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ONE
Vin and JD were on coming back from routine patrol when it started. Afterwards neither one could say for sure what, exactly, they noticed first. Maybe it was the quiet, the absolute dead kind of quiet you hear when everything is about to go straight to hell. Maybe it was the black billowy clouds that were roiling overhead. And maybe it was the fear they felt. Maybe it wasn't any of those things. Maybe they hadn't noticed anything at all.
Vin was edgy. He wasn't quite sure why, but trouble was coming. He felt it in that place in his gut he always paid attention to. He hadn't gone wrong yet by following the warnings his gut gave him.
JD was talking a blue streak, but Vin hadn't heard a word the kid said. He was too worried about whatever was going to happen. He eased around in his saddle to check the back trail. Nothing. Turning back around, Vin scanned the trail ahead. Nothing there either. JD had finally noticed Vin's unease and stopped talking. He gave the tracker a questioning look. Vin had no answer for the kid so he just shrugged.
They were passing through a stand of trees when it happened. One minute they were riding cautiously toward home and the next minute all hell broke loose...
Vin's horse reared up at the sound of the gunshots, knocking the tracker from his saddle and sending him sprawling to the ground.
"VIN!" JD cried out, barely keeping his own saddle as he returned fire into the trees.
"JD!" the tracker cried out painfully as a bullet slammed into his lower leg. "Get out of here!" he shouted, drawing the mare's leg and firing at their yet unseen enemy.
But JD didn't obey the sharpshooter. Vin's horse had already run off, so JD, still firing, circled his horse around. Just as he got back to Vin and reached down to grab the tracker's arm, everything went black.
JD landed in a heap at Vin's side. The tracker leaned over the prone youth, brushing the hair from his face. "JD? JD?" He frantically felt along the unconscious body for bullet or knife wounds, not sure what had befallen his companion.
"Well ain't that a sweet sight," growled a voice from over his shoulder. Alarmed, Vin stopped his search and looked up at the ambushers who now surrounded him and JD as they lay side-by-side on the ground. Vin scrunched his eyes and shook his head. He knew his leg had been hit, but thought maybe he'd taken a kick to the head he couldn't remember.
Taking hat in hand, the leader's red hair fell in cascades down her back. Her comrades were all women, too, Vin could see now. He was dumbfounded.
"Lookie, gang, we got us some sweet boys," drawled the redhead. "Let's see if maybe we can change their evil ways. Let's start with this one," she nudged Vin's damaged leg and smiled when he hissed with pain.
Two remarkably strong females bent down and hauled Vin backward away from JD. When he tried to fight them, he was rewarded with a gun butt to his temple. He sagged in their arms, not quite losing consciousness. The next thing he was truly aware of was that he was spreadeagled and tied between two trees.
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JD hurt. His head hurt, and he wasn't quite sure what, but he knew there was something else he should be worried about. He tried to reach up to push his hair out of his eyes, and realized his hands were tied to his feet. JD was bewildered. How had he gotten trussed up like a turkey on Thanksgiving? And, what was that worry that was gnawing at him, that he couldn't put his fingers on?
VIN! Where was Vin? JD looked around desperately trying to find the tracker. Someone had set up a camp. A fire was crackling and a coffee pot hissed and bubbled merrily. He could see his own horse hobbled with a group of horses near a little stream. And, JD was shocked to see, six women were milling around something between the trees. It was only when he heard a groan that he realized was Vin.
"Leave him alone," JD demanded.
The women turned to him in surprise. He sure didn't like the vicious expressions on their faces, but if they left Vin alone they could glare at him like that all day. JD tried to see past them to his friend, but couldn't. At least not until they moved toward him en masse. He caught a glimpse of the tracker and what he saw made his heart sink and the fear rise up strong in his belly.
Vin was naked. Tied between two trees, his body was spreadeagled, allowing the women complete access to the defenseless tracker. Strange designs had been drawn over his chest and down his stomach. JD didn't recognize them, but they made the hair on the back of his neck stand up. They looked....evil.
JD could see the blood that had made its own kind of pattern as it dripped down Vin's face from the wound on his head. And the bruises on the tracker were a colorful counterpoint to the blood and the dull markings on his body.
Vin's head was lolling to the side and JD swallowed a scream as he realized what that meant. Not only was his friend in bad shape, but JD was on his own. Vin wasn't gonna be able to help him.
The women came to a stop in front of the young sheriff. One of them opened his shirt. It was only then that he noticed one of them carried a small burning stick in her hand. The tip glowed red hot and JD found himself staring at it in fascinated horror. It wasn't until he felt the point of a knife tracing its way across one of his ribs that he was able to jerk himself away from the images of pain and charred flesh in his future and focus on the pain he was feeling here and now.
He could see little drops of blood flecking the arms and face of the women. Vin's blood. Maybe some of his own. JD felt sick to his stomach. A small squeak escaped him as the point of the knife dug a little deeper and JD flushed in shame as the women roared with laughter.
"Girls, have we caught ourselves a man or a mouse?" The redheaded leader smiled cruelly as she looked at JD in scorn, gesturing for the knife-wielding one to cease her efforts. At least for the moment. The young man felt the color in his face brighten more. He was glad the tracker was out of it so he wouldn't know what a coward JD had just proven himself to be. So he wouldn't know that what JD really felt like doing was crying. His head hurt. Now his side burned and stung. The unpleasant sensation of blood slowly trickling down his ribs was making his skin crawl. And he was just plain scared.
"What...What do you want with us?" Despite his best efforts, JD's voice contained a hint of quaver. Ever since that crazy female bounty hunter had shot him for no reason, the young man had been just a little nervous around that sort of woman. And these women made that other girl look like the epitome of sane and reasonable!
"What do you think? Should we tell him? Or show him?" the redhead asked. But before any of the women could answer her, a weak voice called out.
"Why don't ya show me ya goddamn bitches?" The tracker sounded angrier than JD had ever heard him. The soft drawl was diamond hard with hate and rage. Even tied up, naked and sounding weak as a kitten, there was something dangerous about Vin in that moment. Something that made the women pause and look at him uncertainly as they attempted to decide their next course of action...
After a moment, the redhead laughed out loud.
"Oh! I'm loving this!" she cried out as she sauntered over to Vin. "Isn't it so cute?" she babied her voice. "They're so worried for each other," she added leaning over to grasp the tracker's chin in her hand, meeting his hard gaze.
Vin glared at her as best he could through his swollen eyelids, refusing to show the fear that was continuing to build inside him. He didn't think he ever hated a woman as much as he did right then. He didn't think he ever wanted to kill a woman as much as he did right then, either. If only JD had just listened to him and gotten away! The woman's grip on his chin became firmer, bruising. He felt her sharp nails dig into the skin on his jaw.
Then he felt her other hand, its own sharp claws raking their way down his chest. Painful memories surged through his mind as her hand lowered. It was bad enough that he'd been so shamelessly humiliated by these women, but at least JD had been unconscious then. He didn't want the boy to have to watch as they did it again.
She let go of his chin and began playing with his nipple. Vin tried to ignore her. He thought about the pain he was feeling and the shame. It was working for a while, until she moved her other hand lower and began caressing his penis. His face burned with the humiliation of it and tears threatened to spill out of his eyes. God, why couldn't they just kill him? He heard JD yelling at them to leave him alone. Fool kid. Brave kid. Vin could feel his body betraying him. Why couldn't he just pass out? God knew he hurt enough. A small moan escaped him as she closed her lips around him. He felt her tongue moving around the head of his cock, as her mouth swallowed him. She was rubbing his balls and he couldn't keep his hips from thrusting deeper. A tear escaped from the corner of his eye when he came. She got off her knees and let her hand caress its way up his belly.
"You sure do taste good." She breathed huskily into his ear. Vin ignored her. He couldn't keep his cock from responding to her, but he'd be damned if he was going to make pillow talk with her. "What's the matter? She grabbed his chin again and forced his face around to hers. "You loved it. Your dick was so hard you practically shoved it down my throat."
Vin had her sized up now. "Shit, I could do a better job with my hand. I had a better blow job from a drunk whore in Mexico. I'll give you a nickel for it. That's all it was worth."
He could see her lips tighten and her eyes narrow. Enraged she grabbed his chin again. Smiling sweetly, she whispered seductively into his ear. "Let's see what kind of games I can play with your little friend."
All thoughts of his own safety went out of his head and he jerked it back enough to escape her grasp. Then he snaked it back and bit the hand that had held him. The woman screamed out in pain and fury as she pulled her bloody hand away. Vin smiled as he spit at the woman, adding to the blood spatter on her clothing.
"You bastard!" she whispered menacingly, raising her hand to strike him.
But instead of finding fear in the long haired man's eyes, she saw defiance.
She lowered her fist quickly, striking his bullet wound, hard.
"I'll break you yet," she told him. "And I know that hurting your little friend over there is the way to do it. Bring that one over here, girls!" she ordered, continuing to stare at the tracker, enjoying the fact that he was breathing hard, trying not to let her know he was in pain.
But she knew he was. And she knew how to make it worse.
JD flinched as two tall, strapping women cut his bindings and hauled him to his feet. He didn't want to see Vin any closer than he already did. Really, he didn't... But his eyes wouldn't leave the bloody mess that was Vin, tied between the trees and helpless. A series of slashes had been cut along his stomach in a downward pattern and blood oozed from the few places that hadn't yet coagulated. The bloody markings pointed like an arrow downward to a spot just above Vin's pubic hair where a dark, circle with a strange-looking star at its center was drawn. Must have used charcoal, JD thought absently, not realizing his mind was trying to go numb in fear. Then the stench of the night and the markings on Vin came together and JD realized with a surge of sheer panic that Vin had been branded and that the smell was burned flesh and hair.
"NOOOOO!!!" JD howled before vomiting.
"JD, JD," Vin called out weakly. He was desperate to save the young innocent from the same pain and mortification he had just experienced, yet was powerless.
Bursting into perverse laughter, the redheaded woman called to JD's captors, "Strip him. Stand him right there by the fire and strip him."
JD struggled valiantly and even succeeded in knocking one of the females to the ground. But she was quickly replaced and JD was pummeled with fists like lead. They hit his head and his gut and he knew what it meant to see stars. His clothes fell from his body, ripped away by hands as menacing as claws. He pulled his head up and tried to hold it high despite his blinding fear. If Vin could withstand their torture, so could he.
At least he thought he could
And then it began...
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