keep on kissing me like that, I may have a third load in me after all."

"Too bad your dick is now completely in the sand," I said.

"Ah yes, quite right."

"But my dehydration is totally gone now. Just a bit light-headed now."

"That's just from the hunger."

Right then, we heard more laughing from above. "Uh-oh," I said, not liking the sound of more evil laughing up there at all.

"I hope you didn't think it would be a trial I designed without at least one these, did you?"

Marutuk tossed down a large, hissing snake.

"Boys, I'd like you to meet my daughter, a deadly Black Mamba."

The snake landed on the top of the sand, saw Tahir, and started to slither towards him, hissing. His junk was well beneath the sand, but that meant the snake was closer to more vital areas.

"Stay back!" yelled Tahir to me.

I grabbed my knife and went after the snake, trying to keep Tahir safe.

The snake noticed me coming, and turned to face me, hissing. I was still determined to attack it.

Before I could reach the snake, however, Tahir pushed me violently away with his arms.

His actions made the Black Mamba turn its head again towards Tahir. Because he was trying to save me, his body was left unguarded.

The Black Mamba singed its evil fangs right into Tahir's throat. I felt sick watching the snake inject it's venom into my boyfriend.

Incensed with anger, I charged towards the snake as it had its back to me and drove my knife through its throat, killing it.

I ran towards Tahir, held him in my arms. "Tahir! What did you do! You took the bite in order to protect me! How could you? You are just determined to be that hero, aren't you?" I started to cry.

"Nope, still not a hero. I told you to stay back and let me handle it not just out of trying to protect you but because earlier today I was absolutely loaded down with every snake anti-venom that's ever been created. I knew I was totally safe."

I laughed and kissed him. "Thank God, thank God!"

He grabbed the dead snake in his hands. "Jake, close your eyes."

"Why?"

"Just do it."

I shut my eyes. "This does not mean I'm going to do anything with my eyes shut that I normally would never do."

"All you have to do is kiss me."

A few seconds later, I felt him put his lips to my own. I kissed him, but this time when I opened my mouth, there was more than his tongue entering my mouth, something slimy and disgusting tasting. "Really?" I asked.

"You need to eat! I'm not bargaining this! Just do it!"

I kept my eyes shut as he finished putting that mouthful into me. I didn't even have to chew, he had done that part for me, all I had to do was swallow.

Normally, I would not have been able to stomach it. But perhaps because I was starving, I was able to make myself stay in control. I swallowed down that first piece of meat.

And then it only got easier from there as he chewed up all the meat off that snake and fed it to me orally.

He wiped off both of our faces before letting me open my eyes. The snake was nowhere to be found, he must have buried what was left under the sand. "Feel better?"

"I feel like I just had a much needed Snickers break. I feel completely myself now. Thanks for twisting my arm there."

"You're welcome." He kissed me. "Though that was still perhaps short of true hero work."

I looked up at that key to his chains hanging far above us. Clearly I would not be able to reach it until the sand filled up this entire well. "How long can you hold your breath?"

"I'm not sure. Longer than you could, I'm sure. Fanged vampires can hold their breaths for longer than humans. That's why I'm glad I'll be the one in this position, and you are the one free."

With the sand falling as slowly as it was, it would take ages until after his head was submerged before the sand got high enough for me to get his key. He'd be dead by then for sure.

"Think you can throw me up to that wheel on the wall up there, babe?"

"I think so. Are you sure that'll be safe for you?"

"I'm sure."

He used his arms to throw my body with his vampire strength upwards. I flew towards that wheel on the wall, and grabbed it, holding myself up there, hanging down.

"Nice grab!"

"This is only made possible by your excellent throw!"

"Just to warn you, the sand is now totally covering my hands, so I think it may the last time I'll be able to throw you or anything else anywhere."

"Thanks for letting me know. I'll try not to screw this up."

The first thing I did was try to use that position to grab the key through the grate above me. But no matter which way I stretched, I could not even get close to that key. Clearly this would not help.

But then I had another idea. I turned the wheel clockwise, moving the notch on the wall from showing a two to showing an eight.

After the wheel locked into that eight spot, it unexpectedly popped loose and pulled free off the wall, coming loose on my hands. The wheel and I fell down together.

"Careful, Jake! Fall towards me so I can try to catch you!"

I moved towards Tahir's side of the well, landing in the sand, feeling his arms reach out and keep me from totally ending up buried.

The wheel landed with a thud in the sand. Had I broken it permanently without it ever working for me? I usually wasn't that clumsy.

And then, God be good, I heard six times as much sand start to hit the grate at the top of the well, and knew as the sand started to pour down that I had succeeded.

"Use your hands and arms to cover your mouth, babe. Try to keep a little air pocket in the sand for yourself."

"Yes, yes."

I kissed one last time before his head mouth went under. It was panic inducing to have to watch the sand climb over his eyes and then over the top of his head completely, until there was no evidence that he was even down there at all.

I stood up on the top of the sand and kept climbing up as fast as the sand would take me. I kept watching that key above me get closer and closer.

But I came to the sickening realization after a couple minutes that it wouldn't come soon enough. He was going to die down there, or end up as brain dead as the other guy was.

I had to change strategies. I took a deep breath, and started to dive down into the sand. Luckily, the sand was so fine that I could pretty much swim through it, though much, much more slowly than I would have been able to through water. But of course, unlike being in a pool, I couldn't open my eyes to see what I was swimming for. I just had to use my memory.

I finally reached down and felt the top of Tahir's head, his long hair. I kept going down until I was down to the level of his head.

I used my hands to find his face, find his lips. I put my lips to his and blew out my whole lungfull of air into him. He patted my head appreciatively and used his muscled arms to push me back up to the surface. I took a deep breath for myself again.

By the time the sand filled up the well, I had needed to pull that move twice more, the second time taking so long that I just barely was able to hold my breath until my lips met his. When I got to the top, that time the sand was filled up. The first thing I realized was that the grate had enough holes in it so that I wasn't going to risk not being able to breathe. The second thing I realized was that the key was dangling much farther above me than I previously thought.

I tried to push the grate itself open, but no amount of banging would make it give. There didn't appear to be any sort of switch or anything on this side of the grate that would help me. And I just wasn't strong enough to break through. I realized that this trial was not meant to be solved by just me. I needed Tahir to finish this, and that meant getting the ahold of the key.

I pushed my whole arm through one of the cracks, but will it wasn't long enough.

I got that knife from my side and used it to extend my reach as much as I could. I could just barely tap the bottom of the key, but it wasn't enough to move it at all. It just wasn't a long knife at all.

I took a deep breath and dove back down into the sand, this time moving more desperately than ever. I gave him that breath one more time. And then I kept on digging down in the sand until my hands reached those skeletons. I yanked free a whole leg-bone, and desperately swam to the top again.

That time, I was finally able finally get a leg up on that key, using the bone to extend my reach and pull the key from its perch. The key fell through grate and into the sand, sinking out of sight.

I desperately sought it out with my arms, somehow managing to make contact and getting it in my hand. If I had lost that key, it would have all been for nothing.

I took a deep breath, and I dove down again into the sand, this time clutching my key in my hand. That made it much slower going because one of my hands was not free to swim, but I wasn't going to trust just the rope around my thigh as a reliable means of holding the key.

I only just managed to reach Tahir and give him another breath before I knew he was about to suffocate. I handed him the key and motioned for him to throw me up again, which he did, and I only just barely got to the grate again, gasping for air.

I knew that the lock to the chains was actually around his feet, so he would not be able to get unlocked on his own. I took another deep breath and I dove down again, this time my maneuverability improved.

When I got to Tahir's lips, he actually pushed me away from him, knowing that would keep me from accomplishing my task. I grabbed the key from his hand as he pushed me down.

I felt his soft, huge dick go by as I descended, and swam down further on my own. I found that lock around his ankles and pushed the key in the hole.

Why wasn't it going in? I realized the lock itself had become saturated in sand. I desperately used my finger to try and wiggle as much sand as I could away from it.

Finally, the key went it. I turned it, and felt the lock engage. I pulled off the lock.

I don't know how he knew, but as soon as I had that lock off, he launched me back up to the top of the well, and I gasped for air against the grate.

I few seconds later, Tahir appeared above the sand too at that grate, gasping for air as well. I was so glad to see him free of his chains, I almost wanted to cry.

He kissed me. "Talk about hero work, Jake. You just saved my life in the most brilliant method imaginable!"

"Now wait a second. Before you call me a hero, you should know that I already knew I cannot break down this grate here without your help. I'd die if I hadn't freed you, so it was entirely selfish."

"Oh, like I believe that for a second. You might need me to finish these trials, but that doesn't mean you wouldn't have done the exact same thing if you were capable of opening the grate on your own the whole time."

He pushed at the grate. He grabbed it with his hands and shook it violently. He hit it over and over again with his fists until he was bloody.

"Please stop! What if I push too at the same time?"

I grabbed the grate and pushed it at the same time that he was. Still nothing happened.

He shook his head. "I'm sorry, Jake. I'm just not strong enough."

"Oh, wait a second. I have a thought. Keep trying this!"

He kept on pushing, and I dove down under the sand again, holding my breath. I had to swim down faster than I ever had to before.

My arms reached the body of the other man, and I pulled him back up with me. I ended up not being prepared for just how hard it would be to carry him with me, and I started to black out before I reached the top.

I felt Tahir come down, and this time, it was him breathing a breath into my lips. We grabbed the man and pulled him to the surface together.

"Why did you risk your life for this guy? I told you, he's brain dead, that's not going to change."

"Tahir, put your bloody knuckles to his lips."

He did as I asked, and just as I thought, fangs extended. "A vampire!"

"With green eyes! You can use his steel fist if you take control of him!"

"Yes, brilliant, brilliant!"

Tahir bit the vampire, and for the first time, I could see the vampire's body come to life, his eyes opening.

"How do I change my fist?" he asked in stereo through both his mouth and the Logan Blood vampire's mouth.

I thought back to when Jericho had tried to teach Lewis this ability. "Try to turn all your anger into your fist. See this grate as the one thing keeping us two from living. Are you focusing on that?"

"I am."

"Now, hit!"

He swung his fist towards the grate, and I heard the sound of metal clanking on metal, which was one of the sweetest sounds I had ever heard.

"I did it! You got me to do it!"

"Yes, perfect! Now, just break down the grate!"

But my heart sank as the steel just kept on clanking against the metal without breaking it.

"You aren't getting any momentum there because you aren't standing on anything firm," I said. "Let me fix that."

I went under the sand, grabbed the Logan vampire's legs, and pushed them against the wall. I put my arms into the empty hole the wheel had gone into, using it to make my body as steady as possible. I put his feet against my back.

He used this to stand up finally and stop swimming. I could hear more metal clanking.

Tahir pulled me up out of the sand. "It worked! I'm letting this guy free now."

As soon as I saw the busted grate above me, I cheered. "We did it! We beat the Sandtrials!"

I kissed him excitedly, and he put his arms around my head. Under the sand, I felt his dick just start to get hard again against my own now that he was just as happy as I was.

Tahir pushed me out of the pit, and climbed up after me.

Marutuk was standing up there giving us the slow-clap ironically. "We are leaving, Marutuk. Right now," I said to him.

"Not without finishing my trials, you're not."

"What are you talking about?" asked Tahir.

"This was just the first half of the trials."

"What?! You can't just add another half like that."

"Vizier Bazzi, he can't make any late changes to the contracts, can he?" asked Tahir.

"He doesn't have to. The Sandtrials have always been defined as two halves," said Bazzi.

"That's why they are called the Trials. With an `s.' This was just the first trial."

"He's right. It's all in the contract."

"No, no, no," I said. "This cannot be. That trial already sucked. We cannot take another one of those!"

"If it's any consolation, the first trial is the one people almost never survive," said Bazzi. "The second one is much more survivable."

"No, I refuse to play another game. If we survive this one, what is keeping him from adding a third part?"

The Vizier shook his head. "There are just the two halves. That's in the contract, it cannot be changed."

"Or would you rather just forfeit your only chance at freedom and have me just kill you both right now and pleasure myself on your bodies? Because that's an option with a lot of upside for me, if you'd prefer it."

"No, he does not prefer it," said Tahir.

"Then get moving!"

Marutuk's guards pushed us with their swords threatening to follow him into the palace.

"We beat him once, we'll do it again," said Tahir, putting his arm around me as we walked. "Because I'm so lucky to have the most heroic partner ever created." He kissed the side of my head. I felt comforted but no less angry as we followed Marutuk through the halls and then up and up a winding staircase.

We ended up in a part of the palace neither of us knew existed. We walked through a hatch and came up into a small, flat platform. We were standing on the very top of the largest dome in the palace. If this visit had been in far different circumstances, I would have been breathless at the amazing views all around us, which was even heightened by the fact that the sun was setting, bathing everything in orange light. In one direction was the gorgeous city, in the other the empty sand dunes. We were at the top of the very center of the dome, which meant our little platform would have been the only method to walk up there.

I crossed my arms. "Being at the highest point in the city just doesn't instill me with confidence about this trial truly being much easier than the last part."

"The Vizier said this is a much more survivable half of trials. He didn't say it wasn't still potentially deadly."

Tahir grabbed my head with his arms. "Hey, look at me." He sought me out with those sad eyes. "Whatever they throw at us, we got it. This is not how things end for us."

I nodded. "We can do this," I said.

"Is the suspense killing you yet?" asked Marutuk. "Alright, I'll speak. There's one little task left between you and your freedom. The Vizier is going to give you both a tiny dose of paralysis venom. I'd do it myself, but then it would be much too strong, so Vizier Bazzi is going to inject it the exact same amount into both of you. Bazzi, do the biting."

"Vampires first," he said, moving and quickly biting Tahir's hand. His body went limp, his dick got hard, and I started to hold him up.

And then he bit my hand right away too, and my body went limp and my dick went hard too. Marutuk carried us both to where the dome started to slope, and set us down.

"When I say go, you have two minutes. Anyone who is still holding onto the dome in any way will be saved and pulled to safety, given your freedom. You can hold onto each other. And to make it easier, there are handholds all over this dome. You just need to keep yourselves from falling off to your deaths on the ground below. Vizier, ready with the time?"

"Starting."

"It begins!"

Marutuk let us go at the same time, and stepped back with a smile.

We both started to slide very slowly down the dome, which was quite literally a sinking feeling, the downward movement filled with foreboding.

Marutuk grabbed the watch from the vizier and watched it closely as he kept behind us.

"Twenty-seconds into this, and I do believe the first muscle twitch goes to Dr. Farhat! Bazzi, you best have not slipped him a lighter dosage!"

"I didn't, God Marutuk."

I blocked Marutuk's leering face out completely and focused on breaking through the paralysis.

"And there goes the first twitch on Jake! He's making a comeback!"

I worked on the same techniques I had learned so many times since I'd first come to this horrible palace, all those methods I'd learned for breaking this spell. I focused on just my left hand, which was already touching Tahir as we slid down. I had to move my hand.

Just as we started to slide faster, I felt my hand flex finally.

Yes, I just had to break it a little more. I focused on my left hand with everything I had.

I was able to move it ever so slightly and grab onto Tahir's hand, which was already close-by.

"Jake just locked hands with him!" said Marutuk excitedly. "But what's the point when neither one of them will be able to grab onto anything else?"

I could see the edge of the dome coming fast, and knew he was right.

I focused on my right hand. I used all my techniques then to make my right hand break free of the spell and listen to my orders, but it wasn't shifting fast enough.

I frustratingly felt two handholds slip right past my right hand without me being able to grab them.

"They are both going off the edge! What a pair of disappointing players!"

I felt us both slide off the very edge of the dome and slip off, falling down to the earth. I felt sick.

And then I somehow was able to finally break my right hand free JUST as it slipped past the very last handhold on the end of the dome, right before the dome turned upside down.

I focused on keeping control over my right hand as my fingers held on hard to the handhold. I looked down as my body snapped tight, with my left hand still holding Tahir's hand.

Tahir's face was breaking the effects of the paralysis just enough to show total thanks and devotion to me. Beyond him, I could see that Marutuk had purposefully placed us in a horrible position on the dome, having us fall right for the snakepit, with its top wide open and waiting, which would have doubled the fall.

"Ten more seconds!"

But my arms were not working at all, the only parts of me that were doing anything were my two hands, and even they weren't totally under my control. I focused all I had on using them both to keep my hold.

I wasn't prepared for just how heavy he would be.

I put all of my focus into holding onto his sweet hand.

But felt sick as I saw his fingers slip away from me and his face looking up at me as his body fell back.

No, this could not be happening!

I told my right hand to let go of the handhold. I wanted to fall with him, stay together. I thought there was a good chance that I might be able to pull us both away from snake-pit and towards a much shorter fall, in which we might survive it.

"Two minutes!" Marutuk shouted from above me.

When I let go of the handle, Marutuk grabbed onto my hand and kept me from falling. No, God, no, please no!

And so, I had to watch desperately as Tahir fell away from me. He fell into the entrance of the snakepits, and then I had to watch him get pierced by all those spikes on the bottom, his face opening in anguish, clearly dead.

I wanted to blotch myself out of existence in that moment.

Marutuk hauled me back up to the top of the dome. He took the contract from Bazzi and crumped it up. "Guess you won't be needing this anymore, Doctor." He threw it into the snakepit.

He slapped my contract on my chest and carried me back to his room, leaving me alone on his bed.

As soon as my face became unfrozen enough to cry, the tears poured out of me. I was totally lost and horrified at what had just happened.

I cried and cried until my body was completely normal, and then I had no excuse to lie there anymore. I got up, still crying, and I stormed into the closet and started to pack my backpack.

I heard Marutuk come back in the room, and I left the closet. He had climbed up the snake tank and was pulling Helina out of the top.

"Yes, get her out of there for me," I said to him. "I'll be taking her with me right now."

He carried her down to the floor and then started with her out of the room.

"I am strong enough to carry her myself. Just give her to me, and I'll be gone."

He said nothing to me, he just moved quickly holding her naked body in his arms, so fast that I had to run to keep up. He ran downstairs, making me think he was taking her to the front door of the palace, but when he ended up going the opposite direction, I got more and more nervous.

"Where are you taking her?! Let her go!"

I felt nauseous as soon as I saw him disappear with her into the snakepit. I ran after them, jumped onto that ladder, and made my way down, trying very hard not to look at Tahir's body.

When I got to the bottom, writhing snakes all around my legs, I tried to pull Helina from Marutuk's arms.

"Shouldn't you be leaving?" he asked me. "You won your freedom."

"I'm not leaving without her."

"Oh. Too bad your contract never had anything covering your gorgeous friend Helina. And since the agreement was I wouldn't let her go until a week after I impregnated you, since you never came through with your end of that bargain, I'm going to end her life right now. So, while our parting is bitter, at least I have this sweet present of yours to finally do away with. I'll kill her and defile her body all night long. Unless, of course, you'd like to stick around and continue to try and get pregnant."

"You're evil. Those contracts were meaningless, weren't they? You were never going to let us go."

"Don't you do that. Don't you blame this on me. I was always going to let Dr. Farhat go if he survived the Sand Trials, as he wasn't the one responsible for any of this. You were the one who came here and played him. I just needed him gone because I knew as long as he was around, you would never be able to get pregnant with any child but his. I figured you two would survive the trials. That first trial, I made sure you had everything you needed to survive it in place. For the second one, I knew you had been paralyzed so frequently that you knew how to get out of it, I was counting on that. You should have saved him. What was wrong with you? All you had to do was hold your hand tight, and he would have been free and safe. I never killed him. You did."

I was uncharacteristically out of words. Instead, tears poured down my face, depressed and guilty tears. He was right. This was all my fault. I was the one who convinced him to impregnate me in the first place. And I was the one who couldn't just hold on and save his life.

"Behold what you wrought!"

The snakes moved Tahir's body into my view. I was facing the back, and he was completely filled with spike holes there, cutting me to my soul.

Marutuk had the snakes turn his body around, showing me his front. The front of him looked mostly intact, which I couldn't figure out if it was better or worse. The poor guy still had that erection that Bazza's bite had forced on him. His gorgeous eyes, open in death, were somehow sadder than ever, making my heart bleed.

"Yes, I see the way you look at him, Jake. I see the way you always look at him. You are in love with him. That much was clear to me just looking at the way you looked at him from the very first time meeting him, and it was even clearer seeing the way you interacted with him during the trials. And now, I want you to show that love and make it physical."

"What?!"

"I want you to love Dr. Farhat here in death as you did in life. I want you to kiss him."

"No, I refuse!"

"That's fine, refuse and walk away. I'll just kill Helina right now, is that what you want?"

"No!"

"Then you will not refuse any more of my orders! Now, kiss him, Jake!"

I cried in frustration, anger, and total depression as I moved in to kiss him, putting my lips to his.

"That's not enough! I want tongue, Jake!"

I opened my mouth and put my tongue through his lips, tasting his mouth. There wasn't as much saliva as there would have normally been, but otherwise, he tasted normal.

"Good. Now, I see the way you always admire his human phallus, Jake. I want to see you give him physical love with your mouth."

"Why are you doing this?" I asked.

"Another word, and she dies! Do it!"

I cried as I put my mouth around his purple, cut knob. I sobbed even harder as I realized he still tasted exactly the same as before.

"All the way down!"

I moved my head down Tahir's perfectly symmetrical, tan dick. My chin touched his hairless balls, my nose buried into his small pubic bush. He still smelled the same as well.

"Good, pull off him," Marutuk ordered me.

I pulled off his dick, hoping Marutuk's sick point had been made, and he would leave me alone.

"Get your back on the platform," he said.

I laid down on the dais, wondering if he had another spell in mind for me to perform here.

"Shut your eyes."

I closed my eyes. I felt someone move above me. Marutuk, I assumed

"Open."

I opened my eyes, and it was Tahir I was feeling, I could see Marutuk was still a good ways away. I was amazed. Tahir was moving his arms, putting them around my body. How was Marutuk doing this? Did he have some special power to move the dead that he never told me about?

"I want you to let Dr. Farhat fuck you. Show him the love you always wanted to."

I had to force my head under control when it tried to shake, force my mouth shut when it tried to protest. I wanted no part in Marutuk's sick mind games.

"You're going to let him fuck you, and you're going to come, without ever touching yourself. And if you can't do that right here and now, say goodbye to Helina."

I couldn't let that happen, so I had to find a way to do what he was asking. I focused on believing Tahir was still alive. That was easy enough when he was moving his body around just like normal, the only thing not coming was his speech.

He pulled my legs up so they were tucked up by my shoulders, exposing my butt to him. The only odd thing was his touch was just a bit too cold.

I rubbed his perfect, hairless torso and arm muscles as I felt him push inside me. Luckily, he was already lubed up with my spit, so it didn't hurt as much going in as it might have.

I kissed him as he started to thrust in and out, the pain totally going away. I tried not to focus on his lips, which seemed to be moving around oddly, and instead concentrated on his tongue licking at me.

I left his mouth and moved my head down his body. I kissed his powerful pecs, his gorgeous brown nipples, watching his body thrust into me. I focused on the pleasure he was creating rubbing my prostate, trying to get myself going.

And then I noticed something odd inside that pec I was grabbing. For a second, there was something I felt moving on the other side of that tan skin.

I realized, ill all over again, just what was happening. Marutuk wasn't able to control the dead. With the holes all over the back of Tahir's body, he made his snakes crawl inside Tahir's body, dozens of them. He was using them alone to move his body around as if he was still alive.

I looked at his eyes, and the sad, vacant look hadn't changed. He wasn't able to move those eyes with the snakes.

This realization was the last thing to help me follow his order, so I blocked it out of my mind. Tahir wasn't really dead. He was making love to me, and I loved it.

I shut my eyes to make the fantasy more believable. As he continued to thrust, I focused on the friction my dick was creating his abs, focused on the pleasure he was creating with my prostate.

Somehow, I was able to come.

"Yes, yes!" I heard Marutuk shout, whose voice had moved closer. "Now, Dr. Farhat is going to slather your insides with his seed. And you are going to focus on letting him impregnate you. Focus on how much you love him!"

I soon felt hot cum start shooting out of Tahir's dick, into me. There was tons of it, it absolutely filling me up and pouring out of my hole.

I focused on letting Tahir's seed impregnate me again. Focused on wanting so badly to have his baby. On how much I cared for him, how I wanted him so badly as my partner.

Marutuk had me wait upside down while Tahir finished and every last drop was inside me before he pulled Tahir away. It was only then that I opened my eyes.

I could see Marutuk had moved behind Tahir. It looked like he had cut through Tahir's rear until he had reached his dick. His snake-penis was so soaked with blood, I knew that had never been Tahir's cum, but his own, coming through his urethra.

As I lay there, I focused on my hate. Absolute hate for Marutuk and the disgusting lengths he would go to get what he wanted. And just as absolute hate for myself for making Tahir into the image I was staring out then: nothing but an abused shell of what he had been. I wasn't just feeling hate, I had become it.

Marutuk had Helina in his arms. "You've earned your friend another night alive. I'm putting her back in my room. You've earned the right tonight to join me in my bed. Would that please you?"

"Please, just leave me here."

"Alright. You know where my bed is."

Once he and Helina were good and gone, I caressed the front of Tahir's body, which was still intact, and I started to totally bawl. I said, "I'm sorry," hundreds of times over, caressing his body for hours on end. And then I prayed to God for his soul out loud, over and over.

Sometime late in the night, my mourning was interrupted by the snakes starting to bite into his body. I watched as one of them bit away his right ear.

"No, get away!"

I started to grab the snakes and tried to rip them apart, pulling away from him and keeping them from desecrating his body.

I was relatively successful until the largest snakes appeared. They attacked me, pinning down my legs, incapacitating my arms, keeping me from helping him as I had to watch them slowly devour Tahir a bite at a time.

I begged them to kill me too along with him, but they never even bit me. Just held me down.

By morning, there was nothing left of him but bones. And I couldn't help but feel like my soul was just as desecrated.