Date: Thu, 19 Feb 2015 08:22:03 -0800
From: Sellar Dhor <sellardhor@gmail.com>
Subject: Evil is a Man: Blood In Blood Out chapter 7

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

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


       JANUARY 2nd


       My dreams were interrupted by strong lips against mine, and a sweet
tongue searching out my mouth.  It tasted unbelievable.  Then the lips
pulled away.
       "Wake up, sleeping beauty."
       I opened my eyes.  Syd was smiling at me, his face inches from my
own, and his body on top of mine in the sleeping bag.  "Syd, did you just
wake me up by kissing me?"
       "What better way to be woken up?"
       "Yuck!" I said angrily.  "I can think of more than a few, Syd.
Don't ever do that again."
       He crawled out of the sleeping bag, right over my face again.  This
time, his dick was rock hard, and he didn't bother trying it prevent the
erection from hitting me all over the face as he climbed out over me.
       "Stop that!"
       "Stop what, Jakey?"
       "I know you know what you're doing Syd!"
       He put just his cowboy boots and hat on, then unzipped the tent flap
and climbed out into the sunshine.  "Feels much warmer this morning.  I'll
rustle up some breakfast for us.  I brought some eggs and bacon in the
cooler."  I listened carefully to his footsteps.  "Hey, the cooler's been
completely overturned!"
       So, I wasn't the best liar, I knew.  I concentrated hard on trying
to sound as natural as possible.  "Oh, really?" I asked.
       I stepped outside the tent, and trotted over to Syd's location.  He
was pointing to all the food scattered around the ground.
       "Horse's are still tied up, they couldn't have done this.  Must have
been some varmint.  We got a bunch o' those around here."
       He lifted up the package of bacon off the ground.  "Odd, none of
this stuff seems eaten," he said.
       "Strange."
       "Must have been one damned stupid varmint.  I reckon all the food is
fine," he said, and he started collecting it off the ground and putting it
back in the cooler.
       "I'll start the fire back up for breakfast," I said.
       Syd didn't notice the missing blood at all, having breakfast in his
typically good mood.  We ate quickly, and then I went down to the stream to
clean off.  I undressed, and stuck my toes into the creek water.  Goodness,
this was going to be cold.  I stepped into the deepest part of the creek,
the water only coming up to mid-thigh level.  Bracing myself, I kneeled
down into the water, submerging most of my body and splashing the parts
that I couldn't get under.  Then, I stood back up, the air shockingly cold
suddenly.  I used the soap I was holding to lather up my body as fast as I
could.
       I warmed my shivering body next to the fire until I was warm enough
to get dressed again.  He collapsed the tent while I put out the fire, and
we were ready to go.  Mounting my horse this time was extremely painful; it
seemed my muscles only got sorer since the previous night.
       As soon as we were on the horses again, I noticed that instead of
traveling east like before, we started to go more towards the north as we
traveled along the stream.  It made for a pretty ride, to be sure.
       We rode for more than half the day before Syd decided he wanted to
stop for lunch.  He tied up the horses and told me he had some sandwich
fixings in the cooler.  He tossed me a blanket and told me to lay it on the
ground while he got the lunch stuff.
       "Here, want to help me with this?" he asked me.  I walked over to
where he was.  He had just pulled the cooler off the pack horse and was
looking through it.  "Here, take the meat the bread," he said, handing
those to me.  I went to go put them on the picnic blanket.
       Almost as soon as I had turned around, Syd yelled, "Wait a second
there!"
       Sure I'd been caught; I stopped cold and turned around.  "Yes?"
       "Ya seen all the blood I had in here?" he asked me.  "It's not
anywhere here that I can tell."
       "Nope, haven't seen it," I said.  Then, to make sure I was
convincing, I even pretended to look through the cooler a bit.  "You sure
you brought it?"
       "Damn sure," he said.  "I saw it last night when I pulled dinner out
for us.  Damn critters must have run off with it all.  Fuckin' hell!"
       I smiled on the inside.  Syd was always so annoyingly chipper, even
when he was being despicable.  Now, for the first time in ages, I had
caused him to lose his temper.
       "Well, how long do you have before you need to feed again?"
       "I fed yesterday, so I need to feed again today, or else I'm done
for."
       "Well, can you capture a wild animal or feed off the horses?"
       "Nah, Jakey, like I told ya, I need human blood."
       "Well, how far are we from town?"
       "A couple days ride from here, at least." He kicked up some dust
with his boot angrily.
       "We can go back to the quarantine."
       He shook his head.  "We'd never make it all the way back in time."
He looked pointedly at me.
       "Oh no, that's out of the question," I said.
       "You're the only human within riding distance of us, Jakey."  He
raised an eyebrow.  "Ya know, if ya gave it a shot, you'd probably enjoy
it."
       "Thanks, but no thanks," I said.  "I absolutely whole heartedly
refuse."
       "Well, what do ya suggest then?" he asked me.
       "We've been ambling so far.  I say we ride faster, and hope that we
either get to town or we find something else that will help you," I said,
though I knew there was a slim to none chance that those would happen.
       "Fine.  We're skipping your lunch, though.  If I have to go hungry,
so do you."
       "Fine, big whoop," I said.
       We packed our things up quickly, and then mounted our horses.  Syd
struck a moderate canter with horses, and I did my best to keep up.  We
rode like that for a couple hours, and then Syd stopped suddenly.
       "Ya know, I'm detecting this weird smell," he said as he jumped off
his horse.  "It's been bugging me all day.  At first I thought it was just
my imagination, but now I'm positive there's something to it."
       My stomach knotted when I saw him head over to the pack horse.
"You're probably just smelling the horses," I said.  "They reek, and that's
all I've been able to smell since we entered the, uh, Territory."
       "No, it's not the horses," he said.  He sniffed around both our bags
until he seemed to settle on my bag.  Then, he started to open my bag.
       I jumped off my horse and started to rush towards him.  "That's my
stuff, it's private!"
       He paid me no regard, instead rummaging through my bag until he
pulled out the empty plastic blood containers, which still held some of the
blood residue.  He lifted them up and sniffed them.  "You shoulda either
tossed the evidence or washed out the blood entirely," he said.  "Too bad
you didn't know I can sniff out human blood."  He threw the packets on the
ground and shook his head angrily.  "You've been lying to me all morning.
Here I thought rats had gotten the blood, when it had been you that were
the rat the whole time."
       "Hypocritical much."
       "You know I'm gonna die without that blood, and that's exactly what
you planned.  Yer doin' your damndest to off me!  We may have had our
disagreements in the past, but I never, ever tried to kill you."
       "You've left me no choice!"
       "And what exactly is your plan when I die?  We are in the middle of
effin nowhere."
       "I figured I'd take the horse and ride back out of here.  I've been
paying attention to the route we took in here."
       "You'd never make it outta here alive without me."
       "Well, that's the chance I'd take," I said.  "At least if you were
dead, my family would be safe."
       He laughed.  "Oh, that's what all of this is about huh?  I hate to
break it to ya, Jakey, but the whole Logan Blood has access to your
family's information.  We're talking thousands of vampires there.  And ya
know the first thing that's gonna happen as soon as I die or disappear?
Every last one of `em will be at your family's doorstep.  And I promise ya,
not one of them is gonna be nearly as nice as I been."
       I stared at him hard, angrier than ever.
       "So, if it was your family and friends you're worried about, ya know
what I'd do, Jakey, if I were you?  I'd do everything humanly possible to
keep me alive and well, that's what.  First and most importantly, I'd do
everything possible to make sure I'm well fed."
       He stared hard at me, and all I wanted to do was reach over and slap
him.  I hated being wrong, and he was absolutely right.  I realized my
mistake.  I realized that, at least for now, the best hope for my family's
survival was for me to go along cooperatively with these folks.  It didn't
bode well for my own survival, that much was obvious.  But that was my
secondary concern.  I shook my head sadly, knowing all my wits had once
again been bested.  It was plain depressing.
       "Fine, you win," I said.
       "Of course I do, I always win," he said, smiling.  "Does that mean
you're agreeing to give me yer blood?  Because, without it, I'll surely
die.  And it's yer fault I'm in this predicament, Jakey.  Time to pay your
dues."
       I rolled my eyes and groaned in agony.  "Yes, I agree.  But you're
only going to take what you need to survive."
       "But of course," he said.  "Not enough to make you pass out."
       "Are you kidding?  There's no way I'm getting through this without
passing out.  This is my worst nightmare come to life."
       He grabbed the blanket and spread it on the ground.  Then he started
to unbutton and remove his shirt, leaving just his hat on.
       "Why are you taking your shirt off?" I asked him, annoyed suddenly
how hot he looked, tan skin in the sunlight.
       "Because I don't want to get blood on it, Jakey," he said.
       I got the chills.  "Oh jeez, I don't know how I am going to take
this," I said.  I spun around, not wanting to look at him.  "Here, just get
it over with fast."
       From behind, I felt him come up to me, press his body against mine.
He wrapped his arms around me, then I felt he lips on the left side of my
neck.  I shut my eyes fearfully.
       But nothing came.  Instead, I felt him pull his lips away.  He
started pulling off my shirt instead.  "What are you doing that for?"
       "It's in the way, Jakey.  And I don't want to get blood on it."
       "Jeez, okay."  I helped him pull my shirt off over my head, and
threw it aside.  The skin of my bare upper body got covered in goosebumps
as it was exposed to the chill air.
       I felt his body push against mine again from behind again.  He
wrapped his beefy arms around me and pulled me back against him firmly as
he rubbed my cold chest with his strong hands.  I could feel his muscley
torso pressed against my back, the fur on his pecs scratching me.
       I felt his nose rub against the side of my throat, smelling me.  I
felt his lips against my sensitive skin there.  The lips parted, and he
started to lick me there slowly up and down, like a doctor applying a
sanitizer before drawing blood.  I clamped my eyes shut, knowing what was
coming next.
       But once again, nothing happened.
       "Get it over with, Syd," I said.  "Stop messing around."
       "Look, it just ain't that easy for me," he said.
       I pushed away from him and turned around to look at him, standing
there in his jeans, boots, and hat.  Goodness, his bare torso looked so
hot.  "What's the problem?  And don't tell me this is the first time you've
done this."
       "No, it's not.  But it's the first time I've done it like this," he
said.
       "Like what?"
       "Well, usually when I bite, it's in the midst of passionate sexin.'"
       "What?  You can't be serious."
       "It's true, Jakey.  The fangs don't just pop out on command.  They
only come out in the heat of passion.  So, I was trying to get things going
with you.  But you're just standing there like a statue, ice cold.  It's
just not working for me."
       "I'm sorry, maybe you should tell your fangs that your life is at
stake here.  Maybe then they'll appear."
       He shook his head.  "It doesn't work that way.  Much like my cock,
they have a mind of their own, I'm afraid.  If I'm going to survive, and
therefore your family will survive, I'm gonna need some special attention
here."
       I rolled my eyes.  "Alright, fine.  What do you want me to do?"
       "Let's start with this," he said.  He smiled mischievously, and then
rubbed his beefy hand over the blonde fur covering his beefy chest.  He had
a knowing glint in his eye.  He stepped towards me, touching my body
passionately.  He pressed his body into mine, grinding the ample bulge in
his jeans against my crotch, then I felt his huge right hand slide down
past the waist of my pants.  His rough paw fondled the skin of my left butt
cheek, rubbing me sexily.  Feeling overwhelmed, I put my left hand on Syd's
right hairy forearm, trying to get him to stop, but he only rubbed my ass
harder.  Instead, I tried to lean my body back off of him, but my head was
stopped by his left arm, which he had reached behind the top of my neck,
either to give me support or to keep me from getting away from him, or
both.
       He shut his eyes and slowly moved his handsome face towards mine,
his lips slowly parting, his stubbly chin rubbing against my own.  He
pressed his strong lips to mine, and I passively let him in, opening my
mouth.  I felt his tongue start to lick its way into me, first along my
lips and then further, and I froze, feeling so uncomfortable.  He pulled
out suddenly.
       "No," he said.  "I want passion, Jakey.  I want that fire that I've
seen before.  Or else this isn't gonna work."
       "Alright, I can be passionate," I said.
       I shut my eyes as he pressed his lips to mine once more.  This time,
I took myself back to just a few days before, when I was absolutely head
over heels infatuated with this man, before I knew the truth.  I forced
myself back into those shoes.
       Suddenly, I was feeling his touch in a whole different light; not as
an enemy, but as a super hot lover.  This time, when his tongue entered my
mouth, I embraced it fully, licking and playing with it inside me, letting
its sweet taste ignite me.  I moaned as his lips crushed my own, locking my
hands around his muscled back.
       He pulled back, and I opened my eyes again.  He was looking much
more pleased.  "Yeah, ya got it this time, Jakey."
       He pushed my head down to his right pec, and it was clear what he
wanted.  I opened my mouth and licked around his gorgeous pec, feeling the
rough furs rubbing against my smooth tongue.  Then, holding tight against
him, I encircled his erect nipple with my tongue tip, playing with the hard
knob center of it before wrapping my lips around the whole thing and really
starting to lick and nibble at it.
       "So hot, Jakey!" Syd encouraged.  "Ya got my saliva goin.'  Now I
need ya to get my cock goin.'"
       I sighed, not liking where he was going with that.  "What do you
want me to do?"
       "Remember when we were snowboarding, and you warmed up my cock in
your mouth?"  He reached down and grabbed the package in his jeans.  "That
was about the hottest tonguing my Texas cock's ever gotten.  Only, I had to
do everything I could just to stay soft.  Well, since that day, I've been
dreaming about a proper blow job from you, one where I could really go to
town."
       I sighed, visibly annoyed.  "Alright," I said, not feeling like I
had much choice.
       "And I don't just want you to go through the motions, Jakey.  I want
you to want it as much as I do."
       "Okay, I can do it."
       He smiled approvingly, looking at me with those twinkling eyes.  I
looked over his beautiful body, taking in every stunning inch of his furry
chest and that treasure trail running down over his chunky abs.  His jeans
were still buttoned but pulled down low, that muscular crease he had
between his obliques and his hip fully visibly as it traveled diagonally
towards his pubes.  He was tilted slightly to the right, and I could see
that the jeans were pulled down enough to expose a good amount of bare,
beefy butt cheek.  On the frontside, his dick was making a huge package in
his crotch, pointed down and tucked neatly.
       I walked up to him and rubbed my hands over those hard, tan abs.  I
traced my fingers along his treasure trail from his belly button to his
pubes.  I played with his blonde pubic hairs, so rough in my fingers.
       He grabbed my hand and pushed it onto the huge limp in his jeans.
"See?  Little Syd needs some lovin," he said.  As I cupped him, it was
obvious to me he was soft, as big as his basket was in any case.
       I kneeled down in front of him until I was eye-level with his
crotch.  I unbuttoned his fly, keeping only the top button intact.  I could
see the base of his thick dick inside.  I reached my fingers in and gently
stroked the thing.
       "Pull it out, Jakey," he said as he bucked his hips towards me.
       I reached my fingers in the hole, wrapped them around his soft dick,
and pulled.  I was amazed once again how long it took me to pull out
completely, as inch after inch kept coming through.  Finally, the pink head
pooped through his fly, and I let go.
       His dick was then hanging soft right in front of my face, the top
button of his jeans covering just the very top of the thing.  He bucked his
hips again, making the thing bounce towards my face.  "Taste it," he said.
       "Alright, alright, be patient."
       I leaned forward and opened my mouth, first letting my lips touch
the warm skin of his smooth stalk, letting them get used to the thing.
Then, I let my tongue slide out and I licked the very tip of my tongue up
all along his many inches.  Damn, he tasted good.
       "Yeah, that's it," he said.
       I placed my whole wet tongue against his stalk, letting the full
flavor hit me.  He moaned in response.  I licked down to his head.  As soon
as my tongue rolled over his piss slit, I felt his soft dick pulse for the
first time.
       "Put it in that hot mouth of yours, Jakey," he urged.
       I opened my lips wide and let his head fall into my waiting mouth
before closing my lips around the rim.  I attacked his head with my tongue,
taking in the wonderful flavor.  I let his soft pink mushroom bounce around
in my mouth for a bit.
       "Yeah, that is sooo hot," he moaned.  "Take more, Jakey."
       I let his cock slide more into my mouth, sucking hard on each
intruding inch.  I felt his dick pulse in mouth, and I knew this treatment
would was working.
       "Yeah Jakey, you know how to get the blood flowing to my big Texas
cock," he said.
       As I sucked his tool, his dick continued to harden.  It was so hot
to feel his rod stiffen inside my mouth.  I could feel each heartbeat in
his dick, as each one brought more and more blood into his tool.  His dick
was so big, it took so much blood to fill the thing, and the process
couldn't have possibly been instantaneous.  But soon enough, the monster
erection was upon me.  While I had before gotten most of his soft cock into
my throat, his increased volume forced me to just get a little more than
his head in.  And his dick rose upwards as it hardened, forcing my face to
rise with the thing to keep a hold of it.
       I wanted to get a good look at him, so I pulled my head back, taking
my mouth off his dickhead.  I could see his big balls outlining in the
bottom pouch of his jeans crotch, and I felt them up through the denim with
my hands.  His dick stood up and out, wet and glistening with my saliva.  A
huge vein ran underneath the tan stalk, obviously feeding the thing with
the massive amounts of blood it took to keep such a monster so hard and
standing at attention.
       "You know you want it Jakey," he said, thrusting again.  "Take it."
       "I don't want it, Syd," I said angrily.  "I'm being forced into
this, remember?"
       But I looked at that huge pinkish-tan knob capping his amazing
phallus.  It was shiny with spit, but as I watched, whole dick trembled,
and a huge spurt of glistening precum sputtered out of that wonderful
pissslit.  I could resist no longer, and with Syd's hand on the back of my
head, I let him push me back onto his cockhead.  I stuck my tongue out and
licked up that precum, which had dripped down the underside of his dick.  I
let the main glob of precum touch my tongue, loving that salty flavor.
Then, wanting more, I licked my tongue up the trail that the precum had
made, moving all the way up the underside of his dick until reached the
head.  I licked my way up the slit in that knob until my tongue was right
at the source, and Syd rewarded me with another squirt of precum.  God, it
was good.
       "Yeah, you like that?"
       I let my lips surround his hard head, rolling my head around the
thing.  It was such a different story to be able to have such hardness to
suck on instead of the soft head.  It was like going from sucking on a
massive gummy candy to a huge jawbreaker.
       Just then, I heard what was obviously a ring tone from a very nearby
source.
       "Damn, let me turn that off," Syd said, reaching his hand in his
back pocket and extracting his cell.  He looked at the screen.  "Fuck, it's
my fuckface father.  I have to take this."  He put the phone to his ear.
"What do you need?  I'm in the middle of getting the blow job of a lifetime
here."
       While his father talked on the other end, Syd bored-ly muttered
uh-huhs repeatedly while rolling his eyes at me.  He used his free hand to
hold my head still and he started to really pound my face with his dick,
suddenly very angry.  I felt like he was taking out his frustrations with
his father on me.
       He could have kept getting sucked on through his conversation, but I
felt like it was a highly rude thing to do.  So, I pulled off of him and
pulled away.  He gave me an exasperated look, but I didn't care.
       "You know exactly where we are.  I don't even know why you ask me
that."
       Their conversation continued, and I went to get a drink.  After a
few minutes, Syd hung up and tossed the phone aside.  His glistening dick
had once again gone soft.
       "Sorry about that, Jakey," he said.  He unbuttoned the top button of
his jeans and wiggled his soft dick in his hand.  "Little Syd needs some
more of that sweet oral love."
       I again kneeled between his legs.  This time, his jeans were
unbuttoned, but they held onto his hips, with his cock hanging out and down
over the denim crotch.  I looked up to see Syd's roguish smiling, charming
face looking down at me from beneath his light-colored cowboy hat.  I could
see each of his hot nipples above me, but what was filling most of my
vision was his soft cock.  He held it in his hand over the crotch of his
jeans and wagged it right in my face.  I focused my eyes on the pissslit,
where a large bead of precum had collected.  He seemed to understand what I
was focused on.  He used his hand to milk his huge soft dick, and as he
pushed his hand towards me, the drop of precum grew ever larger.  As he
reached his head, the precum had grown into a huge blob, and it was too
large to stick to his dick.  It started to fall towards the earth slowly,
creating a huge line of goo between it and Syd's dickhead.
       I couldn't just let it fall to the ground.  I stuck my tongue out
quickly and leaned forward, catching the goopy slime with my extended
tongue.
       "Aww yeah.  There's plenty more where that came from, baby," Syd
growled.
       I raised my head, taking more and more of the line of precum above
me, until I reached the top of the line, his soft dick head.  I planted my
tongue on his pissslit, licking up all of the salty liquid and cherishing
the taste it made in my mouth.
       I opened my mouth wide, letting his soft head fall into it.  Looking
up, I could see Syd's handsome face.  His smile had turned into an intense
look of pleasure as his eyes locked onto mine.  He started to move his body
up and down, slipping his fast soft dick up and down in my open mouth,
repeatedly slapping the back of my throat with his tip, scratching my chin
with the denim of his jeans in the process.
       "Come on Jakey, give it a good suck."
       Finally, I clamped my lips shut around his head and started to suck
him.  He grabbed the base of his dick with his right hand and used it to
push his dick in further.  He used his left hand to grab the back/right
side of my head, pulling me onto his cock as well.  I could feel the blood
start to thicken his dick.
       I pulled off again when Syd was halfway hard.  His button fly was
all the way open, his balls still hidden in the crotch of his jeans.  His
semi-hard member stuck upwards and to the left, resting on the top of his
jeans.  God, it looked so perfect.
       I put my hands on his dick, rubbing it up and down, and it thickened
in my hands.  I put my face against the pulsing shaft and covered the thing
with sweet little kisses.  The little kisses finally turned into licks as I
tongued every wonderful vein on his shaft.
       His dick was now fully, monstrously hard, sticking straight up out
of his jeans and pointing hitting his bellybutton.  I used my right hand to
fondle his large balls through the tight denim.  He reached down and
grabbed his hard dick in his hand.  "Hey kiddo, I got something I know ya
want."
       I looked up at the cock above me, and saw that there was huge amount
of precum dripping out of the pisslit.  He used his hand to slap the
underside of his dick against my face, with the tip hitting me right
between the eyes.  His dick was so big and so amazingly hard, it was wonder
he did not injure me with it.  As he slapped at against me again, all that
sticky juice came flying towards me, splattering me all over the face.
       I hurriedly lapped up what was left , licking up all the precum that
had dripped down the bottom of his dick.  He pulled open my mouth with his
thumb and guided my head to his dickhead, forcing it inside me.
       "Ohh yeah," he howled.
       It tasted so manly as I sucked it good and hard, overcome with lust.
I concentrated on relaxing my throat and suppressing my gag reflex as I got
more and more of it inside my mouth.
       "Lord yes, Jakey!  Hey, pull out my balls.  I want to feel them
slapping against your sweet chin."
       I did as he asked.  While still holding his hard cock in my mouth, I
reached my right hand down into the denim beneath the base of his shaft
until I had his huge balls in my hand.  With some effort, I pulled them
free of his jeans until they were just hanging there beneath his hard dick
against the denim of his pants.  I used my hands to play with them
lovingly.
       Syd put his hands on my head and started to fuck my face fiercely,
letting his balls hit my chin as he went as deep as he could, grunting with
pleasure every time he had pushed into me to the hilt.  "God, no girl could
ever go that deep!" he yelled in sweet bliss.  I put my hands on the back
pockets of his jeans, loving the feel of his powerful thrusts hardening
every muscle in his butt.
       "This is so hot.  Lemme take off my pants."  Syd pulled his jeans
down, and somehow, he was able to remove them without taking off his cowboy
boots.  Once again, he was left in just his boots and his hat, nothing
encumbering that glistening dick.
       Without asking, he came over to me and started to rip off my pants
as well.  Like him, I pulled them over my shoes and off my body.  It put a
couple feet between us, and I used the space to admire his body from afar
again.  He looked smoking hot in just his cowboy hat and boots.  His pink
nipples looked more erect than ever, poking out from the blonde bushy chest
hair.  His erect dick stood up on it's own, pointing towards the ceiling.
His face had a sexy, cocky smile.
       "Ya want this big fuckin' cock, Jakey?" he asked, wagging it at me
       I noticed a large pool of precum collecting at the tip of his dick.
With his rod sticking straight up, his piss slit made the perfect bowl for
the stuff.  I stepped forward and put my index finger right in the middle
of the slimy stuff, then lifted it up, making a trail of precum several
inches above his dick.
       "Stop playin' with the stuff, Jakey," Syd said.  "I made it to lube
yer hot mouth."
       He grabbed the upper half of his hard rod in my right hand, just
below the head.  He pushed me down to a kneel, and wiped the presume slowly
over my chin.  He raised his cock and squeezed ample precum all over my
closed lips.
       "Ya know ya can't resist the sweet, sweet taste of my seed, Jakey,"
he said.
       He was right; I opened my lips to lick the sweet nectar off them,
and Syd acted fast.  With his right hand still on his dick, he forced the
thing into my mouth, surprising me.  At the same time, he grabbed the back
of my head with his left hand, pushing me down farther onto his member.
       There was a boulder right by us that was two feet or so tall, and
Syd lifted his left leg up and set his booted foot on the stone.  This
meant his left thigh was parallel to the ground, and his knee locked in a
ninety degree angle.  This spread his legs apart and gave me better access
to his dick.  I wrapped my hands around his muscled right leg, the one that
was still straight and held most of his weight.
       He leaned forward, looking down on my body underneath him, and put
each of his fat hands on the sides of my face and neck.  He locked my head
in place with those strong hands, turning my mouth into a still hole, then
he started to rock back and forth, shifting his weight onto his left leg up
on the rock, then back onto the standing right leg, than back to the left.
It was so hot to watch first his upraised left leg turn hard as his muscles
hardened from use, then to feel his hefty right thigh, which my hands were
locked onto, harden.
       I could taste so much sweet precum oozing into my mouth; Syd sure
was a leaker.  His dick was so fat, that it was impossible to keep my lips
perfectly sealed to his shaft as I move my head up and down on him.  The
result was, dribbles of precum escaping my mouth and oozing down his lower
shaft, onto his big balls.
       His hips moved back and forth, forcing his cock in as far as I could
take it, and back out until just the tip of his head remained.  He grunted
as he thrust into me, and I could feel his weighty balls roll all over my
chin, wetting it with the precum that still stuck to them.
       "Yeah, work that huge prod, Jakey."
       I put my left hand behind his butt, loving the feeling of his huge,
sweaty ass muscles flexing and relaxing, flexing and relaxing as he slammed
his thrusts into my mouth harder and harder.  With my right hand, I palmed
his huge hanging balls in my hand, all the while loving the sweet taste of
his ramming cock.
       He started to push so far down my throat with his thrusts that my
nose started to his sweaty pubes.  It was an intoxicating scent, and I
flared my nostrils and took deep breaths to soak it all in.
       He jammed it all the way to the hilt, and his bush ground into my
face, covering me with its manly smelling sweat.
       "Lord, Jakey, lord!" Syd yelled.  "I need your sweet ass.  Lord, let
me have your sweet ass."
       I pulled off his dick, annoyed.  "No!  I've never done anal, and I'd
never be able to fit a dick as big as yours inside me."
       "I have a way of taking care of that," he said.  "If I bite you
right before enter you, it will relax you and make the fucking a cakewalk."
       "No way!" I said.  "The whole reason why I'm giving you this oral is
because I'm trying to get your fangs out.  Once they're out, you're biting
me, and that's it."
       Syd pulled me up roughly, forcing me to my feet in front of him.  He
looked down at my naked body before him.  My dick was rock hard and
standing up, just inches from his own.  He grabbed his saliva-coated dick
in his right hand, and flicked the head sharply in my direction.  It wasn't
enough to make our dicks touch, but it was enough to make the little puddle
of precum that had been collecting on top of his huge head fling towards my
own knob.  The sticky stuff splattered all over me, and my dick jumped with
excitement.
       "Yeah, you want more of that?"
       Syd pushed his huge, leaking dick towards my own, touching our heads
together.  Once more, my dick responded to the feeling of his hot precum
against it, jumping excitedly.
       Syd wrapped both of his meaty arms around my back, his strong hands
forcing me towards him.  Our bodies pressed against each other, the sweaty
fur of his chest scratching me.  His stubbly chin rubbed against my own, as
I craned my neck back to look into his handsome face.  Most blissfully was
the feeling of his huge, hard, wet cock, pressed against my dick, both of
our organs trapped between our bodies.  His left leg, which was still on
that rock, pressed against my right hip and right butt cheek, enveloping
them with his sweaty flesh.
       I felt his tongue pushing against my lips, and I opened my mouth,
letting his sweet tongue in.  He gave me a long, passionate kiss, squeezing
my whole body between those brawny arms, it made almost feel like I was
going to break.  He started to buck his hips up and down, pushing that hard
dick against my body.  It was so big, it enveloped my own.
       His thrusts drove me wild, and with all this stimulation, it wasn't
long before I would cum.  No, cumming was the last thing I wanted to do . I
didn't want to let on just how much this turned me on.  I had to try and
pull myself back under control.
       Syd's mouth never left mine, but his hand lowered from my back to my
butt.  He seemed to enjoy cupping my cheeks, which made me nervous about
what he was thinking about.  Then he leaned back a bit.  He reached down,
grabbed each of my thighs with his hands, and pulled my feet off the
ground, forcing all of my weight onto his left thigh, with was parallel to
the ground because he had his foot on the rock.  I was straddling his thigh
until he pulled my legs apart and wrapped them around his lower back.  With
his hands supporting my back, he pounded against me his rod drilling
against my own.
       He took his foot off the boulder and sat down on it.  He lowered my
body on his lap, my arms around his neck and my thighs straddling his
obliques.  While my dick was pressed against his treasure trail, his dick
was caught under my body.  I couldn't see it, but I could certainly feel
the enormous thing.  The hot, slimy, veiny rod was pressed into my butt
crack.  Syd smiled at me and looked me in the eyes as he slid his dick up
and down.
       He pulled my body up a few inches off his lap, and pulled his dick
out from under my butt so that it was sticking straight up against his
stomach.  He grabbed my hard dick in his firm grip and pressed it against
his larger dick.  He used both hands to stroke both rods together, which
felt incredible.
       Meanwhile, I placed my left hand on the back of his head, rubbing
his wet blonde hair.  My right hand I used to rub his sweet, muscular
chest, feeling each hair in my fingers.
       As Syd stroked our dicks up, more precum leaked out of Syd's head.
It trailed down and landed right on my own dickhead, right on my sensitive
slit.
       He let his hands go free, and wrapped his arms around my back,
forcing the space between us to disappear.  We ended up with our dicks
pressed against each other between our stomachs.  He pulled me up and down
against him, stimulating both our dicks together as his tongue assaulted my
mouth.
       Impassioned, he held onto me tightly in his hands, and stood up off
the rock.  I thought he would drop me, but he held my body up against his
own, holding onto each of my buttcheeks with his big hands.  He fucked
against me, standing like that, and his monster cock working my dick was
getting me so very close to cumming.
       He then walked over to the blanket on the ground and lay me down on
my back, lowering his body on top of my own.  He put his palms on either
side of my head and put himself into pushup position over my body.  He was
far enough above me that his dick wasn't touching me, but it was hanging
down towards me, threatening.  He lowered his body slowly down to the
bottom push-up position, and as he did so, his hanging dick lowered and
touched my own dick, splattering it with a trail of precum.  I reached up
and felt his arms, locked in this position and totally flexed.  My god,
they were so hot.  I grabbed his sweaty pits, then let my hands touch his
flexed chest muscles.
       He raised his body up to the top push-up position, then lowered it
again, slapping his dick against mine hard this time.  He moved faster and
faster, doing push-up after push-up against me, grunting and sweating.
       Finally, he lowered his body against mine, wrapping his arms around
my neck as he forced his tongue back into my mouth.  Our dicks pressed
against each other between us, and he humped his against mine excitedly.  I
felt his fangs come out and enter my mouth, and I licked them curiously.
       His mouth left my own and went to the right side of my throat.  He
licked me gently there, repeatedly, as he continued to ride me hard.  Then,
I felt a tentative poke of his fangs pushing against my skin, and I shut my
eyes at the slight pain.  This was it, he was ready, I knew.  I wasn't
going to like this next part.  I braced for the pain to hit me.
       And then, the waiting ended, and I felt the strong pain of his fangs
ripping into my throat.  I thought I would pass out.
       But something unexpected happened.  At first there was this hard
pain, yes.  But the pain lasted barely any time at all.  Then, it numbed
away, and I was fine.  I felt his lips surround the wound on my neck and
start to suck me there.  Just the idea that he was leeching away my blood
should have been enough to gross me out and make me pass out.  But instead,
this incredible euphoric pleasure was going on, my whole throat was on fire
with the stuff.  It rocked through my body, such a pleasure I had never
known before, way better than any sexual pleasure.  Only, I realized, this
was sexual pleasure.  It was setting my libido aflame, and my neither
regions burned with hunger.
       Clearly, the bite was having the same effect on Syd, and he moaned,
clearly in the throes of total passion, and fucked against my body was
absolute power.  I could feel his dick getting even harder than ever, could
feel the juices building up inside him.
       My god, I had no idea how much I would end up loving this.
       As he continued to drink from me, his hands moved up and down his
back, and he bucked his dick against me as fast as lightening, moving at
literally superhuman speed.
       Every drop he drank from me excited my rock hard dick, threatening
to send it over the edge.
       With his mouth still locked onto my neck, Syd's arms wrapped around
me so hard I wondered if he would break a rib.  I knew that could only mean
one thing.  He lifted his stomach off of my own, putting a few inches in
between us.  He thrust his meat one more time, and then groaned as he
absolutely exploded
       A huge wad of semen erupted from the his turgid head and flew so
powerfully that it landed right in my forehead.  A second huge wad landed
on my nose, and a third on my lips.  I opened my mouth and eagerly licked
the sweet, sweet load, taking it into my mouth cherishing it all.
       Those first three shots were just the farthest.  Syd wasn't at all
done.  His next couple of shots landed on my chest.  Then, he lowered his
dick back onto mine, and the remaining hot cum soaked my dick.
       With Syd's fangs still sending ecstasy though me, the feeling of his
hot seed on my dick was more than enough to put me over as well.  I started
shooting my own load all over my chest, and I was groaning in pleasure as
it happened.  It had to be the best orgasm I had ever experienced.  It was
magical.
       Then, when we were both drained of all of our semen, I felt Syd
tongue licking my throat wound repeatedly.  After a few moments, he pulled
his lips off my neck.
        "Jakey, I never woulda thought ya would be capable of sex that
amazing.  I gotta give myself credit for that, though.  It takes a flaming
hot stud like me to melt your iciness."  And with that, I was just as
annoyed with Syd as I had been before the sex.
       I put my fingers to the wound on my neck, assessing the damage.
Amazingly, I couldn't feel anything unusual there, not even the slightest
scratch.  I started to get up, but Syd was lying on top of me.
       "Let me up."
       "Come on, Jakey, can't we just cuddle for a few minutes?"
       "Absolutely not.  You needed me to sleep with you in order to feed
you.  Now that you are filled with my blood, we are through for good."
       He rolled off of me, and I stood up.  And then, my vision started to
fade and my knees went limp.  I fell right back down on top of Syd.
       "Oh darlin,' so glad you had a change of heart about the cuddling,"
he said, taking me in his arms on the blanket.
       "Screw you, Syd.  It's because of you that I'm this weak."
       "Don't worry, it'll pass," Syd said.  "Here, let me get you some
food, that always seems to help."
       It was just what the doctor ordered, and after eating and resting
for a good twenty minutes, my head started to clear.  I could get up, I
could mount my horse, and we could be back on our way.
       Soon after, as we went around the bend, we left the short hills and
re-entered a large, arid plain.  Right ahead of us, close to the streambed,
were the clear signs of a small camp.
       "Syd, do you see that camp?" I asked, fearful of possible bandits.
       "Don't worry," Syd said.  "That camp's been our destination since
this morning."
       I raised an eyebrow.  "I thought Fools Gold was our destination?"
       "I decided to take a little detour ever since I discovered my
missing blood.  Otherwise, we would have crossed this stream and kept
moving east from the get go."
       "But we started heading north this morning," I said.  "And you
didn't figure out about the blood until this afternoon."
       "I misled you," he said.  "I found the blood was gone this morning,
but didn't report it until this afternoon."
       "Why the heck not?"
       "Because this morning, had we known I was out of blood, the logical
course of action would have been to hightail it back to the quarantine.  By
this afternoon, that was no longer a possibility."
       "I'm not following.  Why did we change our destination?"
       "Because I knew there would be a source of blood in this direction,
and I knew we would reach it before the end of the day," he said.
       "Wait a minute," I said.  "So, all that panic, all the fuss you made
about facing eminent death, all that guilt you laid on me.  It was all just
made up?"
       "That's right.  Just a brilliant ploy on my part to get my first
real taste of the Jacob Groves vintage.  And I can say it was absolutely
worth the effort."  He laughed, delighted at himself.
       I shook my head in cold fury.  "You drug my family's lives into
this, and you deceived me.  You absolutely used me, toyed with me, all for
what purpose?  Just to get some kicks?  Before, at least your deceit had
some function, as immoral as it was.  Now, your deception serves absolutely
no point."
       "No point?" he asked.  "Are ya kidding me, Jakey?  You should give
yourself more credit.  You're a cute guy, and what we just did was beyond
hot.  You may not be able to admit this to yourself, but you're just as
glad we got to fuck around, if not more so.  I'm smokin' hot, and there's
only so long you can go without my body before it breaks you apart.  It's
only natural."
        "You're crazy, you know that?" I said.  "I should have never, ever
believed you!  I wish I could take it back."
       "Look, face it, Jakey," he said.  "We make great fuck buddies.  Why
not just accept that for what it is?"
       "We can't be fuck buddies, Syd, because we can't even be buddies.  I
have zero respect for you as a person.  I hate being around you.  There's
absolutely nothing there to build any sort of camaraderie from.  You are
the Devil.  Charming, handsome, sure.  But coolly deceptive and evil to the
core.  How can I be attracted to you when I find you to utterly ugly and
repulsive?"
       "Yeah, you keep telling yourself that, Jakey.  But pretending you're
not attracted to me is just as brilliant a con job as anything I ever
pulled off."
       I narrowed my eyes at him.  "What else have you been lying to me
about?" I asked him, accusatory.
       "Well, in the interest of full disclosure," he said.  "We have a
med-kit in my bag that has bandages in it."
       "You bastard!" I said.  "There was never any need for you to lick my
wound clean yesterday!"
       "No, but you have to admit, my way was a lot more fun."  He winked
at me, and I gave him the look of death, but he was completely impervious.
"Oh, and the truth is, vampires don't need to be so aroused to pop their
fangs.  We can do it whenever there is blood around, when we feel
threatened, or even at the slightest hint of arousal."
       "So, everything you just made me do to you, it was all superfluous?
You could have just bit me from the get go?  You are a total perv, you know
that?"
       "Not to say that feeding isn't a sexual activity at all," Syd said,
ignoring my name calling.  "To most of us, it's the absolute height of
sexual pleasure.  To not have it include sex seems somehow unnatural.  The
only time I'd be doing that sort of thing is if I was biting someone as an
attack, like I was with your boyfriend."
       I groaned.  "You know he was not my boyfriend."
       "Well, partners or husbands or whatever you kids are calling it
these days," he said mockingly.
       "You know quite well that we were never even an item, Syd."
       "You're just cross because of my brilliant mind games today.  It's
delightfully entertaining to use people's ignorance against them, ain't it?
You should be thankful that I ended the charade now and came clean, instead
of making a meal out of you multiple times.  Maybe I'm a decent fellow
after all."
       I rolled my eyes.  "You never even considered that.  If you didn't
come clean, how could you boast to me about your brilliant tall tales?"
       "Ya got me there!"
       "I hate you, you know that?  You're going to burn in hell for all of
this."
       "Hey, I never said I wasn't a bad guy," he said, smirking.  "I think
it's cute that yer trying to play these headgames with me, Jakey.  My, my,
how you've grown.  But it'll be a cold day in hell before you manage to
pull the wool over this old dog's eyes."
       "You are such a major dick."
       "Okay, so I'm a big, fat dick.  But we both know you love huge dick,
so that's exactly why you should love me, Jakey."
       Our horses were quickly approaching the camp ahead of us, and I
could see now that it was a little more than a camp.  There was a
semi-permanent structure.  At first I thought it was a lean-to, then I
realized it was freestanding.  The frame seemed to be constructed with
wooden poles, and filled in with dried brush.  It was a dome shaped, about
8 feet tall and 8 feet long.  On the top of the structure, a smoke hole was
open, though no smoke was currently coming out.  The entrance to the
enclosure was covered with a hide.
       "What is that?" I asked.
       "He calls it a wickiup," Syd said.
       "Who is he?"
       "You'll see soon enough."  Syd dismounted his horse and walked on
foot through the area in front of the "wickiup," stepping around a
carefully organized firepit and sitting area.  He pounded on the hide
covering the entrance.  "BH, ya home?"
       Not hearing a response, Syd opened the front entrance and stuck his
head inside.  I could see there was another fire pit in there.  The floor
was made of brush, and there was a bed created out of hides laid over grass
beds.
       "Nope, not here," Syd said, leaving the structure.  "But we need to
find the guy."
       "Well, let's wait for him to return."
       "You know damn well I'm not patient enough for that, Jakey.  That
could take hours.  Let's go find him."
       "Well, you're a vampire.  Can't you track him or something?"
       Syd looked amused.  "Not any better than you can, Jakey," he said.
He appraised the area.  "I see no splashes around the stream that would
indicate he crossed it anytime soon, now that you mention it."
       "No, that's not what I meant.  I meant, can't you, I don't know,
smell him or something?  With your supernatural Devil powers?"
       He laughed.  "Nope.  I ain't no wolf, partner.  I can smell
someone's blood if they're real close, but not nearly as far as I can see
or hear someone.  Well, why don't we split up.  He's likely either along
this stream somewhere or out in the plains to the west.  I have better
eyesight than you, so how `bout I'll head west a few miles, where I'll have
to do a lot of eyeballing?  And that means you'd just have ta go north
along this stream like we've been doing.  If you don't see him, just turn
around and come on back.  I know you can go only so long before you start
going through withdrawal for my fuckin' cock."
       I groaned.  "Syd, I'm trying very hard to figure out which is
larger, your ego or your penchant for disgusting vulgarity.  Clearly each
one is larger than the Milky Way."
       "I couldn't answer that myself, darlin.'  `Bout the thing bigger
than the two in this universe in my huge fuck-stick, and if you let me I'll
flood my huge Milk Way up yer heiny than you'll ever know what to do with."
       "Wow, that sounds like such a wonderful proposition, where do I sign
up?"
       He looked really excited.  "Really?"
       "No, not really!  Now get away from me!"  I pulled my horse off down
the stream.
       "I know you don't mean that, darlin!'" Syd yelled after me.
       On horseback, I traveled on my own for more than an hour.  Even with
Syd out of sight, it was hard to get him out of mind, as his recent
trickery still made me hot with anger.  But eventually, the pristine
scenery won out, soothing me and making me forget my recent troubles for a
time.  And what scenery it was, with fields that alternated between dry,
grassy prairies and dusty ground, with a sparkling creek cutting through
all of it.  I took a clean, crisp breath of air and let it all soak into my
bones.
       That was until I spotted a man in the distance.  My reveries ended
as I focused on the stranger so far ahead that I struggled to make out all
of his details.  He was sitting not far from the stream on a small hilltop.
Clearly he was Native American, and seemed to be dressed in Native American
garb from what might have been hundreds of years back, for all I knew.
Suddenly the odd thatch and wooden structure back at the camp seemed to
make sense.  Clearly it had been a Native American we were searching for,
and I succeeded in finding him.
       He was sitting cross-legged on the hump of the hill, facing towards
me.  I waved at him, but he showed no response.  He seemed to have his eyes
shut, either in some sort of meditation, or actually sleeping sitting up.
I would have to get closer.
       I got off my horse and tied it quickly to a nearby tree, and I
started to walk towards this man on foot.  As I got closer, I could better
make out his appearance.  He had long, straight black hair, very
traditional.  Even though he was sitting, he looked tall and lithe,
muscular.  He wore very little, and everything that he did have on looked
handcrafted.  That included a Native American-style five or six inch thick
brown leather belt whose main purpose was to hold up a square-cut beige
loincloth.  The loincloth was just wide enough to cover his pubic hair, and
it looked like it came to just above the knee.  He had the same cloth on
his rear.  Other than that, the guy was bare, and he was showing a whole
lot of smooth, copper-toned brown skin.  He looked like he was in his
thirties.
       "Hello there!" I yelled as I walked closer, not wanting to sneak up
on him if I could help it.
       He opened a single eye, otherwise his peaceful demeanor remained
intact.  He seemed to focus his eye on me, and then he blinked and open
both eyes.
       "Hi!  My name is Jake Groves!" I yelled as I continued to walk
towards him.
       He regarded me with squinty, suspicious eyes, the only part of him
that registered any sort of emotion.  He was probably wondering who the
heck I was.
       "I'm Jake Groves," I said again.  "A frie—I mean, an acquaintance
of Syd Logan."
       I had got so accustomed to the man being a statue, that when he
moved all of the sudden, it was quite startling.  He moved his muscles
quickly and agilely, picking up a wooden spear from the ground and getting
into a crouched position.  His face, still as stony as ever, was hard to
read.  But his body stance was very clear.  He was crouched on both his
feet, his knees spread wide.  He held his spear in his right arm.  Even
though he was still, he was poised to strike.
       "Whoa, whoa!" I yelled, waving my arms in front of me in a
non-threatening way and stopping my approach.  "Clearly you know Syd and
you dislike him as much as I do.  I'm not at all surprised.  I really have
nothing to do with the guy, and I mean you no harm."
       But the guy showed absolutely no sign of backing down.  The only
movement he made was the flutter his hair was making in the slight wind.
       Then it occurred to me: "Do you not speak English, perhaps?"  I
tried to signal the best I could that I posed no threat, bending low in
subordination, trying to get my point across with body language.
       Still, his aggressive stance didn't falter.  Clearly I remained in
great danger here.
       Just when I considered retreating, I was startled to see something
very large, a dark shadow, move out of the cover of a tree to my left and
walk out right in front of me.  My reaction was to freeze in my tracks.
       I looked at the shape, first just seeing a large, furry, horned
head.  Then I did a double take as I saw the rest of its body and
realization hit me about just what it was I was so close to.
       A bison.  A huge, gigantic bison, dark brown in color, had just
emerged through the tree and was coming right across my path, obviously
going towards the stream.  My jaw hit the floor.  These things weren't
supposed to live around here.  They had almost been driven to extinction by
American settlers, and now just existed in small pockets of protection, not
anywhere around here.  If zoologists knew there were still some of these
all the way down here, they would be thrilled.
       Of course, my awe quickly turned to fear as I realized the danger I
was in.  This creature was just ten feet in front of me at the most.  I
didn't know if it knew I was there, probably not.  If it felt threatened,
surely the thing could easily bore me to death or trample me.  Needless to
say, I remained as still as I possibly could, cursing myself that I had not
noticed this creature until it was literally right in front of my face.
       I remembered why I had been distracted, and looked back at the
Native American.  He remained as ready to strike as ever.  I followed his
focused gaze, and then realized it had never been me he was focusing on.
It had been this bison.  Well, I guess that made sense considering how
dangerous the beasts were, but the Native American was totally out of the
range of danger, unlike the position I was currently in.
       Once again, his statue body moved very suddenly, running low towards
my position.  His body stayed low, keeping his profile small and out of
sight of the beast.  He moved completely in silence, with a quick grace
like an attacking spider, that was clearly supernatural in nature, and I
knew I was dealing with my second known vampire here.
       The Native American covered so much ground so fast; his spear in his
hand, ready to strike the bison before the beast even noticed his foe.  No,
he could not kill this endangered animal; it would be such a tragic loss.
       Impetuously, I threw myself forwards, launching my body into the
bison.  The creature, scared out of its mind by my sudden appearance,
grunted, spun around, and ran off into the plains, just before the vampire
could strike.
       When the vampire reached my area, I thought that he might try and
run after the bison.  Instead, he didn't change his line of attack, only
now there wasn't a huge beast separating the two of us.  Before I could
react, he pounced on me, knocking me off my feet and flat on my back.
       I blinked, and looked up.  Silhouetted by the sun in the bright blue
sky was the figure of this man, looking down at me.  He had one of his bare
feet holding down my left leg, and the other covering my throat and chin,
his large, dirty brown toes pressing against my lips disgustingly.  He had
his spear clutched with both hands, his two powerful arms flexed and ready
to spring, the sharp end of the weapon right between my eyes.  This close
now, I could see his face clearly.  I could see clearly that he was the
paragon of the beautiful male Native American ideal, every line of his face
forming an alarmingly beautiful figure, though, like Syd, his beauty was
strongly masculine.
       The guy was ripped and powerfully beautiful.  He had some short
hairs on his forearms.  With his powerful, veiny arms holding up his spear,
I could see the straight black hairs of his armpits.  Other than that, his
upper body was completely bare.  I wasn't sure if Syd or this man was more
buff, but while Syd's chest was covered in blonde hair, this man's bare
chest showed off every sharp line of his muscles.  Those brown pecs were
capped by two perfect, dark nipples.  His abs were actually an 8-pack of
flawless beef.  His shoulders and traps were huge.
       The belt that held us his loincloth hung low, at mid-hip.  This left
those beautiful diagonal muscle- lines moving towards his crotch clear.  A
faint black line of a treasure trail appeared beneath his belly- button and
as it traveled down, it widened out, merging with the rough hairs of his
black pubes, which were almost as straight as the hair on his head.  The
belt hung low enough so that almost an inch of the base of his dick showed,
amazingly wide and veiny.  I could even see the very top of his brown,
wrinkled scrotum.  The loin cloth hung against the rest of his dick,
showing it off, and underneath that strip of cloth, the thing looked
enormous.
       The one odd feature I noticed was that his eyes were a deep, dark
green color, and I wondered if he had some Caucasian blood in him like I
did.  But there was absolutely no sign of any other white features in him;
his skin was brown and the features of his face looked anything but
European.  That face at that moment was looking down at me with sheer
repugnance.
       He spat out a bunch of words in some Native American language, and I
wondered if he was swearing at me.  His voice was deep and gravelly.
       "I don't speak your language," I said, again certain that this guy
didn't understand me.  "Only English."  I could only half talk with his
gross toes on my lips.
       "You think I don't know this?" he said finally in English with a
Native American accent.  "I'm the only one who speaks my language for over
a century.  The White Men who came here, they killed all of my people long,
long ago."  He stuck his spear closer to my face, threatening.
       "I am not one of those white men!" I protested, holding my hands up
submissively.
       "Oh yes you are!" he said.  "Your skin may be black, your hair may
be African, but you are every bit a White Man.  I can see it in your eyes,
in your clothes, the way you smell."
       "Look, you're right, technically, I'm half white.  You're just the
first person who ever figured that out."
       He shook his head.  "You do not understand at all.  That does not
matter to me.  You do not understand anything, do you?  You came in here,
shouting and waving your arms and smelling like White Man's soap, scaring
off all the game.  The one animal too stupid to notice you, you push, force
it away."
       "It was a poor bison," I said.
       "No, it was my dinner.  It would have lasted me weeks.  Now, it's
gone, but my hunger remains.  Do you know it is dead of winter?  Do you
know the plants here are all brown and fruitless?  Meat is my sustenance
here, until you come in and you scare the meat away.  Maybe, I should make
you my dinner.  Cut you up, eat your meat, huh?"
       "I've been snacked on enough for one day, thank you."
       He looked at me through squinted eyes, studying me.  "Some would beg
for their lives in this situation.  You, you respond to a threat with a
snarky remark.  Get up, Crazy Kid."
       He stepped off me, and I stood up, brushing the dirt off my clothes.
       "I am not crazy," I said.
       "Hmph.  You body slam an animal ten times your size.  You think that
merits sanity?"
       I shook my head.  "I was just trying to save its life.  Look, I'm
sorry to have spoiled your dinner, but I think my actions were called for.
You were going to kill a bison, an endangered animal, something that isn't
even supposed to exist around here anymore."
       "You think I would kill an endangered animal?  You are foolish as
well as crazy.  Look."
       Much to my alarm, the man grabbed me and lifted me up into the air.
"Hey!" I complained, not liking someone just manhandling me like that.
       He paid no attention, and lifted me above his head.  "Look!  Look
and for the first time, open your eyes!"
       I looked in the direction he was pointing me, the direction that
bison had ran towards, away from the stream.  "I can see the bison that I
saved," I said, feeling a bit heroic as I saw the beast's tail end running
away from us.
       "No, look farther," he said.
       I looked past the beast, and in the distance, I realized the plains
beyond were covered in dark spots.  After a moment, I realized the dark
blots were moving, and then I realized that these were all bison in the
distance.  A huge herd, so large it boggled my imagination.
       "See, Crazy Kid?  There are so many bison here now, they hurt the
other grazing animals.  I hunt them to keep the balance.  Otherwise, other
herds will die."  He set me back down on the ground.  "I was the one who
brought them back here after the White Man killed them all.  Nobody looks
out for that herd like I do."
       "Wow, I had no idea.  Really, I'm sorry about what I did."
       "Ignorance exists to teach us humility," he said.  "Hopefully you
can heed that lesson."
       I smiled and extended my hand.  "I'm Jake Groves," I said.
       "I heard your name the first time you shouted it, and the handshake
is a White Man's gesture.  It's the first thing those white outsiders gave
my people before ruthlessly exterminating them."
       I retracted my hand.  "Okay.  So, do you have a name?"
       The man said something in his language that would be impossible for
me to repeat, it was so odd sounding.
       "What was that?"
       "That's my name," he said.  "Of course, only my people called me
that.  It means Big Horn, and that's what everyone calls me nowadays."
       "Alright, nice to meet you, Little Big Horn."
       "No, not Little Big Horn.  Look at me, do you see anything little
about me?"
       I looked at his tall, muscled frame, and I shook my head.
       "Just Big Horn."
       "Got it.  So what's your deal, anyway?"
       "My deal?"
       "How much are they paying you to be here, pretending to be an
authentic Native American from hundreds of years ago?  One time, my mother
drove us through a reservation, and there were Native Americans like you
who were paid to dress in ridiculous, demeaning outfits like that, and lead
all the kids in pony rides while saying ridiculous things like, `how now,
brown cow.'  It was all pretty depressing, but if that's the only option
life has left for them, I guess they have to do it, you know?"
       "You got some issue with my outfit?  What's demeaning about it?"
       "Well, it's basically just a glorified diaper.  I can't imagine how
you stay warm."
       "My ancestors would wear more than this during the winter, to be
sure, but I honestly don't even notice the cold anymore.  And no one pays
me to live the way I do, it's my choice.  I've never, ever in my life, led
a single pony ride.  And I don't know what `how now, brown cow,' even
means.  Once again, you judge before you even open your eyes, Crazy Kid."
       "Well, I'm sorry, I guess you're authentic, whatever that means.
But I can't understand why you would choose to live off buffalo meat in a
tiny little camp when there are all sorts of modern amenities which could
be at your disposal.  It's like I can't for the life of me figure out why
we're on these horses when they should be perfectly capable of building a
simple road, and letting us drive in.  Why everyone wants to delude
themselves into believing this isn't the twenty-first century is beyond
me."
       "I'm sorry, did you come here just to spoil my dinner?  Must you
really condemn my way of life and insult my choice in clothes as well?"
       "That's not what I'm here.  I'm supposed to bring you back to your
camp."
       "Oh, you are?" he crossed his arms.  "I'd love to see you try.
Perhaps you mistook me for some passive Native American noble, who is there
to do the White Man's bidding, nothing but the White Man's sidekick."
       I sighed, exasperated.  It seemed like every time I tried to be
nice, I just found another way to offend him.  "Listen, I don't think that
at all.  I was just told to bring you back with me.  Would you please come
back to your camp, Big Horn?"
       He uncrossed his big arms.  "Yes, that's fine," he said.  "You see?
Already a lesson learned for Crazy Kid.  Asking is more powerful than
commanding."  He started to walk back the way I came, and I followed.  The
back strip of his loin cloth only marginally covered the crack of his
muscular, smooth butt.
       "My horse is right there," I said, pointing ahead.  "Do you have
one?"
       He shook his head.  "That animal comes from the White Man.  That
animal doesn't belong in these parts.  I won't ride one unless it's totally
necessary."
       "Oh, I see."  I really couldn't blame him for not wanting to ride a
horse.  I grabbed the reins of the animal and pulled it behind me as I
followed Big Horn.  "It will take longer by foot than expected, but Syd can
just wait."
       Big Horn stopped suddenly, turned to face me, and grabbed my
shoulder in his big hand.  "Syd Logan is very, very dangerous."
       "Yes, I know."
       "No, I don't think you do," he said sternly.  "You should not
endanger your life by being in his presence."
       "I know!" I said, annoyed.  "He is forcing me to go with him.  It is
not my choice."
       He squinted.  "You'd be better off making a run for it now than
spending more time with him."
       I shook my head.  "He's holding my family's lives over me."
       "Why should he care?  Who are you, anyway?"
       I sighed.  "Someone who has some special gene or something
ridiculous like that.  He wouldn't tell me much."
       "Ah, I see," he said, somewhat sadly perhaps.  He turned away from
me again and kept walking.
       "Anyway, I know Syd was dangerous the moment I learned he was a
vampire.  I knew he must have been the Devil's own creation."
       "Don't do that, Crazy Kid."
       "Don't do what?"
       "Make conclusions before you have the knowledge.  Not all vampires
are dangerous.  Syd happens to be one of the most dangerous, however."
       I laughed.  "So you're telling me vampires can be virtuous?  Aren't
they all evil bloodsucking demonic killers?"
       He shook his head.  "I know nothing of these White Man's words.
Virtuous, evil, demon.  These words come from the White Man's religions,
and they are a fool's concepts.  Is the eagle that catches a mouse evil,
Crazy Kid, even though it needs to eat to live?"
       I bristled, annoyed that he was insulting my religion.  "Mice aren't
people, Big Horn," I said.  "And a vampire that kills, even in order to
feed, in my mind, is evil."
       "Well, many vampires would fall into that category.  But some of us
make other choices.  Myself included."
       I shook my head.  "You're telling me you've never killed to feed,
Big Horn?"
       "Nope, never," he said.  "We don't need to kill to feed, so why do
it?"
       "You've never taken a life then?" I asked.
       "I have not; my ancestors were total pacifists always being hounded
by the other warrior tribes around us."
       I snickered.  "I'm sorry, but I don't believe you.  If there's one
thing I've learned from Syd, it's that vampires are great liars."
       He shrugged.  "Believe what you want, it makes no difference to me."
       "Well, if you're such a great person, why don't you prove it to me?
I am being forced against my will down a path that will likely end in my
death.  So, why don't you help me, Big Horn?"
       "Wasn't I the one who just told you to run free?"
       I shook my head.  "That's not enough.  Help make sure both me and my
family will be safe for the rest of our lives from these vampires."
       "Oh no," he said.  "What you're asking me to do is to intervene in
the White Man's wars.  I made that mistake long ago, Crazy Kid.  It's not
one that I will repeat.  Look at me.  I'm centuries old.  They tell me I'm
the oldest living vampire in our Blood.  You think I got that way by
inserting myself in the White Man's petty battles?  Oh no.  I've lived this
long by being a pacifist outsider.  Jericho, Syd's father, he could
technically order me to do his bidding.  But since I'm Jericho's elder, and
because I stay out of the way, he hasn't yet tried.  I'll keep it that way,
thank you."
       I felt very disappointed and resentful, but I didn't try to convince
him otherwise.  I wasn't one to beg.
       "You should be riding your horse," he said to me.
       "I don't want to leave you behind."
       "Hmph.  I'm just using this pace for your benefit.  As long as you
don't go galloping off, I'm fully capable of keeping up with your horse on
foot."
       Honestly, I was happy to walk for a change, as my legs were so sore
from the riding.  And although I had certainly learned the basics of being
on horseback, I hadn't exactly learned to love the beasts.  But, I didn't
want to be the reason we wouldn't make good time, so I got back on my
horse.
       As soon as I did, Big Horn started moving much faster along that
creek-bed, moving with clearly superhuman speed, keeping up with my horse
effortlessly.  We spent the rest of the ride back to Big Horn's camp in
silence.  It was a nice respite from the chattiness of Syd.  That made it
all the more sickening to see Syd sprawled out on a log, waiting for us at
Big Horn's camp, getting up when he saw us coming.
       "How's life been treatin' you, BH?" he said, coming up to the sour
Native American and slapping him on the shoulder.
       Big Horn seemed to stiffen at his touch, and didn't offer a smile.
"It's been quite some time since anyone has come calling.  I'd say life has
been kind."  I wondered if Syd was able to pick up on that subtle insult.
       "Well, it's about to get a whole lot kinder now that I'm back," Syd
bragged.
       "Hmph.  Just spit it out and tell me what you need, Syd."
       Syd took on a very fake looking wounded expression.  "What makes you
think I've come just because I need somethin?'  Couldn't I be here just to
spend some quality time with my oldest friend, just like the ol' days?"
       "Day, singular.  The day when you spent three hours trying to live
as I do out here, then ran off in a fit of what you referred to as a
terminal boredom?  You don't have to pretend you'd bother to see me if you
didn't have one little thing on your mind."
       "Okay, so ya got me pinned," Syd said.  "We're outta blood, BH."
       "And you need me to take you somewhere.  Ol' Big Horn, the human
carriage who you are always more than willing to ride."
       "Have you fed yet?"
       "No."
       "Well then, you'd be traveling yourself anyway.  Ya always said it
made no difference to you how many passengers tagged along."
       "I was speaking about its impact on my ability, not on my dignity."
He sighed.  "Oh, alright.  Where do you need to go?"
       "Mareshead."
       He shook his head.  "I don't have a portal there."
       "What?  You used to."
       "Once upon a time, I used to be a welcome guest there.  Now, I have
no more use for it."
       "Does my father know this?" Syd asked.
       "Of course not."
       "Wow, BH, keeping secrets from the Governor himself.  Such
underhanded villainy.  It's exactly what I would do, I love it."
       "Hmm.  Well, if YOU approve, perhaps I'd better rethink my decision.
Besides, I earned another new portal a few months ago, so I have a free
one.  I'd better go make a trip back to Mareshead to set it up."
       "Great!  We can all go together.  Jakey won't mind if ya join us,
doncha sweetheart?"  He looked at me, and I scowled at him.  "Ah, maybe
he's a bit sore about me askin' ya along.  See, we've had the most romantic
trip so far, just the two of us lovebirds.  You'd be the third wheel, for
sure."
       "He's lying," I said to Big Horn.  "The truth is, I can't stand him.
We are not romantically involved, I can assure you."
       "Oh really?" Syd asked.  "Shall I tell him, in graphic detail, just
what you were doing to me a couple hours ago?  I'll let ya use your
imagination, Big Horn.  But let me tell ya, there was a whole lot of lovin'
goin' on.  Do you deny this, Jakey?  You, who claims never to tell a lie?"
       "Not exactly, but I was coerced!"
       "Look, I don't care who coerced who," Big Horn said with authority.
"If you want me to accompany you, there will be none of that activity
between you two.  Syd, you know better than to get involved in any sort of
romance with this poor fellow."
       "It is NOT a romance," I said.
       "Whatever it is, it's absolutely not okay," Big Horn said.  "So,
either you two agree to keep your hands off each other, or you can find
some other carriage to ride.  And as far as I know, I'm the only teleporter
in the world."
       "Nope, that won't be necessary, I absolutely agree," I said.
"Please, please don't make me go with him alone."
       Big Horn nodded to me.  "Syd, do I have your word as well?"
       "Fine, though our trip to Mareshead will be dullsville as a result.
Jakey, you're officially responsibly for finding other ways to keep me
entertained."
       "So, is that a promise?" he asked.
       "Yes, I promise," Syd said.  I was tempted to tell Big Horn just how
valid his promises had turned out to be in my experience, but I really
didn't want to risk Big Horn refusing to come with us.  "So where's your
nearest portal to Mareshead?"
       "Fools Gold."
       "Can someone please tell me what in the heck you're referring to
when you say `portals?'" I asked.
       "You didn't tell him that I was a special?" Big Horn asked.
       "What's a special?"
       "It's a vampire who has certain special abilities beyond the normal
ones all the males in their Blood possess," Big Horn answered.
       "Blood?  What do you mean?"
       Big Horn gave Syd a very annoyed look.  "You don't even know what a
Blood is?"
       "No, I do not.  Syd refused to tell me anything."
       "Hey, all of these dry vampire details would just bore him to
tears," Syd said.  "Or maybe it was me who would be bored to tears teaching
him, one of the two.  I learned the only way to make something stick is to
show instead of telling.  Well, Jakey, get ready for an awesome show."
       "Are we ready to set off?" asked Big Horn.
       "Aren't you going to get your things?" I asked.
       "Wouldn't be any point," Big Horn said, though I had no idea what he
meant.  "I have a portal right over here."  He led us twenty feet out of
the camp, and pointed at just empty air.  There was nothing the least bit
ordinary about the spot, just dirt.  He felt the air in front of him with
his fingers without looking, as if he could feel something in the air that
the rest of us could not.  It all looked very crazy.  "Oh, you know, I
forgot that I removed the portal this morning.  I'll just have to make a
new one again.  Stand back."
       He shut his eyes, and started to chant in his language.
       Syd leaned over to me.  "He doesn't need to chant, but it helps him
focus."
       "I like to beckon to the old spirits like my parents taught me," Big
Horn said to me, then continued his chants.
       With Big Horn's eyes firmly shut, he seemed to enter a meditative
state as he chanted.  My eyes wandered down his beautiful body, down to his
black pubes, the thick base of his dick, and the belt below.  He had his
muscular legs in a wide stance, and his loincloth was hanging limply down
in between.  Since I had first seen him, I noticed the thin beige cloth
cling to and outline his soft dick many times.  This time, something was
changing.  As he chanted, I could see the form of his dick harden and start
to rise, poking against the loincloth.  His hard dick then started to rise
up, and as it did, it started to lift the loincloth up with it, much to my
delight.
       Though even when he was hard and sticking out incredibly hard, the
loincloth kept his unit covered.  It did lift it so far up the very bottom
of his huge, brown testicles were revealed, hanging between his legs.  I
really had no idea why Big Horn was getting erect, but it seemed to be a
part of his trance.
       Then, he leapt into the air suddenly, doing a huge hands-free
cartwheel, though one so large in trajectory that a normal human could
never have pulled it off.  It was impressive to see him perform it, but
what was more impressive was what he left behind.
       It was like he had cut a huge circle in the sky with the trajectory
of his spinning body.  The circle perimeter burned with bright red light.
I gasped.  I had never seen anything so incredible.  All of Syd's
superhuman abilities seemed so comparatively human.  All of the sudden, Big
Horn had taken it to a surreal level.
       I watched the glowing circle carefully.  One moment, the interior of
the circle held nothing more unusual than the same view of the plains
around us.  Then, all those colors faded into blackness, until the whole
circle hung inky black in front of us.  What had once just been a perimeter
of light now was a filled in 2D plane of darkness.
       "Okay," Big Horn said.  "Portal open.  Now to pick our destination."
       His face focused, he concentrated for a moment.  "Ah, there."
Suddenly, the blackness of the inner circle turned to another scene
entirely, filled with drab wooden structures and people.  In a matter of
seconds, everything I had ever known about physics was wiped off the
pavement.
       "Perfect," Syd said.  He smiled and made a gesture.  "After you,
sweetheart," he told me.
       "You want me to walk through THAT?" I asked.
       "It's perfectly safe, I assure you," Big Horn said.  He stepped
through the portal as easily as if he had just stepped over a crack in the
sidewalk, and then turned around to face me, looking at me through the
other side.  "See?  Though I would walk your horse through, don't try to
ride it."
       I begrudgingly got off my horse.  "This is crazy," I said.  "Jake,
what did you do today?  Oh, just walked a horse through a teleportation
portal with two vampires.  You know, the usual.  Why did my sane little
life have to fall into the deep end of crazy?"
       "Fine, I'll go first.  Ya try to be a gentleman, and look where it
gets you."  Syd took the reins of both his horse and the pack horse in his
hands, and then led them through the portal until they were standing beside
Big Horn on the other side.
       I shook my head.  "I can't believe I'm willingly walking through a
hole in the world," I said.  I took the reins in my hand, and walked right
up to the portal.  I could feel a slight breeze coming through the hole
that was slightly warmer then the air around here, and with very different
aromas.
       I took a step over that glowing red line of the portal's perimeter
on the ground, and was quite pleased that my foot did not burn off or cease
to exist.  Instead, I was able to set it down on the dirt floor of the new
destination.  Encouraged, I moved the rest of the leg through as well, then
my other foot, until I was all the way through.
       Well, except for my right arm, which was being pulled back through
the portal.  I heard a neigh, and I turned around.  Looking back through
the portal, I saw my horse, standing there, refusing to move through.  I
couldn't blame him, really.
       "Use a little force, Jakey," said Syd.  "Show him who is boss."
       "I'm trying to," I said, pulling at the horse, but only upsetting it
further.
       "Come on Syd, I taught you better than that," Big Horn said.  He
walked back through the portal, touched the scared horse with both of his
huge hands gently.  "Shh," he said, and then he said something in his
language, whispering it.  Something he said must have soothed it, because
he soon was coming through the portal on his own will.  Once the horse was
through, Big Horn stepped through himself.
       The portal closed behind us, the last view of Big Horn's camp faded,
leaving us in our new surroundings, which seemed to be some sort of
settlement.
       I looked around, noticing we were on a large dirt road filled with
tons of horseshoe prints.  On both sides of the street stood wooden
structures, all of them looking like they were built in the 19th century.
The whole area seemed abandoned, silent.
       "Pretty well preserved ghost town," I said.  There were a lot of
them around the southwest, but many were so decayed it was quite difficult
to envision what the towns must have been like.
       I noticed up ahead of us, in the street, there was a man facing us,
dressed in a cliché Old West outlaw sort of costume.  He had a
fake-looking revolver in his hand, and he started to shoot.  Fake sounding
loud pops came out of the gun, as well as way too much smoke.
       "Oh, is this some sort of historical reenactment we happened upon?"
I asked.
       "That ain't no reenactment," Syd said.
       "I think we've stumbled into a gun duel," Big Horn said, pointing
behind us, where there stood another cowboy firing his gun in our
direction.
       "You can't be serious," I said.
       "Dead serious," Big Horn said.  "Move, now!"
       I felt a bullet whiz by my ear, and the insane reality of the
situation hit me.  Syd and Big Horn were already pulling the horses towards
a small, side street, and I followed suit, moving as fast as I could away
from the gunfire.
       "Welcome to Fools Gold, fellas," Syd said.  "It's been too long."
       "We could have been shot back there!" I said, outraged.  "Why on
earth would those men keep shooting like that?  They should be arrested!"
       "Nothin' illegal here about having a gun duel," Syd said.  "And it's
hard to stop shootin' when your life is on the line."
       "Guns are just another useless tool the White Men invented without
any thought as to what the consequences would be," Big Horn said.  "This
whole town is chock full of fools."
       Syd started to lead us down the street, away from the shooting.
       "Are we just going to let those men kill each other?" I asked,
dumbfounded.
       "Yup, sounds like a good plan to me," Syd said.
       That little street dumped us out onto another major avenue, much
like the last one, only instead of being deserted, this one was filled with
people on horseback.  Various folks walked on the wooden walkways in front
of the rickety buildings, everyone dressed like they were a part of a Wild
West show.
       Looking around, I could see that Fools Gold was the epitome of an
old west town.  Before, I had assumed the town had been well-preserved but
turned into a kitschy tourist trap filled with actors, but now I could
clearly see that this town was completely authentic and filled with life,
populated with people and horses.  It smelled strongly of horse manure,
dirt, and wood.  None of the buildings were taller than a couple stories,
and all of them simply constructed with mostly wood and sometimes simple
metals.
       "That portal didn't take us back in time, did it?" I asked.
       "Jakey, I'm disappointed in you," Syd said.  "You should know that
time travel is impossible.  Just the stuff of science fiction."
       I chuckled.  "Oh yeah, because vampires and teleportation portals
are totally found in the non- fiction portion of the library."
       "The whole Logan Blood is stuck in the mid-1800's," Big Horn said.
       "That period of time was so good to us, we just decided to stay
there, I guess," Syd said.
       "Good for you White Men.  Bad for everyone else," Big Horn
interjected angrily.
       "True," Syd said.
       "The Logan Blood created the Territory in the 1800s," Big Horn told
me.  "Everyone inside is supposed to live as it was back then, with some
minor exceptions.  This is the biggest town inside the Territory."
       "Who lives here?"
       "Both humans and vampires," Syd said.  "But the humans are all Free
Men like the ones you met back in the quarantine.  They all have the Free
Men's mark."
       "The tattoo on their neck?"
       "That's right."
       "So, do I need to look at people's necks to know if they are human
or vampire?" I asked.  "That's not exactly convenient.  Do you two have
some way of, you know, sensing whose who?"
       "Not in the way you mean, Crazy Kid.  When we see a person, we have
no vampire trick that tells us if they are human or not."
       "We just have to surmise by the way they look," Syd said.  "If they
are smokin' hot, chances are they are vampire."  Syd squinted up at the sun
in the sky.  "I reckon we have an hour or so left of daylight today."
       "I thirst," Big Horn said.  "And, I'm hungry as well.  Crazy Kid
ruined my supper plans."
       "I already apologized for that, jeez."
       "So, I can't see us leaving for Mareshead until after dark," Syd
said.  "Seems to me Fools Gold makes a good place to stop for the night."
       "'Cept it's quite dangerous for Crazy Kid," Big Horn added.
       "Sure, Fools Gold isn't exactly the most lawful town," Syd said.
"But you don't need to be a grade A vampire male like the two of us to
survive here.  Look around you.  There's humans here, people who have lived
here for years.  Sure, these people are tough customers.  But Jakey's no
pushover, are ya?"
       "No, I'm not."  Though the last thing I ever did was go looking for
altercations.
       "Just try not to stoke up any embers here, Crazy Kid.  There aren't
even a bootfull of attractive humans here.  Most of `em are worn and
toothless.  So you might draw attention to yourself."
       "Though the chances of anything happening are slim, especially with
us two studs here with you," Syd said.  "Ya know, my aunt Della will for
sure put us up for the night.  Couldn't be a safer place than that."
       "Agreed."
       "She'll be at the clinic `bout now.  Follow me."
       Syd led us through the dirty streets of town, away from the
commercial center where various shops hocked their simple wares, to a more
residential area.  As we moved along, I noticed our little party was
getting a number of looks.  Syd and Big Horn were getting their fair share
of odd glances, but I was getting the vast majority of the questionable,
suspicious viewings.  And first I thought perhaps that these people might
not be used to blacks, but I noticed that there was some amount of ethnic
diversity here.  Besides the different skin colors, everyone looked the
same, the men all wearing dirty cowboy garb, and the women either wearing
the same or dressing in long, dirty dresses, straight out of the 19th
century.
       "They're all looking at me sideways."
       Syd laughed.  "It's all in the way you dress."
       "Believe me, I come here every day for blood, but these cowboys
still look at me strange," Big Horn said.  "My clothes make them
uncomfortable."
       "But at least you're dressed period appropriate," Syd said.  "Even
though I still dress like a cowboy, all of my duds are modern.  People in
the Territory have never seen those things before.  And look at you, Jakey.
Not even the slightest nod to their way of life.  Most of the humans here
will be shocked when they see you.  Some will consider your taste in
clothing to be a personal attack on their M.O.."
       "Wow," I said.  "To think I wear the clothes I do because I like to
blend in.  They're generically inoffensive on purpose.  I don't want to
give people the opportunity to judge me by my clothing choices."
       "And now, you'll be sticking out like a sore dick," Syd said.
"Irony's a bitch, ain't it, Jakey?  But at least you two don't live here.
I spent many years livin' right here, and some folk never got used to my
clothes."
       I rolled my eyes.  "Don't play the victim," I said to Syd.  "If you
really cared that much, it would be easy enough for you to dress in
old-fashioned clothes.  No, you always loved the limelight.  You'd strut
around any city in your cowboy getup because you knew it got you plenty of
looks.  And in here, where everyone is cowboy, you've found another way to
stand out, by having modern clothes that look so much nicer than the
leather rags that most of these folks are wearing.  I bet the girls here
eat your fancy new cowboy clothes right up."
       "When you're right, you're right, Jakey," Syd said.  "I just can't
conceal my studliness."
       "So, Syd, remind me again, is Crazy Kid related to the man you had
befriended a couple of years back?  The one who died?"
       "Jake's father, yes," Syd said.
       "That was more than a couple of years ago, Big Horn," I said.
       "Sorry, time just seems to creep by when you get to be my age.
Jake's father was the one whose death drove you absolutely wild for a
couple years, wasn't it, Syd?"
       "That's right," Syd said.
       "Do you know how your father died, Crazy Kid?" asked Big Horn.
       "Yes.  The police told us--"
       "We believe that was just a set up, used by vampires to cover up the
truer, dark nature of his death.  Truth was, your father was killed by one
of us.  A vampire or one of our people."
       "What?" I asked, in disbelief.  "How do you know?"
       "Because we were the only ones who knew he might have that gene,"
Syd told me.  "Truth is, any of us who were around back then would have
known what your father was and had a reason to go after him.  All of us are
suspects."
       "Well then, I blame you," I said to Syd.  "You were the one
infiltrating my family, and we all know how much of a liar you are."
       "It's fair to blame me, Jakey.  I wasn't the one who did your father
in, but I was supposed to be protecting him, and I failed at that."
       "He was torn up for years about that death," Big Horn said.
       "Because I was this close to having a breakthrough with him, this
close to figuring out he had a concealed bi-sexual side.  But the asshole
who killed him ruined months and months of hard work I had put into all of
it.  After it happened, I tried for years to figure out who killed him, but
I never did."
       "Wow," I said, letting the truth really sink in.  "My father's death
caused my family so many problems.  We're still in financial straits
because of it.  If one of your people did this, they should be punished."
       "It's natural you feel that way," Big Horn said.
       It was another reason I hated these vampires.  If they hadn't
intervened in my childhood, how would my life have changed?
       "Maybe a fresh pair of eyes will help Jake solve this mystery," Big
Horn said.  "Mareshead is the perfect place to start.  Most of the
important people there knew about your father."
       "I guess I should do some investigating," I said.  "That is, if they
don't kill me first."
       "Very true," Syd said.  "Oh, here we are."
       He had led us to a rather modest looking but large wooden building
labeled "Fools Gold Town Clinic, free service for all."  I guessed they had
socialized health care in this town, and I wondered if that meant their
health and dentistry providers gave unsatisfactory service. We tied our
horses up outside, then made our way through the front entrance.  We went
into a simple waiting room filled with wooden chairs.  A few sickly looking
people were sitting there waiting.  There wasn't any sort of receptionist,
but Syd seemed to know where he was going.  He opened the door to exam
room.
       "Wait yer turn!" some waiting guy in the room snapped.
       "We're not patients," he said.
       But as soon as Syd opened the door, a massive pig came walking
through, squealing angrily.  Its belly got stuck in the door, and someone
had to push it from behind to get it through.  I could see its hind left
leg was newly bandaged.
       A skinny old black lady appeared in the door, holding the leash of
the pig.  She turned back to face the exam room.  "Thanks again, Doc
Della."
       "Alright Teshey, you just make sure to call the vet next time," came
a woman's voice from inside.  "Or at least send someone for me off hours
and I'll visit the farm."
       "I will, I will.  Thanks!  Come on, Delilah!"  She pulled the pig
out of the front door and disappeared.
       Syd, Big Horn, and I came into the exam room.  There was a leather
exam table covered with paper, and all sorts of medical devices around.
All of the equipment looked like it came out of the 19th century.  I
cringed, thankful that I was not one of the poor souls who lived here and
had to abide by outdated medical practices.  These people probably didn't
even have penicillin.  I wondered if one of the prescribed remedies was
leaches.
       The doctor was facing away from us, washing her hands in a basin.
She was tall and lean.  Her brown, straight hair was cut short.  She was
dressed very un-doctor-like in denim pants, boots, and a leather top.  She
looked more ready to wrangle some farm animals than she was to treat sick
patients.
       "What seems to be the problem," she asked in her Texas accent, her
back still to us.
       "My chest's been hurtin somethin' fierce," Syd said, halfway
disguising his voice.
       "Oh?  Chest pains, huh?  You have a history of heart problems?"
       "Nope.  But my heart's been broken real bad `cause it's been so long
since I visited my favorite relative, Aunt Della."
       Della spun around to look, and I gasped.  I wasn't prepared for how
beautiful she would be.  Although she wore no makeup and her face was
dirty, she clearly had a natural beauty.  She looked around thirty, which
certainly didn't jibe with the whole aunt thing.  She looked a bit like
Syd, though her hair was darker than his, and her skin was covered with a
lot more freckles.  She had his green eyes, and as soon as they found Syd,
her face absolutely lit up with love.  Not attraction, like the other
women's faces.  Real, deep love, and somewhere a bit of sadness too.
       She tamed her gushy expression quickly and adopted a wry, composed
but welcoming look.  "I'm afraid there's no help for a heart as cold as
yours, Syd."  She walked over to him and slapped him upside the head.
       "What was that for?"
       "For tricking me.  And for never visiting.  And for ten billion
other things you've done to deserve a right good slappin.'  Now, come here
and give your ol' auntie a hug."  She leaned forward and hugged him, a
deep, loving embrace.  "Don't forget it was me who raised you.  Do you know
how often your brother visits me?"
       "Knowing him, probably several times a day," Syd said.
       "Every two weeks.  And how many times have you come to visit in the
past twenty years?"
       Syd shrugged.  "You mean you've actually been counting?"
       "Seventeen.  This makes eighteen.  Eighteen times!  What have you
been doin' out there in the real world, my boy?"
       "I've been sowing my oats.  I'm still going through my rebellious
stage."
       "You've been sowing your oats for the past hundred and thirty years.
You've got oats up to your elbows now, boy.  Don't pretend that this
unreliable playboy is just a phase.  It's damn well who you are."  She
looked over at Big Horn.  "And Big Horn, welcome to my clinic."  She put a
friendly arm on him.
       "Thanks Doc," he said.
       "Please, just Della.  We go back too far for anything formal."  She
turned to me, and I saw her eyes flick to my strange clothes before locking
politely with my eyes.  "And who is our new friend here?"
       I held out my hand.  "Jake Groves," I said.
       She shook my hand with a strong grip.  "Della Logan.  Pleased to
meet ya.  A friend of Syd's, I presume."
       "Well, not exactly," I said, not wanting to lie.
       "Oh, come on Jakey," Syd said.  "Give me a break."
       "So, a friend of Big Horn's then?" she asked.  "That's a much better
claim, if you ask me.  Syd's friends sometimes run into the more unsavory
types.  Big Horn really only associates with people of substance, right Big
Horn?  Well, all except for Syd, that is.  He's a bit short on substance."
       "And I'm damn proud of that fact," Syd said.
       "Of course, Big Horn's relationship with Syd has always been less
friendly, and more... hmm, how should I put it?  More philanthropic."  Big
Horn nodded to her in ample agreement.
       "Aunt Della always loves to sing my praises."
       "Big Horn and I are the only ones brave enough to try to whip him
into shape, I'm afraid."  She looked again at me.  "So, are you new to the
Territory?  I haven't seen you around, and I've delivered every baby in
this Territory in the past thirty years."
       "No, I've been in the Territory for just a couple of days."
       "Ah.  I hate to be presumptuous, but I'm guessing by your look that
you're not a vampire.  I don't mean to imply that you're not good looking
enough to be one, because you are.  It's only that I can tell by your eyes
that you're no Logan Blood vampire, and I wouldn't guess Syd and Big Horn
would be bringing in any other sort."
       "No, I'm just a human.  Well, almost.  Syd tells me I'm special.
Some unique gene.  But I feel totally human."
       She blinked, surprised.  "He's the One?" she asked Syd.  "Is that
what he means?"
       "That's right, Della," Syd said.  "Your brother ordered me to escort
him to Mareshead.  Big Horn is just along for the ride, really.  We were
hoping we could bunk with you all tonight, and then leave in the morning."
       "Well, of course ya can, you know you don't have to ask.  I want you
to consider this your home."
       "I know, Della.  I do."
       "Doc, these folks cut me in line," said a man, coming in from the
waiting room.  Then he seemed to recognize Syd.  "Oh, sorry Syd, I didn't
realize it was you.  Now, you know I ain't got a lick a patience unless I'm
nursing a whisky."
       "It's okay, Tucker," Syd said.
       "Yes, Tucker, come in, come in," Della said, waving him into the
room.  "I have your test results back."
       Tucker came in, an Asian man who looked like he could have been
quite handsome at one point.  His face was creased and pale, he looked
grotesquely sick.
       "Have a seat."
       "I'll stand," Tucker said.
       "Now you know what I told you last time.  You know what I've told
you for years."
       "That my body couldn't handle the drinkin,' and if I didn't stop, I
was as good as dead."
       "Damn right," Della said.  "And now, that's exactly what's
happening.  You're organs are crawling with aggressive malignant tumors.
Cancer.  It's a miracle you aren't six feet under by now, let me tell ya."
       He winced.  She didn't exactly have a great bedside manner.  "And
there's nothing that can be done?  No treatment, no medicine?"
       "Nope, nothing.  Enjoy what little time you have left.  Put away
your affairs.  Because you are a walking dead man."
       I shook my head.  "Where I come from, the doctors might have a way
to treat him."
       Della looked at me askance.  "Don't patronize me, Jake.  And don't
make assumptions.  This exam room may look antiquated and quaint to you,
but that's just an illusion.  Through that door is every modern medical
equipment any major hospital would have.  Me and my staff are highly
skilled at all of them.  And I keep current with the most advanced medical
journals.  Plus, we get modern medical supplies and medicine before they
hit your pharmacies.  I took the Hippocratic Oath, son, and I damn well
take it seriously.  I bet the medical care my people are getting is better
than anything you ever had access to in your world."
       Her little tirade totally floored me.  "Look, I'm sorry.  Clearly
you have a great set-up here.  I shouldn't have spoken without knowing the
facts."
       "What did I tell you about speaking too soon, Crazy Kid?" Big Horn
chided me.
       Her frown turned back into a pleasant smile.  "It's already
forgotten," she said, and I knew, with her, she meant it.  She always said
exactly what was on her mind, clearly.  At least that meant she had nothing
to hide, unlike her nephew.
       I could hear shouts and the front door bang open.  There were
poundings on the door.  "Doc, we got an emergency here!  Gunshot wound, can
we bring `em in?"
       "Yes, bring him in!" Della yelled back.
       The waiting room door burst open, and three men carried in a fourth,
who was screaming in agony.
       "Shot in the left thigh in a revolver fight," one of the men said,
and I realized this must have been one of the participants in the gun duel
we had just wandered through, clearly the losing party.
       "Okay, put him on the table.  Tucker, I think we were done."
       Tucker nodded and left the room, and the men carried the wounded man
and placed him on the table.  The men blocked my view of the guy's leg, so
I couldn't see how bad it was, but both Syd and Big Horn clearly could see
the action; both of them were entranced by the sight.
       I watched as Syd's huge fangs came out.  His face filled up with
lust, and he seemed unable to stop himself from leaning forward and taking
a good whiff.
       "Male vampires out, before you embarrass yourselves," Della ordered.
       Syd pulled himself out of his trance and walked into the waiting
room.
       "Big Horn, you too."
       "Oh, I'm fine," he said.  "I'm far too old not to have total control
over these teeth."
       It was true, his fangs stayed retracted, though his eyes stayed
glued to the table.  But I looked down at his loincloth.  He was looked
erect under that loincloth, which was quite a site to see.
       The guy blocking my view of the table moved, and suddenly the man's
leg was in full view.  A huge red hole in the middle of his thigh gushed
dark red blood.
       I felt myself fainting, and I tried to stop myself from falling to
the floor, but failed.
       "Get him out of here.  I don't want another patient to treat."
       "I've got him," Big Horn said.  He lifted me up in his arms as if I
weighed nothing and carried me towards the exit.
       "Big Horn," Della said.  "Tell Syd to go find my wife.  Tell her
you're coming over and I'll be home after I'm done here."
       "Alright, Della," Big Horn said.
       By the time he carried me out of the clinic, I was feeling much
better, and Big Horn set me on my feet.
       "Sorry, I forgot about fainty there," Syd was saying, his fangs back
to normal.
       "We're supposed to tell Della's wife that she will meet us at home,"
Big Horn said to Syd.
       "She'll be at the town schoolhouse then," Syd said.  "Come on."
       As we gathered up our horses, I asked, "So, what exactly is Della?
She's as beautiful as a vampire, but she doesn't seem affected by blood."
       "Della, she's a female vampire," Syd said.  "Female humans can't be
turned in the way Big Horn was when he was a man.  They must be born from a
vampire male, like I was."
       "Just like us males, the females don't age," Big Horn said.
"Otherwise, they are much more like a normal humans.  They don't have
fanged teeth or any special strengths.  They cannot turn people into
vampires, and they cannot bear vampire children."
       "Unless they mate with a vampire male."
       "Yes," Big Horn agreed.
       Syd and I got back on our horses and Syd led us towards the
schoolhouse.  When we got there, it turned out to be one of those
old-fashioned one-room schoolhouses, with gabled vestibules and a small
bell-tower.  Only, instead of being painted red, this one was left
unpainted, just being bare wood like the rest of this rustic town.  We got
off our horses and Syd grabbed their reins.  "You two go on in while I find
a place to tie these up."
       I followed Big Horn towards the schoolhouse door, which was propped
open.  Big Horn took one look inside and backed himself out of the room.
"Class is still going on," he said, and he sat down next to the building
cross-legged, shutting his eyes, entering some sort of meditation.
       I bowed in through the door, entering the back of the classroom, and
I could see that most of the desks here were occupied by students.  Though
the classroom setting certainly was recently familiar to me, seeing all the
students dressed in western wear, sitting in a classroom that held no
modern tools, was very odd.
       The main classroom right in front of me currently held all the
teenagers.  To the left, other smaller alcoves held desks for two other age
groups of children.  Both those groups seemed to be occupying themselves
with their work.  The teacher was at the front of the main area that held
the teens.  She had her back to the class, writing out a calculus equation
on the blackboard while she talked.  She was dressed in a rather plain
looking faded purple period dress that covered her shoes.  She was average
height and lean, with straight black hair that ran down to her hips.  That
must have been Della's wife.  In her right hand was the piece of chalk she
was using to write with.  The other hand held onto a large leather
yardstick.
       I took the opportunity to sit in one of the empty chairs in the back
without her knowing I had come in.  As she continued to speak about the
equation, her voice pleasantly soothing, I noticed a teen sitting a couple
rows in front of me was awfully giggly.
       "Look at this," he whispered to some of the guys around him, who all
laughed as he showed them something he had been drawing on a piece of
paper.
       The teacher spun around.  "Jack, do you have something you'd like to
share with the class?" she asked.
       As soon as she started to spin, Jack slipped the paper under his
desk.  He did it so quickly, it made me certain he was a vampire teenager.
"No," he said.
       "No, Ma'am," the teacher corrected.  Now that I could see her face,
I knew she was quite beautiful.  Again, she didn't wear make-up, but her
features were so delicate and feminine that she didn't need any.  She had
porcelain skin, she was Asian in ethnicity, though oddly, her eyes were
green.  I was starting to get real suspicious about beautiful people with
green eyes.
       "No, Ma'am," Jack said, not exactly contritely.
       The teacher turned back around and continued to write on the board.
       In a few moments, the vampire teen rudely gave the finger to the
teacher's back, and then pulled his drawing back out from under his desk.
He started to show it again to his friends, who were laughing.  I leaned up
so I could see for myself what the commotion was about.  I realized that
the teen had drawn a crude figure that was clearly meant to be the teacher.
In the picture, she was naked and smiling.  There was a wound at her
throat, and blood was dripping all over her exposed breasts.
       As the teens friends looked on, Jack leaned down and started to
lewdly lick the drawing, right on the bloody breast.  All of his male
friends around him laughed.  I hated teenagers like those.  My high school
certainly possessed its fair share of those vulgar bullies, always the ones
who weren't good Christians.
       The next part happened so fast, I barely could register it.  The
teacher spun around like lightening, dropping the chalk in her right hand.
As she turned, she pulled a large knife out of leather yardstick.  She
threw her arm back and flung the knife forward, sending it flying towards
the vamp teen.  I thought she intended to hit his face.
       Because he was looking down at his drawing, not at the teacher, he
didn't even see any of it coming.  The knife hurled through the air,
rotating dangerously.  Then it finally hit the teen's wooden desktop,
lodging itself in and sticking up outwards, stuck.
       The knife had pierced Jack's drawing and held it to the desk.  But,
sadly for Jack, his tongue had been right on the drawing.  The knife
skewered his tongue and pinned it to the desk, leaving it as evidence right
on the drawing's breast.  He completely lost it, trying to pull his tongue
free unsuccessfully, and crying out.
       "Well, Jack," the teacher said as she approached him.  "I was
planning to just teach you some calculus, but you've presented us with a
much more valuable lesson today.  I want all the boys in this room to
never, ever forget that's it's never, ever okay to disrespect a woman.
More specifically, I want all the vampire boys in here to remember that
it's never smart to mess with a vampire woman.  You may think us pushovers
because we're not super powered like you, but we don't age, and let me
assure you, we pick up a lot of tricks over the years.  And there's no
putting anything over on us, we've been around your kind long enough that
we know your indecent thoughts as soon as you think them."  She looked down
at Jack, shook her head, and then pulled the knife off the desk sharply,
causing him more pain.  He pulled his bloody tongue back in his mouth, and
she took the drawing and crumpled it up.  "Class dismissed.  And I'd better
be impressed with the homework you bring me tomorrow morning!"
       All the other students, totally frozen and afraid until that point,
breathed a sigh of relief as they gathered up their things and headed for
the door.  I stood there with my mouth agape.  I was absolutely shocked
that any teacher would ever get away with that kind of behavior.
       "Mommy, Mommy!" one of the young kids yelled, running towards the
teacher.  She was an attractive child of about six in a dress who had been
sitting off to the side with the youngest groups of kids.
       "Oh, Jess, I'm sorry you and the other kids had to see that," the
teacher said.
       "I like it when you turn mean, Mommy.  It's fun."  She hugged the
woman.  I noticed she looked like her mother; she had her mother's eyes and
facial structure.  But she had the skin tone and hair of Della, and she
looked to be of mixed ethnicity.  I wondered whose daughter she was,
biologically.  Perhaps vampires were capable of mating two females together
somehow?  I didn't know.
       I stood up.  "Hi there, Ma'am," I said.
       She looked at me for the first time.  "Hey, you're not one of my new
students, are you?"
       "No, thank goodness," I said.  "I'd like to keep my tongue."
       She laughed.  "I don't treat my human male students that way, I
promise you.  The vampire male teenagers, they just are the worst.  All
sorts of hormones flying around that they can't control, and it usually
falls on me to make sure they keep in line.  Don't worry, his tongue will
heal in less than an hour.  But the lesson he learned hopefully will change
his behavior for life.  Anyway, you're welcome here, though your clothes
don't exactly pass dresscode."
       "No, I'm too old for high school," I said.  "Della sent me here."
       "Oh," she said, and then she looked towards the door to see Syd and
Big Horn coming through the door.
       "Syd!" she said happily.
       "Jennie!  So good to see you!"
       The little girl Jess's face lit up as she saw Syd.  "Cousin!" she
yelled, and went running towards him.
       "Hi ya Jessie!" he said, taking her in his arms and spinning her
around.
       "And hello Big Horn," Jennie said.  "Jess, you know Big Horn.  Don't
forget to greet him."
       "Hi Big Horn," she said through a fit of giggles as Syd tickled her
as he held her up.
       "Hello," the big Native American said without cracking a smile,
totally unaffected by the child's oozing cuteness.
       "We're staying for the night, and coming for dinner," Syd told
Jennie.
       "Yeah!" Jess said.
       "That's great, we'll cook up some fresh steaks then," Jennie said.
"Jess, why don't you climb off your poor cousin and come with me to help me
at the butcher's and the general store?"
       "Aww, do I have to?" Jess said.
       "Yes!"

       *****

       "Why do I have to peel the potatoes?  You always ask me to do the
most boring tasks," Syd complained.
       "Serves you right after years of neglecting to do your chores as a
child," Della answered.  "I swear, no amount of spanking ever helped that
boy."
       We were all in Della and Jennie's large, old fashioned kitchen.
Their home, situated on the edge of town, was a two story with several
bedrooms, but the all-wood construction left nothing the least bit
ostentatious about it.  It could easily pass for an Amish household, and
blended right in with the other houses around us.  Even though the
construction was simple, it was decorated with a good bit of frilly but
period appropriate type of stuff, giving the place a homey, effeminate
feel.  Della showed Syd and I to our rooms, which thankfully, were
separate.  And then she corralled everyone in the kitchen.  She had a way
of making people participate in the work that made each person feel like a
member of the family.  And the way she took command, there really was no
way to question her authority, but she did it with a smile, making you feel
grateful just to help.  She even insisted Big Horn cook the steaks, and he
was her senior, I was told.
       "Ugh, this is mind-numbing," Syd complained again.  "Why do I even
have to do this?  I just bake my potatoes."
       "We like them boiled and mashed," Della said.  "So keep peeling."
       "I noticed that you gave Big Horn the manly job of grilling the
steaks," Syd said.  "Should I take this as a dig at my masculinity?"
       "Oh please, Syd, I'm not having you arranging the doilies, am I?"
       "I need to wash my corn," I said after I husked an ear.
       "There's a faucet right here," Jennie said.
       "Oh, I figured there wouldn't be any running water."
       "Well, we've made some concessions to modernity," Jennie said.
"Running water included.  And look above us."  She pointed to a lantern on
the wall.  "It looks like candlelight, but it's actually electricity."
       "Great, thanks," I said as I washed off my corn.
       A weird mood came over me as I kept on working.  I realized this
house was making me feel at home.  It was cleaned and organized very well,
except for Jess's crazy room.  Even though it lacked a lot of the modern
amenities, I could understand why a life here would be appealing.  Of
course, I knew I'd have to install a TV in order to get my ESPN, and a
computer in order to play my fantasy sports.  Other than that, I would be
fine here, as long as I didn't have to ride horses too often.
       I realized, however, that part of my sudden comfort here was about
the people I was with.  Della was a bit bossy, and she was capable of
chewing someone out if they said something wrong, but she was a classy
lady.  Jennie was a brilliant firecracker.  Their daughter was a sweet
little girl.  I hadn't known it was possible for me to like vampires, but
here I was, falling for three of them.  Of course, these were female
vampires, and those were practically human, I supposed.  The female
couldn't have been Satan's creations, I reasoned.  Just the males.
       Although I absolutely hated Syd, Big Horn seemed like a decent guy
when I looked past some of his harshness.  Was it possible for a male
vampire to have a heart, or a soul?  I reminded myself that Syd had fooled
me in that department.  Maybe Big Horn was doing the same thing.
       "If you all are riding to Mareshead tomorrow," Jennie said, "you
should just take the stagecoach.  It'll be the most comfortable way to go."
       "Yeah, I forgot about that," Della said.  "'Course, it's been many,
many years since I've been to Mareshead.  I miss it sometimes."
       "It's another town?" I asked.
       "A ranch," Big Horn said.
       "It's very, very beautiful," Jennie answered.  "The prettiest place
in the Territory, hands down."
       "It reminds me of my father," Della said.  "He built the ranch
house, and every inch of it is like a piece of his soul.  I always
considered it my home until he died.  He was a great man."
       "A vampire?" I asked suspiciously.
       "Yes," she said.  "He was Governor for a long, long time."
       "Governor of what?" I asked.
       Della looked disapprovingly at Syd.  "Have you told him nothing,
boy?" she asked him.
       "Governor," Jennie, the patient teacher, stepped in.  "It's what the
Logan Blood calls their patriarch."
       "I'm not sure what Blood means, really."  I kept hearing the word.
"At least, not in the proper noun context that you all seem to be using it
in."
       "A Blood.  There are actually six different races of vampires in the
world, Jake," Jennie said.  "Each race is slightly different biologically.
We call each race a Blood.  All the vampires in North America are a part of
what we call the Logan Blood."
       "Okay."  I was shocked that the vampires seemed to extend so
pervasively all over the world.
       Jennie continued dutifully.  "But it's more than just a vampire
race.  Each Blood is sort of its own monarchy.  There's a ruling family.
In our case, we have the Logans." It dawned on me that Syd, Della, and
Jennie were all Logans.  "It's this family, and certain other noble
families within the Blood, that wield all the power over the great many
other lowly vampires."
       "Like myself," Big Horn said.  "I may be the oldest around, I may
have immense physical power, but none of that matters.  The White Man has
decided that only certain families will wield all the power, while the rest
of us are left in the dust."
       "That includes me," Jennie said.  "My family is one of the richest
families in North America, but since we only go back four generations, we
have no power at all.  When I married Della, I wanted to keep my maiden
name.  But law requires the person of the lesser family to give up their
last name."
       "It's all very unfair and barbaric," Della said.  "The Bloods have
operated like that since the beginning of time, apparently.  If I was in
charge, I'd set it all right in the Logan Blood."
       "How come you're not in charge?" I asked.  "You're the daughter of
the old king, right?"
       "Governor," Jennie corrected.
       Della looked pained.  "Because of my brother.  Syd's father,
Jericho, the current Governor."
       "Oh, he's older that you?" I asked.
       "No," she said.  "I'm a year older, in fact.  But it doesn't matter.
In the Logan Blood, only the males can rule."
       "That's ridiculous!" I said.
       "Jake, you'll see soon enough.  There are so many arbitrary rules
here, I've spent most of my years pulling my hair out.  Father died about
the turn of the century.  Though I knew Jericho was a monster ever since we
were children, I hoped that he would grow a conscience once he was in a
position of power.  Instead, he took everything my father stood for and
made it wicked."
        "My grandfather made a lot of his money with illegal activities in
North America," Syd said.  "Gambling, mostly, some minor smuggling.
Prostitution."
       "He refused to get involved in the drug trade," Della said.  "And he
would never, ever tolerate any form of slavery.  After Jericho took over,
he brought drugs and human slave trafficking to the forefront.  Now, he
controls every drug cartel in Mexico.  He's turned that country into a
wargound, a war that he is currently winning.  And he has slave lines all
through Mexico and the US, even Canada.  It's sickening."
       I sighed.  "But there must be something you can do, right?" I asked
Della.  "You're his sister, after all.  Doesn't that give you some sort of
authority?"
       "It does, yes," she said.  "I have the option of living a life of
privilege.  I've chosen this life instead."  She looked at me.  "Look, I
know you won't understand this, you're too young.  But I spent most of the
years after my dad died trying to mitigate my brother's evils.  In my
world, if you're not the Governor, then all you can do is play at politics.
Lie, deceive, gossip, scheme, entrap.  Those are the tools everyone uses to
grab power.  I played that game for decades, Jake.  I made moral
concessions that I never thought I would in order to reach my goals.  And
what did I get in the end?  I had only minor victories to claim.  The rest
was wasted time." She grabbed Jennie's hand.  "Once I met Jennie, I knew I
had to leave all that behind.  For good.  So, we started a life here, and
it's been a perfect life.  Haven't gone back to Mareshead since, I avoid it
at all costs.  My position in the Blood means Jericho really can't make me
do anything else, and that's how I like it.  For once in my life, I'm so,
so happy.  I like to think, after all the years of misery, that perhaps
I've earned this happiness, this love."
       "She has," Jennie said, then leaned over and kissed Della on the
mouth.
       Jess, who had been playing upstairs, came storming into the kitchen.
"Who wants to play with me in my room?"
       "Jess, why don't you choose one of our guests to play with," Della
said.  "Unless, Jake, you're not much of a kid person."
       The truth was, I was fine with kids, as long as they weren't too
messy or chaotic, or wanted me to engage in any imaginary activities.
"Playing sounds fun, but I'm learning too much from your mothers right
now," I said to Jess.
       Her eyes quickly flicked between the two remaining men.  "I'll
choose cousin Syd, because last time I played with Big Horn, he gave me a
boring lecture about the white men's evil history when all I wanted was to
play Cowboys and Indians.  Come on Syd, let's rough house in my room!"
       "I never turn down any girl's invitation to her bedroom.  Sure beats
peeling potatoes," he said, then picked up Jess in his arms and ran off
with her, the child emitting a steady stream of giddy giggles.
       "Well, it looks like Syd finally has someone else at his maturity
level to interact with," I said.  Della and Jennie both laughed in
agreement.
       Della moved over to the potatoes and started finishing his work,
moving much faster than he ever had.  "Me, swooping in to finish Syd's
responsibilities.  This is a lovely metaphor for our entire relationship."
       "Like usual, all heterosexual girls love Syd," Jennie said.
       "And he, in turn, loves all heterosexual girls," Della said.  "Loves
them over and over again."
       "If this is typical Syd, he'll make Jess extremely happy for all of
fifteen minutes," Jennie said.  "Then, he'll get bored and find an excuse
to end the little playdate."
       "Well, I feel rightly to blame," Della said.
       "Why is that?" I asked her.
       "Because it was me who did most of the raising with that one," she
looked down, focusing on her potato.  "I wanted to do right by all my
nieces and nephews, and I knew I couldn't trust my brother to raise them.
My brother's first wife, she was just as bad as he was.  When she had their
oldest daughter, I wanted to raise the girl.  But the mother refused."
       "Because she wanted to raise her?" I asked.
       "No," Della said.  "That woman treasured her wardrobe more than she
ever loved that girl.  She refused to let me raise her because she thought
my strong ethical code would be contagious.  Poor girl ended up being
raised in the worst environment.  I feel so bad for what she went through,
and I always try to help her now in whatever way I can.  When Syd and his
little brother Parker were born, their mother was so sick of child-rearing
that she gladly foisted them upon me.  Syd was my first, and I thought at
the time I was doing everything right.  But I was naďve.  If I had gone
back, made different parenting choices.  Maybe he wouldn't have ended up
so, so..."
       "Devious?" I suggested.
       "Egotistical?" asked Jennie.
       "Marred by poor judgment?" asked Big Horn.
        "So empty," Della finally decided.
       "Well, you must not blame yourself for what you cannot control,"
Jennie said, soothingly.
       "That's right," Big Horn said.  "An orphaned bison calf adopted and
raised by a coyote bitch still grows into a bison."
       I shook my head.  "That's ridiculous," I said.  "We're not all
slaves to our genetics.  We're not all destined to become our parents."  I
thought quickly about my father, and got the chills.
       "No, but I see these kids each and everyday in my school," Jennie
says.  "Kids that come from the best of parents and turn out rotten
somehow.  Not because of their genetics.  Just some random factors that the
parents can't control.  And anyway, look at Parker.  You raised them
together, but he turned out so much better than Syd."
       Della's face brightened at the mention of his name.  "True.  That
one has always been my pride and joy.  I just don't get it, not one bit.  I
raised them boys together, exactly the same.  But one turned into a
scoundrel, while the other became everything I ever hoped for the two of
them.  I would have never had a third if Parker hadn't turned out so
wonderful.  Plus, now that Jess is turning out so well, we know we've been
doing something right, huh Jennie?"
       Della grabbed Jennie's hand.  "Damn right," she said.
       "Wasn't there a new baby born recently to Jericho's new wife?" Big
Horn asked.
       "Yes, another boy," Della said.  "I delivered him, but the mother
was way too protective of the baby to let me raise him.  In fact, she
immediately absconded with the baby to be raised with the help of her
family.  Much better for the child than being raised at Mareshead, I can
assure you."

       *****

       Once we were all in the dining room, eating off the rustic but
feminine dining table, I could not believe how good the food was.  It
wasn't even that the cooking was so masterful; Jennie and Della were
excellent cooks, but their techniques were simple.  It was just that the
quality of the ingredients was extremely good.  Jennie said that's because
everything was grown fresh around Fools Gold.  The steak they prepared for
me was probably the best steak I had ever had.
       "Mommy, Becky told me in class today that the only reason why you're
mayor is because you're a Logan, and you were given the position by the
Governor," Jess said to Della.  "Is that right?"
       "No, not at all," Della answered.
       "I wouldn't listen to anymore of Becky's little nuggets of wisdom,"
Jennie told the girl.  "She's a few bells short of a wind-chime.  I always
dread the moment I have to correct one of her essays."
       "You're the mayor?" I asked Della excitedly.  "For how long?"
       "In the past century, it's been 84 years, on and off," she said.
"Every now and then some up and comer wins the election over me.  And,
honestly, when that happens, I enjoy the break.  But people always drag me
back to run again."
       "People are very pleased with the way Fools Gold is run," Jennie
said.  "Only since Della was nominated do we provide most essential
services free of charge.  Water, coal, food and shelter for those who can't
afford it, excellent dentistry and healthcare because of Dr. Logan."
       "Excellent schooling due to Mrs. Logan," Della added.
       "And I can speak from first-hand knowledge," Syd said to Jess.
"Your mother is anything but in the Governor's good graces.  He hates when
your mother gets elected mayor."
       "My first action as mayor was to declare Fools Gold a free town,"
Della said.  "Any slaves entering the town become free by default.  My
brother hated that one.  Lucky for me, there are certain laws that he can't
change which prevent him from getting too involved in this town.  The rest
of the Territory is his."
       "Though, that doesn't stop him from trying to control Fools Gold
clandestinely," Syd said.  "Old rules say he is responsible for law
enforcement throughout the Territory, including Fools Gold.  He's appointed
his own man as Sheriff here."
       "Who sometimes causes more harm than good," Della said.
       "And every time there is an election," Syd said, "he uses a lot of
his resources to buy the vote here and put in one of his men."
       "That' all very impressive, Della," I said.
       She smiled at me.
       "Can I be excused?" Jess asked, after flying through the food on her
plate in about half the time it was taking everyone else.
       "Sure, honey," Jennie said.
       "Syd, want to play in my room again?" she asked excitedly.
       "Oh, I'd love to.  But Syd's a big man, and he needs a whole lick o'
beef to keep him going.  An' I'm barely started on my meal, here."
       "Awww," she sulked, and then stomped off upstairs.
       When I knew I heard Jess shut her bedroom door upstairs, I said,
"So, ladies.  Jess looks equally like both of you, and I can't figure out
whose biological daughter she is."
       They smiled.  "Both of ours," Della said.
       "So, can female vampires procreate on their own?" I asked excitedly.
       They both chuckled.  "Don't be preposterous, Jake," Jennie said.
"We non-fanged female vampires aren't all that different biologically than
normal women."
       "Though his question isn't totally off the mark," said Della.
"Considering that fanged vampires have very different physiologies than
normal humans."
       "A fanged male vampire, for instance, is lucky enough to be able to
procreate in two different capacities."
       "I don't understand."
       "He's a simple minded fella, and needs things spoken plainly.
Jakey, what they mean is, if you were to be turned into a vampire, I could
fuck you in the rear and get you knocked up with a lil' Syd."
       "That's about as crude as he could possibly say it, but it's true,"
Jennie said.
       "How is that possible?"
       "Well, while the urinary tract is completely intact for fanged
vampires, they absorb solids directly into their bloodstream, and the
intestines shrivel away into nothing.  This extra space allows the males to
have female reproductive organs such as uteruses ovaries connected to their
rectum."
       "Wow!  Syd, you never told me you had ovaries and a uterus!"
        "Because I don't.  I had mine removed surgically as soon as I was
old enough to make my own decisions."
       "As did Parker, in spite of my urgings to both of them that they
might some day want to make use of those parts of their anatomy," said
Della.
       "I've removed mine as well," said Big Horn.
       "Most men do that," said Jennie.  "Some bull about holding onto
their masculinity."
       "I figured it was for birth control."
       "We have excellent, excellent birth control here, as well as week
after type of pills.  Unplanned pregnancies almost never occur," said
Jennie.
       "But it must save them the pain of getting their period every
month."
       Della shook her head.  "Fanged vampires don't get menstrual fluid.
When they remove the organs, they permanently seal up the anus as well, as
there is no need for it at that point."
       "Which is actually a preventive measure for preventing rape," Jennie
said.  "Male vampires bloodlust is intense, and can be satiated with other
fanged vampires' blood just the same as us non-fanged folks.  And feeding
seems to always be mixed with sex for them."
       "And for us tops, which is the vast majority of male vampires, sex
requires something to penetrate," said Syd.
       "Because younger, weaker vampires can't defend themselves against
the older ones, this can lead to rape," said Jennie.  "Which is exactly why
all those fanged vampires who are sure they'll never get any pleasure out
of anyone inserting anything into them there get them sealed up for good."
There was a bit of some pain on her face, which made me wonder if she had
been the victim of a rape herself at some point.
       "So, if a male vampire is giving birth, do they do so through their
anus?"
       "Male vampires do not ever enter the delivery stage of pregnancy.
We perform caesarian sections to remove the babies," said Della.
       "What happened before modern medicine made those possible?"
       "Well, the father would just cut himself open and remove the baby.
Their healing power would usually always save them."
       "But you never answered my question," I said.  "Which one of you
does Jess belong to?"
       "It was supposed to be my pregnancy," said Della.  "The father was
going to be Jennie's brother, though of course, Jess would never know.  But
he died suddenly."
       "Oh, I'm so sorry."
       "Thank you."
       "So, we decided Jennie would be the mother."
        "Which is lucky, because Della would have been an insufferable
grump if she had been pregnant for nine months," said Jennie, laughing.
       "Then why does she look just like you, Della?" I asked.  "Did you
get someone in your family to donate sperm?"
       "The official word is that I donated the gunk, Jakey."
       Della and Jennie looked at each other.  "But the truth is, I got a
doctor friend of mine in a small village in the Territory, a male vampire,
to donate.  He looks like me.  But that's to me repeated to no one.  All
the official records say it's Syd."
       "We are only telling you this because we trust you not to say
anything," Jennie said.
       "Oh, I won't I swear."
        "What about you, Jake, are you a father?"
       "Me?  No, I'm much too young for that.  But I always knew that
someday I wanted to be a father."
       "Well, not much chance of that happening, considering you're now
infertile `cause of that gene ya got," Syd said.
       "That's right," I said sadly.
       "There's always adoption," Jennie said.
       "Yeah, I can adopt," I agreed, but my spirits didn't improve at the
thought of this option.  I always wanted my own children, and never really
planned for any alternative.  I smiled, wanting to move the conversation
away from me.  "Any plans for anymore children in the future?" I asked.
       "We were considering it, but the friend who donated sperm has
politely declined to be the father for any of our future children.  Which
means we really would need one of Della's family to donate sperm."
       "So would that mean you'd ask your brother to be the father?" I
asked Della.
       "Totally out of the question," Della said, looking disgusted.
       "We were thinking, it would have to be one of the other males who
were most related to Della," Jennie said.  "One of her nephews."
       "I would ask Parker but, well, he can't, I'm afraid."
       Syd perked up, smiling devilishly.  "I'd volunteer for that," he
said.  "For real this time."
       "Syd, we're talking about artificial insemination here," Della said.
"You don't actually get to have sex with my hot wife."
       "Oh, well, that makes the proposition much less exciting," he said.
Then he smiled wickedly.  "But I'd donate my seed in a heartbeat.  Hell,
hundreds of women have begged for my semen in the past.  They just had
slightly different plans for the stuff."
       Jennie wrinkled her nose.  "Disgusting, Thank you, Syd, for
reminding me again why I'm a homosexual."
       "But I'm serious, ladies.  Anytime you need the magic white stuff,
I'll be here for you."
       "Syd, do you understand what you are agreeing to?" asked Big Horn.
He had mostly stayed silent during this conversation, yet suddenly he
seemed very doubtful.  "You are the last person who is fit to be a father."
        "I couldn't agree more.  But they're just talking about using my
sperm.  I wouldn't ever be the father, really."
       "No one would ever know except us," Della said.  "And we wouldn't
need to ever tell the child."
       "If it was a boy, he would never become Governor, because no one
would ever know the connection," Jennie added.
       "And we wouldn't expect you'd be around anymore than you usually
are," Della said.  "You'd be in no way responsible for the child."
       "See, Big Horn?" Syd asked.  "Not really the father at all."
       "Still," Big Horn said.  "I'd be worried you would develop feelings
for this child.  In spite of yourself.  Those feelings would be dangerous."
       Syd shook his head.  "I think you're underestimating my ability to
stay coolly detached," he said.  "I really don't have a paternal instinct
in my blood.  And lord knows I'm not one to develop emotional attachments."
       "Still," Big Horn said again.  "Normal instincts can change somewhat
when people procreate.  I'm not saying you're going to love this child.
But, you admit that you're an arrogant person, isn't this right, Syd?"
       "Damn right I am," he said.  "And proud of it."
       "Well, your own arrogance could create attachments," Big Horn said.
"When you have someone that has half of your genes."
       "Ah, I get it.  The kid would surely be pretty swell with those
genes.  At least half as swell as I am."
       "You see?" Big Horn said.  "Because the child would be a mirror of
you, you might end up growing fond of it.  Or protective."
       "Hmm," Syd said.  "I can see yer point there, Big Horn.  Well, it's
something I'll have to think about."
       "Take your time, please," Della said.  "None of us are getting any
older, after all."
       "If it wasn't Syd," Jennie said, "we were thinking, well, Della has
a cousin on her father's side, a woman, who had a son about forty years
ago.  We asked him, and he's willing to donate."
       "Who, Ted?  But he isn't a vampire," Syd said.
       "No."
       "So, you'd be raising a human child," Syd said.
       "Yes," Della said.  "I see nothing wrong with that."
       "So, if you had a boy in that scenario, would you turn him into a
vampire?" Big Horn asked.  Then he turned to me.  "A human boy born from a
vampire woman is born human, but if turned later in life, they start out
much stronger than other vampires."
       "Yeah, I've known a few," Syd said.  "They start out like they've
been drinking blood for thirty or forty years."
       Jennie looked at Della.  "We would let the boy decide," Jennie said.
"That's not of the kind of decision we'd be comfortable making for
someone."
       "But if he wants to be turned, we would insist that he wait until he
is a full grown man," Della said.  "The last thing I need is another
fanged, hormonal teenager running around."
        "You've cleared your plate, Big Horn," Jennie said.  "Can I get you
more steak?"
       "No, thanks you," Big Horn said.  "It was an excellent meal and my
hunger is appeased.  My thirst, unfortunately, is not."
       "Can I get you more beer?" Jennie asked.
       "Not that kind of thirst," he answered.  "And considering I'm
assuming none of you would be much help in that department, I'm going to
have to make a trip to Lettie's.  Do you thirst as well, Syd?
       "You'd better not answer yes to that question!" I snapped at Syd.
       "No, I already fed today, thanks to Jakey," he said.  "But I'd never
be one to turn down a trip to Lettie's.  All sorts of vampire hungers can
be fed at a fine place like that.  I'm in for sure, Big Horn."
       Della rolled her eyes.  "Boys will be boys.  Don't expect us to be
awake when you get back."
       "I'll be as silent as a ghost when I come in," Syd said.
       "Silence isn't Syd's strong suit," I said.
       "Don't we know," Della agreed.
       "You ready to go, Jakey?" Syd asked.
       "No, I'm not going," I said.  "I don't have any bizarre hungers that
need fulfilling.  Not after that perfect meal."
       "I got to hear some about Jake when we were cooking, about his
background," Della said.  "I'm eager to hear more."
       "Yeah, we'd love to entertain Jake for the evening," Jennie said.
       "Well, too bad, ladies," Syd said.  "I'm under express orders to
keep Jake under my sights at all times.  If Big Horn and I are going to
Lettie's then we're takin' Jake here with us.  If you two ladies are so
eager to chat the kid up, then you are welcome to join us."
       "No thanks," Jennie said.  "Not on a weeknight."
       "I'd surely tarnish my honorable mayoral reputation if I was spotted
at a place like that," Della joked.  "Good luck, Jake.  We'll see you for
breakfast tomorrow."
       I wanted to stay with the ladies, but I knew I didn't have any
choice, so I thanked them extensively for the meal and followed Big Horn
and Syd out of the house and back towards the center of town, which looked
quite different lit up only by torchlight.
       Our destination turned out to be what was undoubtedly the largest
building in Fools Gold, though it was just as worn and wooden as the rest
of the town's structures.  Given its size and central location, I would
have thought it was some sort of major church or religious structure if I
hadn't known Fools Gold was a vampire town.  As we approached it, I could
hear music coming from the place, which, I realized, was the first time I
heard any music in this town.
       Above the double front doors hung a large, suggestively red sign:
"Lettie's Saloon, Gambling, and Brothel."
       "Wow, something tells me this isn't another one of Fools Gold public
services that Della and Jennie were bragging about."
       "No, but it oughtta be," Syd said.  "Residents in Fools Gold need
booze, poker, and whores just as much as they need air to breathe."
       "It is certainly not my favorite establishment," Big Horn said.
"But it is often the only way I can find a consistent source of blood."
       "Oh, come on Big Horn, don't pretend you don't love the place as
much as I do."
       Syd threw open the doors excitedly, and Big Horn and I followed him
in.  The place was even bigger on the inside than it looked on the outside,
and unlike the mostly empty town streets, it was packed with people.
Looking around, I realized the saloon was structured into four different
areas.  To our left, there was a long, wooden bar.  An older guy was behind
the bar, serving cowboys and cowgirls who were either sitting on bar stools
or standing.  In front of us was the gaming area, where a couple poker and
blackjack tables stood, fairly crowded.  To the right, there was a very
low-tech stage and a dance floor.  A country western band was playing, all
acoustic, no mics.  The lead singer, a beautiful woman who was skilled with
her fast honky-tonk, was keeping the country dancers on the floor moving
their boots quickly.  If these vices were all the establishment held, I
would have been fine with the place.  Dancing certainly wasn't a bad thing,
and neither were drinking and gambling if done in small quantities
infrequently.  But I saw the area against the far wall, past the gaming
tables, where the prostitutes lay around appealingly on settees and lounge
chairs.  A staircase went upstairs from this area, clearly leading to
bedrooms.
       As soon as we came in, people were gawking at us.  Well, not all of
us.  Everyone seemed familiar with Big Horn.  It was Syd and I that were
getting the most stares, with me getting the majority.  I figure it was my
strange clothes that were the problem.
        Looking at all the people in the place, it was intriguing to try to
identify the vampires amongst the humans.  It wasn't at all hard.  Many of
the humans were older, which gave them away instantly, since vampires do
not age.  Among the young people, some stood out, being particularly
attractive.  And if there was anyone I was on the fence about, if they
didn't have green eyes, I knew they were human.
       Syd led the three of us towards the bar to the left.  As we neared
the saloon area of the establishment, I was stricken just how out of an old
west movie it seemed to be.  A long, wooden bar separated the bartender
from the customers, with rough wooden shelves against the wall holding the
various liquors, which were all in label-free bottles.  The cowboys and
ladies gathered around the bar were all either drinking from glass bottles
or cups; there was no sign of plastic in this whole Territory.
       The bartender, a jovial fiftyish cowboy that was verging on obese,
smiled wildly at Syd as soon as he saw him.  "Well, how `bout it, old Syd's
back!"  He said excitedly.  "Ya come to keep the bar?"
       "Nah, Tom.  Just a customer this time."
       "Well, whatever you and your friends wants is on the house," he
said.  "Anything for our favorite bartender."
       "Oh yeah, Syd?" I asked him.  "Was this the guy who trained you how
to bartend?"
       Tom laughed.  "You got it backwards, kid.  This guy taught me
everything I know back when I was barely old enough to drink.  Ain't that
right, Syd?"
       "You're better bartender now than I ever was," Syd said.  "Never
could stand the slow periods.  You have to be patient to be a good `tender,
like you, Tom."
       Syd got a bottle of fine Territory beer, while Big Horn and I
declined the offer.  Big Horn led us towards the brothel part of this
business in the back.
       We walked over to the area the prostitutes were lounging in.  There
were six different plush antique lounge chairs, one for each of them.  Each
one had a sign with the prostitutes first name labeled.  Two of the six
were males.  The women wore trashy period dresses and a lot of makeup,
while the men wore robes.  Interestingly enough, none of them were
particularly attractive.  All of them looked older, with the youngest
looking around fifty.  Many of them were quite plump.
       I noticed that the prostitutes all had needles hooked up into their
veins.  Blood filled tubes connected their arms to plastic packets of
blood.  Seeing it made me cringe, and that dizziness came over me.
       "Their blood is being collected for vampires, isn't it?" I asked.
       "No, ya got it backwards, Jakey," Syd said.  "They're getting the
blood.  Transfusions."
       "Why would they be wasting blood?" I asked.  "I thought the vampires
drank out of those packets."
       "Only if we have to," Syd said.  "No vampire likes it that way.
It's much more pleasant for us to feed from live humans, like these people.
And since there are only six whores here, and a lot of vampires, the
transfusions make it so the whores can service more than one vampire safely
a night."
       "That's really disturbing," I said.
       Big Horn walked up to one of the women.  "What'll it be, Indian?"
she asked him.  "You gonna step up to the plate tonight and go all the way
with one of us?"
       He shook his head.  "No, I'll just take my regular order.  No sex,
just blood."
       "You must be the most broke vampire in the Territory, Big Horn," she
said.
       "He has plenty of money," Syd said.  "He just doesn't like to pay
for sex.  Same with me."
       The woman nodded.  "Well, which one of us will it be tonight?"
       Big Horn shrugged.  "Whichever, it doesn't matter to me."
       "I'll take ya," the lady said.  "Come on up."  She got up, unhooked
the IV, and led Big Horn up the stairs.
       Big Horn turned back to us as she pulled him upstairs.  He pointed
at me.  "You stay with Syd.  And try to keep to yourself."
       "Why?" I asked, but he was already gone.  "What did he mean by
that?" I asked Syd.
       "He just knows how much we love each other," Syd said.  "He wants us
two little lovebirds to enjoy each other's company."  He put a hand around
my shoulder.
       I guffawed, and shook his arm off.  "Well, forget it.  You dragged
me here against my will.  Now that we're here, you can't expect me to be
your arm candy."
       He ignored my protests and pulled me towards the stage.  "There's
someone here I want you to meet.  You'll like her, you love the ladies."
       He grabbed my hand, his fingers interlocking mine in a very
lover-ish way, and pulled me towards the dance floor.  The band consisted
of a female acoustic guitar player, a male stand-up bass player, a male
violin player, and a female drummer.  All of them were clearly human, and
they were making up-tempo melodies that got my head nodding, even though
this certainly wasn't my normal kind of music.  The lead singer was in a
league of her own, a beautiful black woman in a brown period dress and a
cowboy hat covering curly hair.  I didn't need to see her green eyes to
know she was a vampire.  She saw Syd for the first time while she was
singing, and she waved to him, almost flubbing her verses.  When she
finished the song, she asked the band to keep playing without her, and she
stepped off stage.
       He smiled at her, oozing his charm, but she walked right up,
completely immune, with a sour look on her face.
       "Lettie Tobler, Syd said, opening his arms, and I realized this was
the owner of the place.
       Instead of hugging him, she slapped him across the face.
       "Wow, either the ladies in this town have a funny way of greeting
people, or you've managed to piss off the entire female contingent of this
Territory," I said.
       "Jeez, what was that for, Lettie?" he asked, holding his cheek as if
wounded.  Which was unlikely, considering he was a male vampire with super
strength, and Lettie was just a female vampire with human strength.  He was
just being a big baby.  "I ain't do nothin' to you."
       "Not yet, you didn't," she said.  "But trust me, by the end of the
night, I'm sure I'll owe it to you."  Her angry face cracked into a huge
smile and she hugged him.  "Syd Logan, welcome back to my fine
establishment."
       "The best little whore-house in Fools Gold," Syd said.
       "The only whore house in Fools Gold," she said.  "Will you be
joining me on stage tonight?  This crowd loves your songs, especially the
ladies here.  And people keep asking when they'll hear us do another duet.
I'm still hoping one day I can convince you to come back on staff."
       "Maybe later, Lettie," he said.  "After I've had a few beers.  I
just wrote a wonderful new song."  He looked at me with an evil smile, and
I knew what song he meant.  There was no way he was singing that in public.
       "You here to visit one of the whores?" Lettie asked.
       "Lettie, come now, you know I would never pay for sex.  Or blood."
       "Right, why pay for it when you have women knocking down your door?"
she asked.  She looked at me.  "Won't you introduce me to your handsome
friend here?"
       I extended my hand for a shake.  "I'm Jake Groves," I said.  "And
I'd say "friend" was a stretch."
       "Oh, I see, Mr. Groves," she said, taking my hand.  "More like Syd's
current bed-fellow?  We've all been there, honey.  I'm Lettie Tobler.
Madame, saloon keeper, and country singer extraordinaire, of course."  She
pinched my cheek.  "Look at that embarrassed look on his face.  You are
such a cutie!"
       "Thanks," I said, not wanting to take the time to explain our
complex, real relationship.
       "Hey, you're not looking for work, are you?" she said.  "I've been
trying to get a young, fresh looking whore for the brothel ever since I
opened the place.  Seems people round these parts only want to take up that
line of work later in life.  Which our patrons are fine with.  But, it
would bring in some new customers if I was to get someone like you."  She
smiled at me, looking me up and down.  "The clothes need some work, but I
can help you with that."
       Syd gave me an obscene smile.  "Jake, you'd make a great whore!" he
said.  "I think you found your calling!  Screw school."
       "Screw school, and I promise you I'll provide you with a school that
will teach you to screw," Lettie joked.
       "It's flattering, but no thanks.  I don't think it's a good fit"
       "Ah, come on Jakey, you love penis!" Syd said.  "And ya got a great
ass."
       "Oh, does he?  Well, why don't you think it's a match, sweetie?"
       "Well, to be blunt," I said, "I do not approve of prostitution."
       "I didn't know you were such a prude, Jakey," Syd said.  "Wait a
second, yes I did."
       "I'm not a prude," I said.  "It's not like I'm embarrassed about the
sexual acts that the prostitutes perform.  I don't think those acts are in
anyway unhealthy.  It's that I don't think people should exchange money for
sex.  It's degrading for both parties, in fact.  I can't think of a less
healthy way for someone to make money.  I mean, how many prostitutes have
you met that were mentally healthy people?  It's a traumatic life, riddled
with violence."
       "But you're comparing the prostitution you knew on the outside to
the one inside the Territory," Lettie said.  "It's a very different thing.
Out there, prostitution isn't legal, and it's done in the shadows.  As
such, it's regarded by society as the absolute last resort way to make a
living.  Prostitutes are abused every day for very little compensation, and
they become social pariahs, as normal folk shun them.  But in here, where
prostitution is legal and highly controlled, the whores have all the
benefits of any other working citizens.  Our society sees them on level
with any other entertainers.  Some see their lives as exotic, others know
they would never want that career, but no one shuns them.  All of my whores
are well rounded, intelligent people."
       "Look, it sounds a lot better than the prostitution that I know," I
said.  "But just because it's legal, doesn't mean it's right.  I mean,
filming porn movies is legal, right?  So, those people are paid to have sex
just like prostitutes.  Even though that is a legal activity, anyone who
tries to tell me porn stars are healthy, well-balanced people obviously
doesn't know what those definitions mean."  I shook my head.  "Look, bottom
line is, I'm not going to change my mind about this."
       "Anyway, he's not exactly in the job market at the moment," Syd
said.  "He's being summoned to Mareshead tomorrow."
       Her face turned icy.  "Yikes.  Well, good luck with that, honey.
You're gonna need it.  Anything you want is on the house tonight.  Let me
know if you want to roll around with one of the whores.  They're mostly
trained for the fanged vampire clientele, but they will service anyone."
       "Ah, thanks, but I'll be just fine."
       "Oh, gotta get back up, the song's ending," she said.  She left us
and walked back up on stage.  Just as the music ended, she started shouting
out at the dancers in the crowd.  "We have a guest artist in the house
tonight.  Trust me, you want him up here singin' for y'all. Now, he's being
a little shy, so I'm gonna need y'all to give him the warmest welcome
Lettie's Saloon is capable of.  Are ya ready?  Syd Logan, come on up, ya
fool!"
       As soon as she announced the name, the crowd erupted in cheers,
though I had no idea if this was due to Syd's musical reputation or the
fact that Lettie had solicited the applause.  Lettie was clever, she knew
Syd was way too egotistical to ever turn down adoring fans.  He quickly
jumped up on stage, all smiles.  Someone handed him another acoustic
guitar.
       And then, he was singing again, singing with that darn good country
voice of his, and as soon as they heard his skill, the last doubters became
fans, and the dance floor was going crazy.  Thank goodness his threat to
sing the obscene song had been empty, but even still, it annoyed me to no
end just to have to hear his artificial songs, so I left the dance floor
rolling my eyes.  I would not submit myself to the aggravation of watching
him sing a whole set, even with Lettie accompanying him.
       I was thirsty, so I walked across the building back to the bar, and
sat down at one of the few open barstools.
       "Changed yer mind, eh?" the bartender Tom asked me.  "Well, whatever
ya want is on the house, just let me know."
       "Can I just get a water, please?" I asked.
       "Huh?  Come again?"
       "Water?  You know, like tap water in glass?"
       "Oh.  Never got that request before," Tom said.
       "Might have something to do with his weird fuckin' clothes," said
the man next to me through a familiar thick drunken slur.
       "Well, the water we have here ain't exactly for drinkin,'" Tom said.
"We use it to clean with, and it ain't very clear."
       "At least it's better than when they'd just use their own spit to
clean the glasses," said the drunk next to me.
       "We never did that, Tucker."
       I turned to look clearly at the man beside me, and realized there
was a good reason why his voice seemed familiar.  This was the man who I
had seen in Della's office, the poor Asian man who was dying of cancer.
And here he was, beyond drunk in the saloon.
       "Tucker," I said.  "You should not be drinking in your condition."
       "Huh?" Tucker asked.  "Seems to me this is the perfect time to be
drinking.  I drink and the pain goes away, ya see.  Quitting now ain't
gonna matter in the slightest."
       "Still," I said.  "It just seems wrong somehow, considering."
       "Should I get you that water?" Tom asked me.
       "No, no thanks," I said, not wanting unclean water.  "I'll just have
some juice."
       "Juice?" Tom asked.
       "He means gin," Tucker said.
       "No, fruit juice," I said.
       "Uh, sorry, fresh out of that," Tom said.
       "Really?  I guess I'll have a diet cola then," I said.  "Though
frankly, I worry about the long term effects of having so much artificial
sweetener."
       "I'm sorry, kid," Tom said.  "I probably caught less than half of
whatever you just said."
       "He asked for your hardest whiskey," Tucker said.
       "No, I did not," I said, annoyed.  "Look, I guess I'll just bite the
carb load and get a real cola."
       "I have no idea what that is," Tom said.
       "Sounded to me like he asked for some coal," Tucker said.  "It is a
might cold in here."
       "Sorry, kid," Tom said.  "We don't have a fireplace near the bar,
but I can get ya a blanket."
       "I'm not cold.  Look, do you have club soda?  Tonic?"
       "Nope."
       "What do you mix your alcohol with?" I asked.
       Tom looked at me quizzically.  "A knife."
       "You have nothing that is non-alcoholic?" I asked.
       "Not alcohol?" Tom asked.  "Sure, kid.  We got the whores' blood."
       I shook my head.  "Just give me whatever everyone else is drinking
then."
       "Whisky in a glass," Tom said, and started to pour.
       "On the rocks please."
       "What rocks?" Tom asked.
       "He wants you to pour the whiskey all over his balls," Tucker
interjected.
       "I can do that," Tom said seriously.  "Ain't the first time someone
asked me to."
       "Tucker, you have not managed to be the least bit helpful in this
conversation.  Please, just stop trying."
       Tucker looked a bit dejected, and I regretted snapping at a man with
a death sentence over his head.
       "Do you have any ice?" I asked Tom.
       "No sir," he said, and handed me a huge glass of pure whiskey.
       "Uh, thanks," I said, taking a very small sip.  I wasn't at all used
to hard liquor, and this stuff tasted harder than normal.  I had to keep
myself from gagging.
       "If you don't like it, I'll drink it for you," Tucker said, grabbing
at my arm.  He knocked a good half of my drink out of my glass before I
could steady myself, not that this was any big loss to me.  But in the
process, Tucker managed to fall drunkenly off his stool and onto the hard
floor beneath.
       I set my drink down on the bar, got off my seat, and bent down to
help Tucker back to his feet.  Apparently, the man sitting on the other
side of Tucker got the same idea, and we both ended up leaning down and
picking Tucker up at the same time, and depositing him on his barstool
together.  This meant the stranger was touching me as we lifted Tucker, and
oddly enough, even once Tucker was back on his stool, the man continued to
lean against me, putting an arm against me.
       I looked up at the guy.  He was another vampire stud with green eyes
and great build.  He shut his eyes and took a long whiff of my head and
neck area.  I quickly looked down my body, paranoid that I might be
bleeding and that the smell of my blood might be seducing this vampire.
But there was no sign of blood anywhere, and I certainly wasn't one to have
gaping wounds on my body that I wasn't instantly aware of.  I was positive
blood was not the cause here.
       "You smell so... nice," he said, looking at me with lovelorn eyes.
       "Uh, thanks," I said.  "It's probably just the toiletries I use are
modern and can be fairly fragrant.  I'm guessing your toiletry selection in
the Territory is pretty backwoods."  He was looking at me oddly, and I was
worried I had offended him.  "Though I'm not trying to imply your hygiene
is any bit inferior to my own," I said, trying to soften my words.  I took
a sniff of him.  "In fact, you smell quite hygienic."
       He put a strong hand on my cheek and smiled at me.  "You are so
lovable."
       "Uh, thanks."
       Suddenly, he leaned in and hugged me.  The guy was super hot, but he
was also a bit too forward for me.  He inhaled again, his mouth getting
near to my neck.  I could feel his hands all over my body.  "I need to have
you, so bad," he said.  "Come on, let's go someplace more private.  My
house is right around the corner.  I want you to see how big it is."
       "Wow," I said.  "That's a really nice offer, and you're a really hot
guy.  And I'm sure your residence is most spectacularly large.  But I'm
not, uh, allowed to leave."
       He seemed suspicious, like it was just some lousy excuse I had
invented to keep him away from me.  "Oh?"
       "Yeah, Syd asked me to stay in the club."
       He looked surprised.  "Syd Logan?  You're with Syd?"
       I wanted to say no, but I really didn't want this guy's continued
advances, so I decided not to be forthcoming.  I nodded.
       "Oh, damnit, well don't tell him I was flirting with you, okay?"
       "Lips are sealed," I said.  I didn't want to linger there at the
bar, so I grabbed my drink and started to leave the area, trying to think
of an excuse to leave this stranger.  "I was just about to, uh..." I didn't
want to go back to the stage, where Syd was, and I really didn't want to go
back to brothel area, so that left only one thing.  "I was just about to go
play poker.  Nice to meet you."
       I left the then sad-looking vampire and went over to the poker
table.  There was just one open seat there, so I took it in spite of the
fact that it was directly next to the only vampire at the table.  The other
occupants at the seats were clearly all human, but the hot, green-eyed
cowboy was obviously a vampire.  I smiled politely at the other players
around me as I sat down, but none of them smiled at me.
       "Chips?" the short dealer in her sixties asked me.
       "I don't have any," I said.
       She looked at me like I was stupid.  "I have the chips.  You're
supposed to give me money, honey."
        "Lettie said everything I wanted was on the house," I told her.
       "Well, she didn't mean poker," the dealer said.  "These are human
players here, who are using their hard earned cash to bet with.  It
wouldn't be fair to them if I gave you unlimited chips, now would it?"
       "I guess not," I said.  "But I don't have any money.  Syd has all
the money."
       "Well then, why don't you run off to your sugar daddy and pick up at
least a fifty.  This is a ten bet minimum table."
       I was disappointed in the clear lack of manners this dealer had,
though it seemed to be a common trait in this town.  "That's not an
option," I said.  "Never mind, I don't need to play."
       I got up to leave.
       "Wait," said the vampire seated beside me, tossing one of his chips
over to my space on the table.  "Let the son play," he said.
       The vampire was very hot, but also quite mean looking.  He was
Hispanic in appearance.  The black hair on his head was cut short, though
his hair looked scruffy, as if he had cut it himself.  He had a small but
masculine nose, narrow eyes, thick black eyebrows that seemed permanently
furrowed.  He had a black beard covering his chin, cheeks, and upper lips;
clearly this guy did not use any sort of razor.  He did keep his beard
clipped, though it wasn't super sheared, I'd say the hairs were about a
centimeter in length.  Sometimes when guys grow beards, I notice there are
spots on their faces that don't grow in as well as others, just because
they have thinner hair in those spots.  The vampire did not have that
problem, his beard hair was extremely dense, and his upper lips contained
huge amounts of hair.  Between his tan, plump lips hung an unlit cigar.
       The vampire was dressed in brown denim pants that looked dusty and
worn, a cowboy buckle, cowboy boots, a dark grey cowboy hat, and faded
cotton shirt that looked like it might have once been white, but was now
beige and stained.  The shirt was as thin as a t-shirt, had a bit of a
collar, like a polo shirt might, and buttons that went down half of the
front.  Most of the buttons were unbuttoned, leaving the entire cleft his
pecs made as they joined together visible.  I could tell by the size of
this cleft that he was well-muscled, and the large amount of black curly
hair popping out of this opening and trailing up his neck let me know that
he was a good deal hairier than Syd.  The beige cotton covered the middle
and outer parts of his pecs tightly, showing off their size, and clearly
outlining his nipples.  The sleeves were rolled up to his bis, showing off
all that black fur on his beefy forearms nicely, as well as his engorged
upper arm muscles.
       I looked down at the chip he had just given me from his pile.  It
was a hundred.  I passed the chip back to him.  "Thanks sir, but I can't
rightfully take your money."
       "I've already won twenty times that much tonight," he said.  "It's
nothing to me."
       "But still, it matters to me," I said.
       He threw the chip to the dealer.  "Break it for him and deal him
in," the vamp said.
       "No, do not listen to him," I said, but the woman had already done
what he asked, and the game started.
       "I can't play this hand," I said.
       "Once the game has started, you cannot back out," the dealer told
me.
       "Play it!" said the vampire, grabbing my arm and holding me in
place.  "If you win, you can pay me what you owe me.  If not, you can walk
away."
       "Jeez, okay," I agreed.  "I'm Jake Groves," I said, reaching out my
hand.
       He shook it with his strong grip.  "Jeremiah Riley."  There was a
wanting look in his eyes as he studied my features.  "Tell me, Jake, do you
feel lucky?  Because you look lucky to me."
       I thought about my recent luck in life, and I laughed.  "It's been a
while since I felt lucky."
       "Maybe that will change for you tonight," he said.
       Jeremiah was sitting to my right.  Besides the dealer, there were
four other players at the table.  A young Asian cowboy, two older Hispanic
women who looked like sisters but made no indication that they knew each
other, and an almost elderly white man with very little hair.
       Okay, so I knew the basic structure of a Texas Hold Em game, but I
had never really played seriously.  Heck, I wasn't even legally allowed to
be playing.  And I didn't know much about the strategy involved in the
game, though I was certain I was smart enough to learn with a little
practice.  That would not help me on my first hand.
       The dealer dealt us each two cards face down, and I was a little
preoccupied, looking into this handsome cowboy's face, and I distractedly
flipped my two cards over face up onto the table, a pair of tens.
       Jeremiah raised an eyebrow.  "Ya just showed me your pretty little
hole," he said to me.
       I swore he was making a sexual reference.  "I did?" I asked, looking
down to make sure my pants were still intact."
       He pointed down at the table.  "Yer supposed to keep those face
down."
       "Sorry, this is my first real hand of poker," I said.
       He chuckled.  "I'm sure no one else at this table minds you being
green," he said.
       I flipped my cards back, face down against the table.  "Should I
just fold now?" I said.
       "No, not yet," Jeremiah told me.
       There was a round of betting.  Right of the bat, one of the Hispanic
women, the one with an eyepatch, bet fifty, clearly impressed with her
hand.
       When it got to Jeremiah, he folded.  Then it was my turn, and I
didn't want to spend so much money on this hand.  "Shouldn't I fold too?" I
asked Jeremiah.
       He leaned towards me, putting his strong arm around my back, and his
lips to my ear.  "Stick it out," he said, the hairs of his beard tickling
my ear.  "Go all the way."
       I nodded and paid the fifty, sighing sadly.  I was not one to
needlessly waste or risk good money.  The other Hispanic woman folded, and
the play continued.
       The dealer dealt three community cards face up, what Jeremiah called
the "flop."  A three, a six, and a king.  Nothing that helped me.  I
frowned and sighed unhappily.
       Then the betting started again, and once again, the Hispanic woman
was betting hard.  The Asian man folded, but the white guy stayed in the
game.  When in came back to me, I again wanted to fold.
       Again, Jeremiah leaned into me, put his left arm around me, and his
lips to my ears.  This time, I felt his right hand touch my chest.  "I have
a good feeling," he said.
       So, I stayed in the game, seeing her bet.
       The fourth card the dealer put down was an ace.  Then more betting,
and this time, the white guy dropped out, leaving the high better and I.
The dealer's fifth card was another ace.  I had to bet all my money in
order to keep in, but then the woman and I had to flip over our cards.  My
cards everyone knew already, just a pair of tens, meaning I had two-pair.
The woman flipped over her hand: just a four and a nine.
       At first, I thought I wasn't seeing something great about her hand.
Then I realized she had been bluffing the whole time.
       "See?" Jeremiah asked as the dealer pushed the money towards me.
       "How'd you know?"
       "I just know."
       I gave him the money I owed him, and paid for the next hand.  I felt
much less guilty about playing now, as I didn't owe anyone anything, and I
didn't really feel like this was my own money I was wasting, either.
       After that first hand, Jeremiah never looked at my hole again.
Technically, we were supposed to be opponents, after all.  And him putting
his arm around me and whispering into my ear was not really acceptable
activity when we were both in the game.
       But he developed his own way of communicating with me in secret,
under the table.  When he wanted me to hold back or to fold, he would put
his hand on my knee, almost holding me back.  And when he wanted me
continue in the game, he would pat me on my butt, kind of an encouraging
pat athletes gave each other.  My luck with the cards didn't change, I was
frowning from the poor cards I was dealt just as often as I was smiling
from the good ones.  But the cards didn't seem to matter as long as
Jeremiah was guiding me.  Sometimes I would fold, but ultimately I was
gaining money.  The only time he stopped helping me was when the two of us
were the only ones left.  Then, we would go to the end of the hand without
betting, and whoever had the better cards would take the hand.
       The fun was interrupted by Big Horn coming back down the stairs.  I
thought he might have blood on his lips, or at least a self-satisfied
smile, but he showed absolutely no change from his earlier disposition.
       "I'm leaving, Crazy Kid," he told me as he walked past the poker
table.
       "So soon?" I asked.
       "I achieved what I came here for.  No need to linger."  I guessed
having fun was not in Big Horn's repertoire.
       "Wait, I'm coming too.  Jeremiah, you can have my winnings. They are
all rightfully yours."
       Before he could answer, I was following Big Horn out the front door,
into the cold night.
       "Hey, stop moving so fast," I said.
       "You are not coming with me," Big Horn said.
       "Why not?  I have a comfortable bed waiting for me at Della's."
       "But I'm not going to Della's."
       "You're not going to bed yet?" I asked.
       "Oh, I am.  But not at Della's.  I no longer sleep in a White Man's
bed.  I honor my ancestors by sleeping in the structure my parents taught
me to build."
       "You're going to build another one of those wickiups, in town?" I
asked.
       "No, Crazy Kid.  I am gifted.  Wherever I am, I can always go home."
       "Big Horn, please don't make me stay alone with Syd.  I don't trust
him."
       "And rightfully you shouldn't," he said.  "But what is your other
option?  To come sleep with me in my wickiup?"
       "As rustic as your accommodations looked to me, anything is better
than being alone with Syd," I said.
       "Hmph.  You are the first person who ever consented to share my
bed-space.  But I don't invite fools, crazies, or non-bottom men into bed
as a rule.  Since you seem to fill one of those disqualifiers, it won't
work for us to be anything more than friends.  And even if that wasn't
true, it would be in defiance of Syd's father to invite you back.  That's
not a game I want to start playing, Crazy Kid.  I'm sorry.  You'll have to
stick with Syd for the night.  Promise I'll meet you bright and early at
the stagecoach, though.  Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go to where we
came into town today.  My portal awaits."
       "Can't you just make a new one right here?"
       "The other one is just a block away, and it's easier to open an
existing portal than to make a new one.  Come with me and I'll show you."
       "I didn't realize your portal into town was so close to Lettie's," I
teased.
       "Vampires need blood every day, Crazy Kid.  And I'm not going to
find it out in the wilderness where I live."
       As we walked through the dusty street, I made conversation.  "So,
how did you know you were a special, Big Horn?"
       "You know, I actually had no idea for the first century after I was
turned.  Being a Logan vampire comes with certain powers that every male
vampire has.  These powers come standard, and that's all I thought I had.
Then, finally, I discovered I was a special when I was in a dream trance,
praying to the old spirits.  They told me there was this power in my body
that I hadn't yet discovered.  Told me the old magic resided within my
phallus."
       "Really?" I asked.
       "Does that embarrass you?  The White Man was always so ashamed of
his sexuality."
       "No, it does not embarrass me, and I'm fine with my sexuality, thank
you."
       "Well, the spirits told me how to cut through the very sky with my
hard, powerful penis.  That's what you saw me doing when I jumped into the
air before.  It was a wonderful discovery.  At first, I could only have two
portals at once, and that's all I thought I would ever be able to have.
So, in the beginning, I always had one portal at my home.  The second
portal I could open up wherever else I traveled to return back home.  This
meant I could travel home and back whenever I wanted to, but besides that,
my power wasn't much good to me."
       "How did you get better?"
       "Every so often as the years went on, I earned another portal
opening.  I don't know if this is due to my increasing age, my use of my
ability, or my increasing strength as I drink more and more blood.  But
when I suddenly was able to have three portal openings, that was the
biggest change for me.  I still had the one I kept at home, the one I
needed to open wherever I was, and that still left me another one to play
with.  That's when I really started becoming useful to others as a
transporter.  Ah, here we are."
       Just like before, Big Horn seemed to have some sort of sense about
where the portal opening was, though I could see nothing but plain air.  He
moved his hands and felt for the energy.
       "Here it is.  Now, if I wanted to, I could close this portal like
this if I didn't need it anymore.  But I'm going to reopen it instead."
       "Do you need to chant again?" I asked.
       "Not since this one is already open, no.  Now, please look away so
you don't see me naked, as I need to move this loincloth aside."
       I laughed.  "That loincloth covers less of your nudity than a square
tissue would.  I've seen bits and pieces of your dick over and over again."
       "But have you seen the whole thing?"
       "No."
       "Then my garment is doing just what's it's supposed to do.  I ask
again to avert your eyes."
       I looked away as he asked.  It looked to me like he was playing with
himself, and the next thing I knew, that portal had appeared and his
loincloth was safely replaced.
       I didn't know if Big Horn's dick really had the power, or if that
was just his fantasy.  But either way, his power was working wonderfully.
       First the large portal perimeter glowed with unnatural red light.
Then, the interior turned to solid blackness.
       "Now that this portal is open, it's still waiting for me to select
which other portal I want to open and travel through, since there are
several."  He reached his hand into the blackness of the circle, and it
disappeared completely, making me gasp.
       "Could I select which portal if I put my hand in like that?" I
asked.
       "Here, try it," Big Horn said.
       I walked up to the portal's surface, standing right next to Big
Horn.  I put my hand a few inches from the surface.  Fear froze me
suddenly, making me worry I was going to lose my hand.
       "Don't be afraid."
       I swallowed, held my breath, then moved my hand outwards.
       It hit something, and I looked carefully.  It had hit the black
surface of the portal like it was a pane of glass.
       "I can't move it any further," I said.
       "No one else can do this but me," Big Horn said.  He shut his eyes.
"With my hand in the hole, I can sense all the other dormant portals I have
waiting for me.  If I wanted to, I could destroy any of those portals.  But
right now, I'm just going to select the portal in my camp that I made
earlier today."
       He seemed to make a selection, and the portal's black surface turned
into the starry night scene of his camp by the creek.  I realized I could
then put my hand through without any problem.
       "You must scare people to death when you open those things around
them," I said.
       "I can, yes," he said.  "But luckily, when I try to open a portal
like this from the inside, wherever a closed portal lays hidden, I have a
sense about what is around that opening.  I can feel the difference if a
portal opening is being watched, like this one in town was earlier, or if
no one is witnessing it, like the one in my camp right now.  So, I can
safely use the portals to travel places outside the Territory among humans
without them ever witnessing the portals.  Of course, it helps in that case
to put the portals out of the way instead of on busy streets."
       I couldn't imagine Big Horn outside of the time warp of this
Territory, that's for sure.
       "Alright, goodnight," Big Horn said.  "Get back before Syd notices
you're gone."
       "He's way too into himself to notice anything about what I am doing
so soon."
       Big Horn nodded to me, and then walked through his portal opening.
He waved to me, and then closed the portal behind him, which closed the
portal in front of me as well.
       I took my time walking back to Lettie's.  When I sat back down at
the poker table, I saw Jeremiah's pile of chips had grown significantly.
At first I assumed it was because he had taken my chips, but then I saw all
of my chips right where I left them.  He must have just been doing really
well.  I noticed that the Hispanic woman who had bluffed me in my first
hand was gone from the table.  She must have run out of chips.
       I picked up where I left off in the game.  It wasn't long before I
heard Syd's set end on stage with Lettie, and I wondered if that meant he
would be ready to leave.  I was more than ready myself.  When Syd came to
the poker table, I would have sworn he was collecting me to leave, but
instead he sat down at the one empty seat and gave his money to the dealer,
who gave him a stack of chips.
       "Oooh, nice stack of chips, sweetie pie!" Syd said to me.
       "Sweetie Pie?" Jeremiah asked.  He glared at Syd, clearly not liking
the idea that he knew me.  He leaned away from me, and I knew that I had
just lost my secret helper in the game.
       Oddly enough, when Syd sat down, he asked the dealer for some quick
reminders on the rules, as he hadn't played this game much.  It shocked me,
since I knew he played poker all the time, and I almost called him on it.
He was as transparent as I had been during my first hand about his cards,
and that caused him to lose the first couple of hands.  He really wasn't a
very good player at all.
       Then, as the hands flew by, something started to change.  He was
still acting just as clueless about not being transparent about his hand,
only instead of lamenting his poor cards, he started getting excited by his
good luck.  When he started betting heavily, people started to fold, and he
never had to show his cards.  Soon, he was making back all the money he had
lost.  It dawned on me.  Syd was being deceptive from the start.  He was
hustling everyone, by playing the jovial dimwit.
       The problem Syd started having was the person sitting to my right.
Jeremiah was an odd duck.  He made no attempt to bluff that I had seen.  He
remained mostly silent throughout the game, and gave off an air of steely
intimidation.  But he didn't need Syd's tricks to win.  In fact, he was the
one person who could see through Syd's bluffs every time.
       Without Jeremiah's help, I was running out of chips fast.  The three
other humans at the table were having the same luck.  They kept asking the
dealer to cash them more and more chips.  Syd was picking up a good portion
of their chips, but most of them were still being moved towards Jeremiah's
end of the table.
       Then, I had to go all in when I thought I had a good hand, but
Jeremiah had a better one, and I was out.  "Well, Syd, if you need me, I'll
be over at the bar.  Come and get me when you want to leave."
       "Hold on, I'm coming with you.  Need a drink.  Dealer, do this hand
without me."
       Syd followed me over to the bar and asked Tom for a beer.
       "Do you see what's taking place over there?" he asked.
       "You're doing pretty well."
       "But not nearly as well as that Riley scoundrel.  Clearly he's
cheating."
       I laughed.  "Anyone that might be better than you must be cheating,
right Syd?"
       "Look, I've played him before.  He never even bluffs.  He always
puts his cards down at the end, so I know he plays it straight.  He just
knows when to fold and when to stay in.  Something is real fishy about the
guy.  The whole town knows his reputation.  But no one has ever been able
to catch him cheating."
       "You know what, I actually believe you," I said.
       "Whatever his trick is, it can be disrupted.  That's where you come
in."
       "What do you mean by that?  I'm out of the game."
       "That's fine, but you'll sit back down in your seat.  He clearly is
drawn to you.  He keeps looking at you in the middle of our hands.  We're
going to use this weakness to our advantage.  I want you to scoot closer to
him.  I know you're not really capable of flirting, but do your best."
       "No way!" I said.  "This is ridiculous.  I'm not going to flirt with
some vampire stranger.  You can do your own flirting.  You're supposed to
be irresistible, right?"
       "Trust me, I'm not this guy's type.  Look, I'm not giving you an
option here.  You are supposed to be doing what I tell you to do, for the
sake of your family.  Now, I want you to flirt with him, and I want you to
keep your mouth shut and go along with everything I do."
       "What does that mean?"
       "Well, if the flirting ain't working, I'm gonna have to do my own
cheating.  Luckily, I got an ace up my sleeve."
       "What's that?"
       "No, I mean, I literally have an ace up my sleeve."  He showed me
his wrist to prove it.  "Just remember to go along with everything I do.  I
promise, it's all part of my plan."
       I gave Syd a sneer, then walked back to the poker table and took my
seat again.  "Thought I would see how this exciting game turns up," I said
to Jeremiah.
       Syd once again took his seat and was dealt into the next hand.  When
Jeremiah was looking down at his cards, Syd caught my eyes and nodded
towards Jeremiah, making it clear what he was wanting me to do.
       I sighed, and then turned to Jeremiah.  "So, did I ever tell you
how, uh, snazzy your outfit is?" I asked him.  Syd was right, I was not the
best at flirting.  There is an element of deceit in flirting, and that was
not my strength.
       Jeremiah glared at me briefly but didn't respond to my question.
       Syd nodded at me again, so I tried once more.  "Jeremiah, I can tell
you go to the gym a lot.  What do you bench press?"
       Again, Jeremiah just glared at me in response, and I wondered if
they even had gyms in this town, and if he had ever heard of a bench press.
       Tom came over to take drink orders from the bar, and while Jeremiah
was placing his order, Syd looked over at me and whispered, "Less talkin,'
more touching!"
       I sighed again, but this time, in the middle of the next hand, I
reached over and put my right hand on his upper left arm.  Under his rolled
up sleeves, I could feel his big and burly arm muscles.  He may have not
been going to any gym, but his muscles spoke otherwise.  He flexed his
right arm when I touched him, a little signal to me that my touch was
appreciated by him.
       On the next hand of poker, I also started to rub my right foot along
his left leg, just above his cowboy boot.  I wasn't sure if that was
working, then when he shook my hand off his left arm and stuck it out of
the way under the table, I figured I knew my answer.  He was more into
winning the poker match than he was into me.
       Then, I felt that hidden left hand on my right knee, and I raised my
eyebrow.  He squeezed me there secretly as he raised Syd.  Slowly, that
hand was getting higher and higher on my leg, until he was squeezing my
upper thigh.
       Just as the old man went out of the game, Jeremiah's left hand had
moved to my butt.  He enjoyed groping me there as he continued to play.
I'm sure Syd could tell from the odd look on my face that something was
going on under the table, but he seemed more and more exasperated as he
kept losing.  He nodded at me again, so I placed my right hand on
Jeremiah's large left knee.
       A hand took place that had particularly high stakes.  The woman
folded early, but Syd and the Asian man stayed in, with Syd betting large
amounts of his chips.  The Asian man had to go all in to keep going.
       As Jeremiah flipped over his winning hand on the table, his hand
under the table grabbed my own and moved it from his knee down his thigh,
and then when he got halfway up his leg, he pushed my hand to the right,
towards his inner thigh.  His leg muscles were solid, but my hand ended up
on something even harder, a huge steel-like rod running down his left pants
leg.  Wow, Jeremiah must have been absolutely turned on by my flirtations.
Were all vampires this hung?
       The Asian man left the table in an angry huff.  Then there were just
three players remaining.
       Jeremiah's left hand stayed firmly on top of my right hand, pinning
mine against his hard shaft.  As the play resumed, I squeezed the huge
thing in my hand.  After a couple minutes, Jeremiah wanted more.  He pulled
my hand up his shaft towards the crotch of his jeans, then he placed my
hand over the round double outlines of his huge balls.  I rubbed then
through the brown denim fabric for a while until he pushed my hand back
onto the base if his dick.
       He guided my hand slowly down the length of his cock, making me push
against it real hard.  When we got to his head, I could feel a hot, wet
spot of precum that soaked through, and I rubbed this sticky spot.  He
pushed my hand back up his shaft, then back down, then back up, faster this
time.  I started moving my hand on my own accord, rubbing his shaft up and
down.  I heard him emit a very slight growl in response, one that would not
be heard through Lettie's music by anyone but me.
       After a couple more hands a lot more rubbing, there was another high
stakes hand.  Once again, the woman folded early, and Jeremiah rose.  Syd
had to go all in this time to stay in the game.  When Jeremiah flipped over
his cards at the end, they narrowly beat Syd's.  Syd was out of chips.
       "No, I'm not ready to end this," Syd said as Jeremiah collected his
chips.
       "Do you have anymore cash?" the dealer asked Syd.
       "I'm totally out."
       "Then I'm afraid the match is over for you."
       "Look, there must be something on me that I can pawn off," Syd told
the dealer.  "My jeans.  I bought these at a fancy store outside the
Territory.  They're worth a couple hundred of bucks."
       "Sorry, cash only," the dealer said.  "No exceptions."
       "Damn."  He looked at Jeremiah.  "Hey, what about you?  You want to
spot me a couple hundred chips for these jeans?"
       "I have no desire to see you take your pants off," he said.
       "Ha, maybe because I'm going commando."
       "I'll spot you if you take your pants off," the Hispanic woman said
excitedly.
       Jeremiah looked at her chips on the table.  "You barely have
anything left, lady."
       "Oh, you're right, never mind."
       Syd narrowed his eyes at Jeremiah.  "I bet I know a pair of pants
you will be interested in buying.  I'll offer you Jake's pants.  How much
would those be worth to you?"
       I couldn't believe my ears.
       "Underwear too?" Jeremiah asked.
       "Of course," Syd replied.  "And you'd get them immediately upon
payment."
       "Five hundred."
       "Six."
       "Only if he sits on my lap until the match is over."
       "Done."
       I was absolutely stunned.
       "Jakey, take em off!" Syd yelled.
       I was about to snap back that they belonged to me and I hadn't
agreed to sell them, but Syd gave me a look that made me remember my
threatened family, darn him.  Sighing again angrily, I gave him my meanest
stare as I unbuttoned my pants and pulled them and my underwear totally
off.  I handed them to Jeremiah, who just tossed them carelessly on the
dirty floor.
       As Syd took his money and the dealing resumed, Jeremiah pulled me
down onto his lap.  I tried to sit astraddle his left thigh, and therefore
avoid direct contact with his crotch, but he forced me to sit on his lap
proper.  His brown denim covered thighs rubbed against my bare, smooth
hamstrings.  He nestled the crotch of his pants right in my bare butt
crack.  I felt his hard dick through his pants, even felt that sticky
precum spot against my leg.
       He used his strong arms to pull me back against him as tightly as I
would go.  As he bit my left ear, he started to thrust his crotch against
my bare butt, the denim of his pants scratching my sensitive skin.
       While he raised Syd on the table, he reached his right hand under my
body and started to rub his fingers up and down my butt crack.  I felt his
fingers find my butthole, and starting to knead it excitedly.  This went on
for a winning hand, and then he raised his fingers to my lips, and at
first, I was unclear what he wanted.  Then he forced his fingers inside my
mouth, so I did as he desired, and sucked on them.  They were very large
and tasted sweaty.
       He removed his fingers from my mouth and returned his hand back
under my butt.  This time, when his hand returned to my butthole, I felt
his wet digits pressed against me.
       I jumped as I was surprised by the feeling of Jeremiah fingering my
hole.  It felt like so much volume inside me, that I assumed his whole hand
was in there.  It took me a few moments to get used to it, as I realized
that only his index finger was inside.
       He pulled his finger out of me, and used that hand to toss in some
chips.  I wondered if anyone who touched those chips would have any idea
where his hand had just been.
       He pulled me a few inches above his lap, and I wondered why.  I felt
his hand work under me on his own body, and heard the very soft sound of
his belt unbuckling and his zipper going down.  Uh oh.
       He lowered me back onto his lap, and I could still feel the denim of
his pants against my lower thighs, only this time, instead of his dick
pointing down his pantsleg, it was sticking straight up, out of the crotch
of his pants.  He pressed it with the underside pressing against my
buttcrack, and I could feel that he had unbuttoned his pants, leaving his
whole dick exposed, with only his balls still covered up.  I couldn't see
the thing, but man did it feel massive in my crack.
       He wrapped his left arm against my front, accidentally rubbing my
boner, as he used his strength to pull me hard back against his pole.  I
could feel his warm precum ooze into my crack, making his thrusts smoother.
He started to grunt a little as he fucked my ass without actually
penetrating me.  All the while, he continued he game above the table,
though by now it must have been obvious to the others that his focus wasn't
entirely on the game.
       His strong brown hands started to search up my shirt, feeling my
bare skin on my torso.  As he thrust against me, I felt his now sweaty
pubic bush push against my butt.  Some of the sweat ended up lubing my
crack for the benefit of his huge tool.
       He placed his rough hand on the top of my butt as he continued to
fuck me, holding me in place.
       He folded a round, and gave up his chips right away.
       He placed his lips to the side of my neck, kissing me softly there.
I started to grunt as he started pounding me harder than ever, knocking the
breath out of me, and he reacted by covering my mouth tightly with his hand
and then hitting my crack even more forcefully.
       Precum oozed all over my crack, and I could feel it dripping off me.
       Both hands held hard onto my hips as he stared at Syd, trying to
read his new hand.  Then, I felt him clasp his hands in front of my body as
he kept on fucking me.
       While holding me tight against his body with his right arm, he sat a
few inches off his chair, supporting all of my weight effortlessly with no
support.  He quickly used his left hand to pull his pants down to his
cowboy boots.
       He lowered his bare butt against the hard wood chair, and then
pressed his dick back in my wet crack.  This time, I could feel his hot
balls rubbing against the bottom of my crack as he thrust into me.
       He spread my knees wide and hung my calves over the sides of his
legs, leaving my butt spread wide open.  He stuck his dick lower, under my
butt this time.  I could feel his sticky dick press along from my butthole
up my perineum.  His rod went under my balls.  Reaching up my shirt with
both hands, he grabbed my pecs and fondled them.  Then, he started to fuck
his dick against me again, only this time he was thrusting underneath me.
I looked down, and I could see his huge knob coming out from behind me
under my balls.
       He used his arms to move me up and down effortlessly on his lap,
using the motion of my bouncing butt to rub his dick.  He was getting more
and more impassioned, less focused on the game.
       Excitedly, he knocked the chair back away from him as he stood up.
He continued to hold my hips against his dick, supporting my lower body
easily.  But he wasn't supporting my upper body, so I leaned into the table
with my elbows.  No part of my lower body was touching the floor, and he
leaned forward, putting every inch of his front against my back.  He
wrapped his arms around my chest under my shirt as he rammed me hard.
Everyone around was staring at us, which was very embarrassing.
       I felt his sticky dickhead press against my hole, and I froze.
Surely he would draw the line at actually entering me, wouldn't he?  Syd
never agreed to penetration.  He kept pushing, and I felt his head inch
just slightly inside me, and he held it there.
       I felt his warm tongue on my neck, licking the sensitive skin there
thoroughly.
       I felt the unmistakable prick of his vampire fangs against my neck;
I hadn't even known his fangs were erect.  He wasn't going to bite me here
in front of all these people, could he?  That wasn't at all part of the
bargain Syd had made, after all.  No, he must have just been teasing
himself.
       In the next two hands, the Hispanic lady lost her chips to Jeremiah,
though she stuck around to see who would win.  Clearly she was rooting for
Syd.  Everyone seemed to be.
       But, in the very next hand, Syd went all in on a full house he had.
Jeremiah put down his hand, and he had four sixes, enough to beat Syd.
Syd's jaw dropped as Jeremiah gathered up his chips.
       "That's it, then," the dealer said.  "Jeremiah Riley wins again."
       "Wait, wait, wait," Syd said.  "This can't be over.  I have to have
something else on you that you'll buy."
       "You have nothing else to bargain with."
       "My shirt I got from outside the Territory--"
       "I don't give a shit about anything you got from outside the
Territory.  As far as I'm concerned, they shouldn't ever let someone back
into the Territory if they choose to live on the outside."  Clearly this
was a personal dig on Syd.
       "I know one thing I picked up outside of the Territory that I bet
you'll want."
       "Not likely."
       "Jake," Syd said, and at first I thought he was addressing me.
       "Yes?" I asked.
       "Jake," Syd repeated to Jeremiah.  "I'll sell him to you.  Do with
him as you please."
       I was pissed.  "You can't--"
       "Zip it, Jake!" Syd ordered.
       "Is this for real?" Jeremiah said.
       "Totally," Syd said.  "Look at the back of his neck.  He doesn't
have the Free Man's mark."  Jeremiah ascertained this.  "How many chips is
Jake worth to you?"
       "How much are you asking?"
       "Half of your stash.  Just one caveat.  If you lose your chips to me
tonight, I get to keep Jake.  Take it or leave it."
       Jeremiah didn't even stop to think.  He handed half of his chips
over to Syd, grabbed me, and said, "I'm gonna have so much fun with you."
       On the very next hand, Syd went all in.  Jeremiah looked at Syd,
raised an eyebrow, and then went all in himself.  He put down his card on
the table.  He had a straight.  Then, Syd flipped his cards over.  He had a
flush.  Everyone at the table gasped, most of all Jeremiah.  Everyone but
Jeremiah started to cheer.
       "Jake, get off the man's lap, we're going home," Syd said as he
collected the chips.
       Jeremiah's jaw was hanging down to the floor.  His eyes were still
locked onto Syd's cards.  "No, this can't be."
       "It is, Jeremiah," Syd boasted.
       "No, you cheated!" Jeremiah said angrily.
       Like lightening, Jeremiah reached down to the holster on his right
hip and pulled out his revolver.  Before Syd saw what he was doing, he
pointed it at the man's face and fired.
       The violent bang made me jump, even though I saw it happen and knew
it was coming.  It was shocking, and my ears started to ring.
       Syd's smiling face got knocked back, a bullet hitting him right in
the forehead.  There were two or three more shots, and his once handsome
face turned into a bleeding mess.  He fell to the ground, dead.  People
were screaming.  The band stopped playing.
       Jeremiah jumped on top of Syd's body, pulled a card out of his
sleeve, and showed it to everyone.  "See?  Just what I thought!  Cheater!"
       I heard Lettie yelling, "Out of my way, let me in!"
       I saw all of Syd's blood spilling out all over the floor, and that's
when the violence hit me.  My ears rang, my vision narrowed, I felt weak in
the knees.
       I collapsed.  I was totally out.

       *****

       I woke up in an uncomfortable position and I couldn't breathe.  I
realized that my stomach was draped over someone's shoulder.  When I opened
my eyes, all I could see was some man's butt and legs walking.  I felt his
arm holding my legs against his chest.
       "What's going on?" I asked.
       "I'm taking what's rightfully mine," I heard Jeremiah say.
       I was being carried by Jeremiah through Lettie's.  Where Syd's body
had once lain, there was just blood now.  I couldn't see anyone I knew,
Lettie and Tom had disappeared somewhere.
       I refused to be dragged out of here like a won football trophy.  I
heaved my body off Jeremiah and landed on the floor.
       "No, you're coming with me, you belong to me now," he said as he
tackled me on the ground.
       I started to scream, and hit and kicked him with everything I had.
Of course, he would easily overpower me, but that didn't mean I wasn't
going to go down fighting.  That was, until I looked up into the barrel of
a new revolver, at which point I froze and stopped screaming.  I had just
seen the nasty, violent effect these things had on flesh, and I wasn't
eager for a repeat, especially not my own flesh.
       "Hold it right there," said a deep, unfamiliar voice.
       I looked up at the man holding the gun.  He was a white vampire with
green eyes, as muscular as the other vampires.  He had squinty, suspicious
eyes and an unshaven face.  His hair was short and light brown colored.
His pants weren't jeans, but seemed almost like old fashioned law
enforcement pants, greenish-grey in color, and super tight fitting, so much
so that I could see the outline of his huge, soft penis pointed down his
leg.  His shirt, too, looked a little bit like law-enforcement, it was
beige in color, and was a tight-fitting short-sleeve snap-up with a wide
collar.  He had two snap pockets over his pecs, and the top of the shirt
was unbuttoned, leaving his large pec-cleft bare, showing off some
chest-fur.  His short sleeves were bursting with arm muscles.  He had a
large handle-bar moustache.  He looked quite intimidating, but I was
relieved to see an old fashioned silver star bade on his chest, with the
word "Sheriff," engraved on it.
       "Oh, law enforcement, thank goodness."
       "That's him, Sheriff Towerly," I heard Jeremiah say as he stood up.
"He's the thief's accomplice."
       "What?" I asked.  "I'm not an accomplice."
       "Did you know your friend was going to cheat?" the sheriff asked,
his voice deep.
       "Well, yes," I said, not able to come up with a lie on the spot like
that, and not really feeling comfortable lying to a policeman.
       "Then you're an accomplice, and you're under arrest," the sheriff
said.  "Get up to your knees and put your hands above your head.  Jeremiah,
thanks for the tip."
       Jeremiah clearly had hoped to leave with me, but the interference of
the sheriff seemed to make him happy just to leave at all.  He slipped out
the front door.
       The sheriff moved behind me and I felt my hands being cuffed.  Man,
did I hate those things.  "Come on, move!"
       "Where are we going?" I asked.
       "Back to the station."
       He held my arms behind me and used them to shove me towards the
door.  Soon he was leading me down the street.
       "Did ya forget to put yer pants on today?" he asked me.
       "No, I lost them," I said.
       "How'd ya lose `em?  `Cause if you're a whore, all legal whores have
to work for Lettie in this town, or else they get jail time."
       "I am not a whore!" I said with conviction.  I thought carefully,
not wanting to tell him anything that might sound incriminating, but also
not wanting to lie to him.  "I lost my pants in a poker match," I said,
knowing that there was no lie in that.
       "Hmmph," he said.
       Turned out, the police station was right around the corner, and we
reached it without me having to go through the embarrassment of passing any
other citizens with my pants off.  It was a small building made from simple
brick instead of all the wood structures that were the norm around here.
Towerly opened the large metal door and pushed me inside, shutting it
behind him.
       I looked around.  It was the smallest police station I had ever
seen, and it was totally empty.  There was a desk and a table, a door that
went off to a bathroom, and two empty jail cells.  I noticed that the two
cells were completely different in purpose.  One looked very period
appropriate, with narrow iron bars with huge gaps in them, large enough for
someone to stick their head or leg through.  It really didn't look safe for
anyone walking close the cell.  The other cell looked more modern, with
thick, sturdy bars with almost no space to stick anything through.  I
figured this second one must have been for the vampire prisoners.  "Where
are the other police?" I asked.
       "It's just me for the time being," Towerly said.  "I live upstairs."
       "Listen, I'm telling you, I was barely an accomplice at all," I
said.  "I was coerced into going along with the cheating.  You have to
believe me."
       "So, I should just take your word for it?" he asked me.  He looked
me up and down, then twitched his handlebar moustache from left to right.
His penetrating gaze was making me feel self-conscious about my
nakedness. "But Sheriff Towerly always finds the truth."
       Now, growing up black in the South gives you a certain hesitation
when it comes to white policemen, but that's really just because of the
horror stories I've heard.  Personally, I've never had a problem with the
police, and I think it all comes down to one particular rule I have.
Normally, if someone is doing something boneheaded, I lose my temper pretty
fast and call them out on their stupid decisions.  I always made myself be
more patient when it came to police officers.  A white policeman picking up
an innocent black youth just because he looks like a thug often sends the
black youth into righteous indignation, which is understandable.  This
attitude in turn sets the police officer off.  If the youth had been
cooperative, even knowing the police are wrong, then the police would have
been likely to let him go after some questioning.  I like to think I have
control over my temper.
       Perhaps it helped a little that the policeman looking over me was
the hottest one I'd ever seen.  Man, he had so many muscles it seemed like
his upper body was going to burst through that shirt at any moment.  Those
snaps must have been really, really sturdy.  His cop pants also showed off
every muscle, including his ample, but soft, package.  The lower part of
his crotch was so filled out, you would have thought he had his penis
carefully tucked down and under.  But then you noticed his soft, huge rod
pointing down the thigh of his left leg, and you realize that the filled
out crotch were due to his huge balls and those alone.  Were all vampires
this hung?  All evidence so far pointed towards the affirmative.
       "I need to search you before I lock you in that cell," he said.
       "Don't I get a phone call?"
       He squinted, not liking the question.  "I know what a phone is," he
said.  "But only certain people in the Territory manage to finagle one," he
said.
       "Well, how can I contact my friends?  I'm staying with Della Logan,
she should be notified."
       "Uh-huh.  Do you know how many people come in here claiming to be
friends with the mayor?  Not gonna work on me, pal."  He went behind me and
unlocked my cuffs, thank goodness.  As he took them away, I rubbed my sore
wrists.  He spun me around to look at me in the face.  "Now, strip."
       "I haven't got much on," I said.
       "I need it all to come off."
       I took off my sweater and shirt until I was shirtless.  I handed
these over to him, which he inspected carefully, then placed on the table.
I don't know if he was worried I was concealing some contraband, or if he
was searching for evidence against me.
       "Shoes and socks too," he said.
       I made a face, looking down at the brown brick floors that hadn't
looked like they had ever been cleaned, but I was smart enough not to voice
that concern to him.  I removed and handed them to him, which he looked
through then placed them aside.
       Now, I was completely naked, feeling very awkward as he stared me
down.  Luckily, there was a roaring fire going in the station's fireplace,
and there wasn't much ventilation, so the place really was quite toasty.
       "Raise your arms to the sides," he commanded, and I did as he asked.
       He knelt down in front of me and put his strong, large hands on the
tops of my feet.  He rubbed them upwards along my shins, his rough skin
scraping against me.  I didn't know what he was looking for, but the look
of deep focus on his face seemed to suggest he was intent on finding it.
He moved his hands up past my knees and up my sensitive thighs.  When he
got to my crotch, he grabbed my penis and lifted it up, looking at the
space underneath it.  It was so unexpected, that my dick twitched in
response.  Really, it made me rather uncomfortable.
       Thankfully, he only checked me there for a second before moving on,
his hands rubbing up my abs as he stood up.  He was standing so close to me
now, I could smell his sweat, not overpowering, but sexy.  He moved his
hands to my sides, and rubbed up to under my armpits.  Then he moved them
inwards, to my chest, and he rubbed my nipples.  When his hands went up my
neck, he left them on my lips.
       "Open yer mouth," he commanded, and I did.
       He stuck his right hand in my mouth, and I cringed.  I couldn't
believe that he was inspecting orally without wearing any type of
sanitation glove.  He hadn't even washed his hands first, and they
certainly didn't taste clean.
       His fingers lingered in my mouth, examining the space under my
tongue.  I suppose someone could have been hiding some contraband there,
but it all seemed so ridiculous to me.  Finally he removed his right hand.
With his left hand, I saw him pull out his black, old-fashioned police
club.
       "Turn around and face the wall," he said, motioning with his club,
and I did as he asked.  "I want you to place yer hands on the wall above
you.  And spread your legs."  I put my hands on the dirty wall and spread
my feet.
       I expected to feel more oh his hands rubbing around my body.  I was
surprised that the first thing I felt was his wet fingers rubbing against
my butthole.  Though the rubbing would have been pleasant in other
circumstances, it only made me uncomfortable here.
       I went from being uncomfortable to being totally shocked as suddenly
his wet index finger plunged into my chute.
       "Yaaah!" I cried out in surprise, naturally shoving my body away
from him, instinctually moving away from my assailant.  But with his left
hand, he put the club against my pubes and hips in front of me, forcing me
to stay put.
        "That's what all the prisoners say when I get to this part," he
said, chuckling.
       I could do nothing but hold still and take it.  I felt his finger
move around inside me.  "Shouldn't you be wearing latex gloves?" I asked.
       "Son, this is the Wild West.  We ain't got fancy stuff like that
just lyin' `round here.  This is how it's always done."
       Suddenly, in spite of the discomfort I was feeling, I got a sudden
bust of pleasure from something he touched deep inside me.  Then, he pulled
his finger out again.
       I felt his hands rub along the fleshy part of my exposed butt.  He
rubbed there repeatedly, and carefully.  I had no idea why.  "What's this?"
he asked me.
       "What's what?"
       He rubbed he fingers against my butt again.  "This dried, sticky
substance."
       I winced.  Darn it, that must have been something Jeremiah had left
on me.  Some precum.  How had the sheriff noticed it?
       I knew I couldn't be upfront about this one.  "It must just be some
of the lotion I use." I lied.
       Mortifyingly, I felt the sheriff's nose against my buttcheek and
heard him sniff.  "Doesn't smell like lotion.  Now, if you won't be honest
with me, I'm gonna get to the bottom of this.  I know the cops where you're
from have something fancy called DNA evidence, but here in the Old West, I
gotta rely on my special detective skills.  Now, it so happens I have an
excellent sense of taste.  You'd better hold still."
       He used his left hand to hold me from moving forward with his black
stick, and grabbed my right hip with his right hand, keeping me from moving
to the side.
       I made a face as I felt his warm tongue on my right butt-cheek,
tasting whatever residue was there.  He lapped at my right butt check, then
moved to my left one, licking me and down with his strong tongue.
       His licks moved inwards, and suddenly his tongue was on my butthole
itself, making my gasp audibly as he circled his tongue around my hole and
pushed it just the smallest way inside.  This method seemed completely
pointless to me.
       He pulled his face away from me.  "Yup, no doubt about it.  It's
dried semen, and it's all over your backside."
       Darn it, I couldn't believe the licking had actually worked.  I was
caught.
       He spun me around to face him, and he looked at me in the eyes.  He
looked very, very angry.  "I knew you were nothing but a lyin' piece of
shit," he said.
       "Okay, look, I was lying, I admit it, but it's not as bad as you
think.  That's not full on semen, it's just someone's pre-ejaculate."
       "I don't believe you, whore."
       "I'm not a whore!  Look, I'm telling the truth.  I swear I'm not a
whore."
       "I know you been out there on the street, peddling your ass to
vampires who are willing to pay you.  I'm sure you let them bite you too."
       "No, I swear."
       "Your word means nothing here," he said.  "Maybe you'll confess
after a long, long time rotting away in this here cell."
       He pushed me towards the less secure looking cell and made me get
inside.  He locked it with a set of old-fashioned keys on a large metal
ring.  I looked at the disgusting looking cot and toilet that were in this
cell.
       "How long do I have to wait in here before I go to trial?" I asked.
       "For this kind of crime, no trial is necessary.  I am your judge and
jury, whore."
       "Well, how long will you keep me locked up?"
       "For your crime?  Two years."
       "Two years!"
       "Though my prisoners don't always live that long, I'm afraid," he
said.  "I like to see my prisoners suffer for their crimes.  I keep them
right on the brink of starvation, just so they'll have a little more
respect for the law when they get out.  If they live long enough to get
out."
       "That's not fair!"
       "Maybe you shouldn't have been selling your ass for dollars then,"
he said.
       "Listen, I swear to you, I am not a whore.  Please, you have to
believe me.  Give me a lie detector test or something and you'll see I pass
with flying colors."
       He squinted.  "We don't have any of those fancy machines here," he
said.  "Although, there might be another way to tell if you were lying."
       "Yes, what is it?" I asked.
       "There's a way I can kind of read your mind.  Well, at least, tell
what you've been up to in the past couple of days.  Have you heard of what
vampires call `specials?'"
       I nodded.  "Yes.  They are very rare vampires who have some extra
ability that the other vampires don't have."
       "That's right.  You ever known a special?"
       "Yes," I said.  "Big Horn.  He opens portals."
       "How does he open them?" asked Towerly, raising an eyebrow.
       I was embarrassed.  "Well, I guess he opens them with his penis."
       The sheriff nodded.  "I too am a special, and my ability is kind of
like his. Only instead of opening portals, my schlong has another talent.
If it touches living flesh, I get a sort of psychic sense about where that
flesh has been recently, and what that flesh has done.  It's the one thing
that would make me absolutely certain if you were lying or not."
       "That's really, really bizarre," I said.
       "You willin' to try this method out?  If I learn you're not an
unregistered whore, I'll let you go scott free."
       "I guess so," I said.  "How does it work?"
       He pressed his body against the bars.  "Why don't you pull out my
baton and see for yourself?" he said.
       I really didn't like this idea.  But I reminded myself that when Big
Horn used his powers, even though they involved his dick, there wasn't
anything overtly sexual about it.  I had to assume the same thing would
hold true for the sheriff.  "All right," I said.
       I got on my knees, and he pushed his bulging crotch through the
bars.  I lifted my hands and unbuckled his black belt through the bars.  I
pulled open the button of his pants, and unzipped the zipper.
       "Now, don't be shy," he said.  "Go ahead and pull the sucker out.
Don't be alarmed by the size of my unit.  I swear it won't bite."
       All I had done by opening unbuttoning his pants was to expose his
brown pubes.  I had already noticed that his dick was pointed down his
pants leg.  I stuck my hand in, and found the base of the thing, still
soft, but oh so large.
       Meanwhile, he unbuttoned his police shirt, leaving it wide open.  I
could see that his abdomen was thick with brown fur, but totally, totally
cut.
       I used my right hand, still wrapped around the base of his dick, to
gently pull the rest of the thing up and out of his pants leg.  Damn, was
this thing long.  Finally, I finished retrieving the thing, and held it
there as it stuck out into air, his balls still covered by the crotch of
his jeans.
       His dick was circumcised, and absolutely huge.  Numerous thick veins
covered the skin, and the tip of his dick was so pretty.  But I wasn't here
to admire his dick.
       I squeezed it in my hand.  "Is this working?  Can you tell I'm
telling the truth now?"
       He shook his head.  "No.  The power works better the more of your
skin my unit touches.  Just shuttup for a minute and try to do exactly what
I ask you to do."  He seemed to focus, like he was getting some sort of
psychic impression already.
       "Okay," I said.
       "Stand up," he told me, and I did.
       "Rub my unit against your belly," he said.
       I nodded.  With my right hand still wrapped around his warm, weighty
shaft, I pressed his dickhead against my abdomen.
       "Yes, rub it around good a thorough," he said.
       I rubbed his pink head around my navel and over my abs while he held
onto my pec with his rough hand.
       When he seemed to be satisfied with that, he pushed me down until my
pecs were about on level with his dick.  He pushed my hand away.  Leaning
onto the bars between us, he lowered his soft, weighty dick down until it
grazed my clavicle.  Without any hands, he drooped his tool all over me.
Then, he grabbed his dickhead with his right hand.  He started to graze his
pissslit up and down my pecs, running them carefully over my sensitive
nipples.
       "What are you seeing?" I asked him.
       "So far, I'm not getting any sign that you're a whore."
       "See?  I promise you, I'm not one."
       "But I need to get to the source of alleged activity before I'll
know for sure," he said.  "I need you to turn around."
       I spun around, still kneeling.  I felt him run his soft penis up and
down my neck and back.
       "Okay, now stand up and bend over."
       Once again, I did as he asked, wanting to get to the bottom of this.
I felt him stick his police club back against my pelvis and pull me back
until my legs and butt were flush against the bars.  I could see him
through my legs in an upside down angle.
       With his right hand on his soft dick, he rubbed his huge, pink knob
all over my butt.  I could feel his dickhead circle my butthole, then press
against it.  He spit into his hand, and then moistened his dickhead.  Then,
using his wet fingers, he pushed the head against my butthole until just
the very tip went inside.  If he were hard, or if I had a larger hole, he
might have gotten inside me.  But I knew there was no worry of that now.
       "See?  Can you feel that I'm no whore now?" I asked.
       He patted my on the butt.  "I can tell that this end hasn't been
used in that way, yes."
       "So am I free to go?" I asked, standing up again hopefully.
       "No," he said.  "I'm still not sure about your mouth.  You might
have been giving out blow jobs for dollars.  I need to inspect your mouth
good and proper.  Then I'll know."
       "Alright," I said.
       "Drop to your knees," he said, and pushed me down on them with his
baton.
       He looked down on me, and I looked up at him.  He dangles his huge
soft cock over my face through the bars, rubbing it's flesh over my eyes,
nose, then lips.
       "Open yer mouth."
       I parted my wet lips, and he put the tip of his huge head on my
tongue, just barely touching me.  Slowly, he pulled me towards him with his
club, until half of his soft head was in my mouth.
       "Open your mouth wider," he said, and I did.
       He pushed his whole huge head in my mouth.  I stood perfectly still,
afraid to move.
       "I need you to put yer lips around my head," he said.
       I did as I was told, wrapping my lips around his huge mushroom head,
which was no easy task.  I tried hard no to bite him, and the result was
that his soft dickhead was just sitting in my warm mouth, pressed against
my tongue.
       "Yeah, that's it," he said.  "Now, try to go deeper."
       He pulled my head towards the bars with his club, and I very
carefully took more of his soft manhood into my mouth, trying hard not to
bite him, which was damn difficult with an organ that size in my mouth.
       "More!" he ordered, pulling my head and jerking a couple more inches
of his dick in.
       "I need it all the way!" he said, then pulled me again as hard as he
could towards him.  I scraped his dick flesh with my teeth as he plunged
into my throat, but that's what he would have to deal with if he was going
to go so fast.  But goodness, there I was, with the whole thing inside me,
my nose pressed against his pubic bush.
       His pants fell down to his knees, and his huge balls came out just
in time to slap my chin.
       "Yeah, keep that up," he said, still with his dick all the way in
me.
       I was surprised to feel his dick pulse.  Once, then a second time.
Was he actually getting hard?  His dick pulsed again, and this time I could
feel his dick thickening and lengthening in my mouth.
       "Yeah, take it," he said, and he bucked out so that just his head
was in, pushed in again.  This time, his dick was very hard, and it was
much, much harder to get it in.
       This was not what I signed up for.  There was no way he needed a
blow job to make his ability work.  He should have whatever he needed to
prove my innocence already, and letting him get a blowjob from him would
just prove that I was, in fact, pretty whore-like.
       I bent my eyebrows, moaned my disapproval, and backed up off his
dick.
       "I don't think so," he said, pushing his stupid club behind my head,
preventing me from moving my head off.  "Not till you finish what you
started, slut."
       I looked up angrily at him, and he was looking down at me.  His huge
fangs were erect, sticking out from under his handlebar moustache.  Clearly
he was excited.  "Okay, so I lied about being a special," he said.  "But
you deserve this treatment, after you lied about not being a whore.  I know
your kind perfectly well.  Now show me what a talented mouth ya got!"
       He forced his hard dick down my throat, almost the whole way in, and
I reacted by biting down on his dick.
       He laughed.  "Biting don't hurt when you've got a huge vampire cock,
son.  Go ahead and do it all you want."
       I took him up on his invitation and bit as hard as I could.  Yet, it
was like I was biting into a steel rod.  The harder I bit, the more it felt
like I would damage my teeth.  I lay off it, and he started plunging in and
out, fucking my face real good.
       "Yeah, you little slut, take my dick!" he said.  "You know as well
as I do that the only legal piece of ass in this town is at Lettie's.  We
both know there are other folks out there who are in the business
illegally, but guess what?  They all know to give me a piece of the action
so I turn a blind eye.  Yet, you've been peddling your body for who knows
how long without giving me the smallest little slice?"  He pounded me
harder and harder, clearly out of fierce anger.  "I don't think so.  See?
You forget to pay your dues, and here you are, making up for all that lost
time."
       I tried again to pull my head free, but he had one hand on his club,
and the other hand grabbing viciously into my scalp, keeping me glued to
his dick.  I used my hands to punch his arms, his legs through the bars,
but nothing did any damage.  I tried crawling backwards, away from bars,
but my head still stayed locked in place, and that only made me start to
choke.  I had to stay on my knees.
       "Don't think I'm not taking points off for messing around when you
should be trying to give me the blowjob of a lifetime.  Ya got the sweetest
mouth, but your attitude ain't pretty.  Don't think I can't feel your
anger.  Maybe what you need to settle you down is a whole lot more of this
wicked huge cock."
       He slammed it all the way home, sending my nose crashing into his
sweaty pubes, making me smell his sweat, while at the same time, his golf
balls audibly slapped my chin.
       "Yeah, take it all, whore!"
       I felt him dick swell up to monstrous proportions, then he grunted
as me slammed into me as hard as I could possibly go.  I felt his salty,
creamy load start to shoot down my throat.  He pulled back until just his
head was in my mouth, and he started to shoot his semen right into my
mouth.  There was so much of it, filling my taste buds with its manly
flavor, and I wasn't even trying to swallow it.
       He slapped me on the forehead.  "Swallow my sperm, whore!  Don't
pretend like you don't know how."
       There was no way I was swallowing it, and I didn't even try to keep
a seal with my lips, I just let the huge load ooze out of my mouth,
dripping either on my chin or down his dick.
       "Fine, if yer not gonna swallow it, then you'll get in on yer face,"
he said.
       He his dick out of my mouth, and I gasped for breath.  Still holding
me there with his club, he walloped the rest of his hot juice directly onto
my face.  His thick, white cum first splattered my forehead, then my nose,
then splashed all over my cheeks.
       When he was finally done, he said, "I know you want every last drop
of my sweet, sweet seed."  He wiped his slowly softening dick onto my
closed lips, completely cleaning his own dick on my skin.  Finally, he let
go of me, and I jumped up and backed all the way to the back of the cell,
as far away from him as I could get.
       Needless to say, I was so, so angry.  "Now can I leave?" I asked.
       "Nope," he said.  "Better get comfy."
       I sat down on the cot, trying to clean my face off, and spitting the
rest of his cum out of my mouth.  He put his clothes back on and sat at his
desk and did some paperwork.
       After what I figured to be two hours, I said, "Sheriff, you can't
leave me in here to rot forever, can you?"
       He came back to the bars and leered at me.  He grabbed the keys on
its big key ring, and made like he was unlocking it.  Instead, he pulled
out his dick again, which was as hard as if he hadn't cum in ages, and put
the key ring on his dick.
       "When you're ready to pleasure this cock again, then you can have
the keys.  You gave me some sweet oral already.  Now, I want your ass and I
want your blood."
       "Absolutely not!"
       "Fine, stay in your cell.  This cock will be waiting here for you
for days, weeks, months, even years.  When you're ready, you come and give
this cock what it deserves."
       I refused to give into these demands.  I was not a whore, and would
not be treated like one.  He may have been obstinate, but I would be even
more stubborn, he would learn.
       An hour went by with me staring at his dick through those bars,
holding those keys.
       And then, the door to the station slammed open.
       "Sheriff?" said a man's voice.
       "Syd Logan?  What are you doin' here?" asked the Sheriff as he
quickly zipped up his pants.
       I was shocked.  I got up and looked through the bars towards the
door.  Syd's bullet wounds had completely disappeared, leaving his face
caked with dried blood, but otherwise undamaged.  Syd had been as good as
dead before.  I was amazed at how much it took to kill a vampire for good.
       "I've come for your prisoner," Syd said.  "I'm under express orders
of my father to deliver him to Mareshead tomorrow."
       "The Governor is askin' for him?" Towerly asked.  "Well, of course
then."
       He unlocked my cell and forced me a smile.  "You have a pleasant
day, young fella," he said to me in a pleasant tone I wouldn't have thought
he was capable of, totally for Syd's sake.
       I glared at him, and went and picked up the clothes he had made me
remove, then I left the building with Syd.  "Thanks so much for yer
trouble, Sheriff," Syd said.
       "Why, he was no trouble at all," Towerly said.
       As soon as we left the building, Syd handed me my pants and
underwear.  "Picked these up from the floor of Lettie's," he said.  "Oh,
and you have some cum behind your ear," he said.
       "Eew!" I said, slapping it off frantically. "Syd, this is all your
fault.  What took you so long to come and retrieve me?"
       "Ya mean, besides the gaping holes in my face?  No, that wound
healed soon after I got it, but I lost a lot of blood in the process.  Not
enough to kill me, obviously.  But I lost so much that I decided to roll in
the hay with a couple of my fans at Lettie's and drink their blood to get
it back."
       "So, if you hadn't had drank their blood, would you have died?"
       "I didn't drink their blood tonight `cause my body required it.  No,
you filled that job for me earlier.  I drank their blood `cause if a
vampire loses blood, his strength drops at the same rate it goes up when I
drink blood.  That's why if two vampires are locked together, drinkin' each
other's blood at the dame rate, neither one is gonna get any stronger.  So,
I figure tonight's injuries caused me to revert back a couple days, taking
away the strength I earned from all the blood I had drunk in that time.  A
couple of extra feedings meant that I wouldn't be physically getting
weaker."
       "So, it's all a pride thing.  You didn't want to get incrementally
less strong than you are, considering the huge amount of blood you've drank
in your long life compared to the relatively infinitesimal amount you lost
tonight, so you took advantage of a couple more people than you needed to
tonight."
       "Exactly.  Now it seems like you're really starting to understand
how my beautiful mind works, Jakey.  As long as we're pushing our minds
together, there's something you should know."
        "I don't like the tone of that.  What is it?"
       "Well, you reek."
       I sniffed myself.  "Really?  Well I'll take a shower at Della's."
       "No, you reek of AB negative.  Did you know that's yer blood type,
Jakey?"
       "Well, yes," I said.  "How'd you know that about me?"
       "Male vampires can smell and taste blood types," he said.  "And AB
negative is the rarest of the bunch.  The only other people I've been
friends with who had it was your father and your brother.  You're probably
the only one in the Territory to have this blood type."
       "So, vampires can really smell that on me?" I asked.
       "Big Horn said he could smell your AB negative blood when you were
20 feet away from him when you first crossed paths."
       "Gross!" I said.  "Maybe if I showered and scrubbed really hard, it
won't be so bad."
       "It's nothing on the outside you can just wash off," Syd said.
       "And if I pour your cologne on myself?  Would that help?"
       He shook his head.  "'Fraid not.  Because it's more than just the
smell.  It's more like an intuitive feeling.  You can't hide it or cover it
up.  And the vampires around here who smell you, well...  Imagine I put in
front of you the best smelling, most exquisite food you can conceive of.
Something extremely rare and expensive.  And you're starving.  How much
willpower would you need to turn your back to the food?"
       I shrugged.  "It would suck, but I could do it."
       "Yes, most people could.  But imagine that want multiplied by
tenfold.  Creating cravings so bad, they you can't stop thinking about the
food.  That's what it's like for these vampires around here."
       "So that's why the vampires I've met have been all over me," I said.
       "Exactly," Syd agreed.  "Though a truehearted vampire with a lot of
willpower should still be able to resist your blood."
       Like Big Horn, I figured.
       "This would have been valuable information for me to have before
letting me loose in Lettie's Saloon," I quipped.
       "Eh, the night was a little bumpy, but everything turned out just
fine in the end, didn't it?"
       "I'm not even going to dignify that with an answer."