Maranatha - Chapter XI, as told by Owen Zelazny

Story by khakidoggy on SoFurry

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#11 of Maranatha


M A R A N A T H A

© Osfer, January 2005

_All rights reserved.

May only be distributed for free.

May not be altered in any way.

Contains material of an erotic and homosexual nature which may be illegal to

read in your country, state, province or region.

The author takes no responsibility for transgressions on the part of the reader

Comments welcome at

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Available on paperback in 2005

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~ Enjoy. ~


Chapter XI - As Told By Owen Zelazny

Owen Zelazny, reborn as the rock star Luke McCall? Wouldn't that make for a

beautiful story. I could shuck my old name entirely and take the globe by storm,

I could spend my millions on having that goddamn metal thing over my sheath

removed and discrete doctors would take care of my little microbe infestation

and none would be the wiser.

Hardly.

Some of the older or more post-modern country music fans among you may have

recognized the name McCall from the seventies, when a small-time advertising

firm invented the character C. W. McCall, a fictional truck driver who proved so

popular that the three guys who invented him brought out a couple of LP's of

'his' songs and none other than Sam Peckinpah made a movie out of one of his

most famous songs, called Convoy.

Malloy, bizarre out-of-the-box thinker that he is, made the connection shortly

after procuring papers for me under the name Luke McCall and tentatively

suggested I maybe 'get into music'. After staring blankly at him for some time,

he shrugged and dropped the matter but not two days later I heard Will and

William, the punker cats next door, talking to each other as I passed them on

the stairs, and they were talking about starting a band.

They had their arms full of groceries; they were hosting a dinner party for the

band they'd just put together, which I learned when I helped them open their

door and bring their stuff inside. I'd always been good friends with Double

Bill, as they're collectively called, so it was hard for me not to be too

familiar with them. They didn't think too much of me in return, which offended

and flattered me, since Luke didn't quite compare to the friend they'd lost when

Owen disappeared.

So I left them to it and heard their guests arriving while I was doing my weekly

preening - fresh dye job, careful full-body shampooing, even more careful

full-body steel comb brushing, claw clipping, fur trimming, some exercises...

People forget, sometimes, what an effort it takes to be a pretty-boy. I was just

taking my third shower of the day - a cold shower, because Butterfly may be a

groovy, laid-back landlord but he's every bit as laid-back about keeping the

fucking boiler in working order- when at once there came a tapping, as of

someone loudly rapping on my chamber door.

I had been singing, for no other reason than to drown out the loud voices coming

from next-door, which I thought at first was jubilant conversation but which

soon turned into a shouting match. I can't stand that sort of thing, and singing

was the natural way to drown it out, just like I'd done as a kid when my folks

were having their marital problems. And like those times, in my efforts not to

hear what was happening, I'd favor raucous volume over melody and that, it seems

caught Double Bill's attention.

The screaming match I heard from next door was apparently the neonatal band

breaking up even before they'd thought of a name due to their lead singer's A)

ego, B) apparent alcoholism and C) pederastic tendencies. They had kicked him

out, thoughtfully escorting him through the hall, down the stairs and out the

door so as not to let him cause any damage to the building which Butterfly would

not only fail to notice but also neglect to fix and on their way back, you

guessed it, they heard me sing.

I can carry a fair tune, I'm happy to say, but what I was doing wasn't singing

as much as it was roaring at that point, yet it impressed them. I was singing a

song from one of those pretend bands, you know, the one from that funny movie.

British, it was, because it was Malloy who'd clued me in on it and he was very

proud to have produced it In his country, till I recognized one of the actors as

the guy who does most of the voices in the Simpsons, and he was so crestfallen.

Anyway, I was on one of their songs, pitching up the tempo half-again and

banging my soapy sponge against the cracked-and-fixed-with-duct-tape divider of

my shower stall. My door was open, they found out, and Double Bill and their

three remaining band members, drunk on cheap booze and home-made food, piled

into my bathroom and asked my little old balls-naked me if I wanted to be the

vocalist in their new punk band.

And so it was.

My utter lack of musical experience was matched only by theirs, and so was my

enthusiasm. I helped Double Bill plead with Butterfly to be allowed to use the

attic, dilapidated as it was, as a rehearsal space and helped lug heavy

equipment up the rickety ladder while Will put down some crude electric cabling

that wasn't too much of a fire hazard. Will's a law-school drop-out and has

applied and been rejected for a job as a fireman twelve times in the years I've

known him, so all of us walk over his dodgy cabling with extreme trepidation.

Fast-forward a few weeks. Couple of gigs at the Crosshairs, Double Bill's

favorite haunt, where we play accelerated, juiced-up covers of country and folk

songs. William described it as postmodern reclamation of outdated genres through

musical violence, but since none of the band are really skilled musicians, the

songs we play are really simple and it all ends up being about how forcefully we

play. The band started off as the Deep Fried Underpants but after the original

singer left Will & William sat down to think of a new title for the band, which

became... No, I'm not going to say it. I'm actually kind of embarrassed.

Speaking of being bare-assed...

I'm walking off stage, talking with William and Rod, the bassist, a rather

wiry-looking fox who likes dressing in tight white clothes, primarily about why

I was so late for the gig. I don't tell them about the little episode with

Patrick and the Muz Ozul stag, not that they'd be too shocked, but telling them

that I overslept somehow feels more appropriate. Part of me doesn't want people

liking Luke McCall too much, lest they end up liking him more than Owen. Call me

silly, but this really does matter to me.

As usual after we get off stage I leave the guys to pack up the instruments and

other gear while I make my way backstage. It's pretty quiet at this time,

because all the go-go boys and pole dancers are all in the club itself and the

shift change isn't for another half an hour. Bare concrete corridors lead all

the way around the back of the building, props rooms, emergency liquor supplies,

replacement electrical components, the joints boys' and girls' dressing room,

which nobody ever causes a fuss about 'cuz all the boys are queer and all the

girls are bitches. As I walk I start tugging off my tank top, still damp with

sweat from my exertions on stage and hang it over a nail hammered into one

unmarked door before I open it and step into the dark, quiet space inside.

A hand grabs me and lips are pressed to mine. I feel strength in the grasp on my

bicep, the urgency of the male who pulls me toward him and as I open my mouth to

him, the clack of fangs, so whoever this is is a predator. I wonder who it is?

Now, while I'm sure you feel no surprise at the news that I'm intimately kissing

with a perfect stranger, the situation is this. Our first gig was a bit of a

disaster, with some of Will's wiring failing, and so to appease the manager I

gave him some head. He so liked this that he asked if I'd mind doing it again

sometime and naturally I said I didn't. After the next blowjob he gave me twenty

bucks and a proposition: he'd give the B-- I mean, our band a weekly gig and give

me, personally, fifty bucks after every show if, after every show, I'd go to

this supply closet, close the door, and have sex with whoever was inside.

Soon, the male I'm kissing tires of it and awkwardly tries to unbutton my pants.

I help him, quickly, suckling on his tongue and expose the leather jockstrap I

wear to keep my sheath-trap hidden and my tailhole readily available. Then he

breaks the kiss and with a heavy hand he pushes the top of my head down in a

none-too-subtle sign that he wants me to suck him. Like I said before, I'm

pretty good recognizing cocks so as soon as I get my lips around him I'm sure

I'll figure out who it is.

I've engaged in deals like this before. When I was still Owen I'd go to the Dive

once a month to fuck whoever the management told me to; that was a managerial

incentive. The employee of the month doesn't get his face in a stupid frame, he

gets an hour for free with Owen Zelazny, and I imagine this ain't likely to be

much different.

I stagger out of my pants and kick them toward the door and, naked, I land on my

knees. My hands go out to pull down the dude's zipper, but his fly's already

open and my fingers wrap around a nice, fat, straining shaft. This guy needs to

get off, so right after whispering 'nice' under my breath, because the guy's

really got a nice tool, I open wide and dive down, plunging his glans down my

throat before I even seal my lips around it, swallowing so deep my lips brush

against the rim of his sheath. I hollow my cheeks and suck hard, and I mean

hard, until I feel him gripping my hair as his body tries to figure out if it

wants me to stop or it wants more. Yeah, I'm that good, people.

"Easy," says a familiar voice, much lower and softer than I usually hear it and

immediately I slow my suckling and look up, though in this total darkness I of

course can't see a damn thing. My ears prick up, too and I cant my head,

dragging my tongue over his thick, pulsing shaft, causing him to shiver. Then I

open my mouth as wide as I can and, with his cockhead still lodged in my throat,

I gurgle a word.

"Hang?" I ask, which means 'Hank' in cocksucker-speak. He hisses at me, as if

afraid somebody outside the door might hear us, which causes me to giggle -

which, those of you who've ever had their dick sucked might imagine, is a

hazardous ting. Choking and sputtering around my throatful I slowly manage to

calm myself, bringing a hand up to fondle the big tiger's balls and let him know

I'm only joking. By the feel of his dick he doesn't think it's that funny, and

could use the reassurance. "Haub ge ipe?" I ask, cocksucker-speak for 'how's the

wife', which he absolutely doesn't appreciate and that large hand that pushed me

down to roughly now grabs the back of my head and forcefully pulls me forward,

silencing me in my absolute favourite way.

His musky, warm pole thrusts into my mouth and jabs down my throat, rubbing the

sensitive lining so deliciously and leaving a trail of precum which causes a

prickling sensation I've only ever felt one other time, and that was some

fucking expensive champagne. I turn my head from side to side, since it's the

screw-motion, rather than the in-out motion, that offers the most stimulation.

The slightly sweaty member slides in and out of my warm, available mouth,

occasionally pulling free of my throat and treating me to the pleasure of having

a cock to actually suckle on, to nurse on it and cherish the sensation of

drawing spurts of precum from it.

I resist the hand on the back of my head, if only to savor that sensation a

little longer. The delicious, familiar ache in my jaw from stretching wide

enough to accommodate Hank's prick, the dryness of my lips from being rubbed

over his thickly veined surface, especially as his barbs begin to make

themselves known. His balls are warm, and though I have to dig my hands

awkwardly into his fly to cup them, it's worth it for the loud purring the large

tiger emits as I hold them, softly massaging, finally acceding to the rhythm of

his hips and settling down for some good old-fashioned headbobbing.

God, I could do this for hours.

And very often have.

I may have told you before, but I love making people happy, and while getting

fucked is great and doesn't take a whole lot of effort, actually getting down on

your knees and getting somebody to just sit or stand or lie still and let you do

everything for them to make them feel good is more satisfying than I can

describe. To taste that outpouring of salt semen or to feel it stinging my

throat, warming my belly after just a couple of strong surges, mixed with that

outpouring of groaned pleasure from the dude... It makes me feel so good.

Not, I'll wager, as it's making Hank feel. Both his hands are resting heavily on

my head without pushing and while his ass is tensed enough to stretch his

slacks, his hips are still and all he's doing is standing there, no doubt with

his eyes closed, listening to my slurping and suckling and feeling me pump my

mouth, my hot, fuckable mouth up and down his prick.

I shift on my knees to get some circulation going and to avoid sneezing, which

would really disappoint both of us if I did it right now. I'm keeping him on the

edge, carefully sensing when his nuts tighten up and then slowing my strokes

just a fraction, or pausing for half a second so his ejaculation instincts have

to reboot.

I'll admit, I'm being selfish. It's been a good two weeks or more since I've had

a dick to suck on, everybody who's hired my services wanted under my tail and,

dammit, I've been starved for cock. So I'm going to make this one last.

Occasionally I even pull off, slobbering up and down the sides of his fat

tigercock, lapping my tongue doggishly as I run my lips along the surface before

engulfing the cooling member in the heat of my mouth again, rewarding Hank for

that momentary torment by swallowing him balls-deep again, and oh, how he purrs

and groans and whimpers.

Music to my ears. And like all music, it has to end and I like to end with a

bang. I feel him approaching climax again and no doubt he expects me to force it

to subside again, but not this time. This time I speed up, bumping my nose

painfully against his belt buckle, but I don't care, I'm going for it, folding

my ears as if the added aerodynamics could help me suck him better and grip his

hips with both hands, clinging to his strong thighs, listening to him pant and

even when that first splash hits the roof of my mouth I don't stop pumping, I

swallow the sticky, salty cream along with the rod that's squirting it, letting

each spurt land where it may, drooling down my throat or splattering against my

teeth, tongue, it doesn't matter.

I love every second of it. The sound of his rapture, the satisfaction of it, the

taste of his sperm or the incredible throb of his member, all of it I feel a

pang of sadness that its already over, it hasn't been more than half an hour

yet, but even that is masked by the warmth in my belly from his sticky, thick

load and the deep satisfaction of having brought another male, even one who's as

impatient and disregardful of me as Hank and finally, when he spurts no more, I

slow completely and simply hold his still-hard penis in my mouth, warm and

comfortable.

"Damn, kid," he whispers in the dark, petting my head as if I were a dog. "They

old me you were good, but... damn."

I like a bit of praise now and then. Maybe you've noticed.

By way of reward I slowly slip his cock out of my mouth and set to licking it,

careful, obviously, not to overstimulate. The glans is off limits and so is the

very base, but the middle of the shaft, that's fine and causes the tiger to

breathe more deeply as if the stress of yet another evening's work is melting

off him.

I never expected Hank to come to the back room, to be honest. Despite being the

stage manager and being responsible for the 'entertainment', he never ever had

himself a sneaky bit of fun with any of the boys or girls. He's got a wife and

two daughters, I know that from the banter, so I guess he loves 'em a whole lot.

"You're still hard," I whisper. I could speak aloud, but I get the distinct vibe

that Hank feels a little... dirty, doing this, especially with me, and doesn't

want to feel like it's anything other than sneaky quickie sex. "You wanna fuck

me?"

By the rustling of his clothes, I hear he's shaking his head and I can't help

but wonder what he's thinking. Maybe he just wants to get out of here, pretend

nothing happened. But no. He's still here, still leaking precum against my lips,

which I lap up patiently, savoring the taste of another man's juices after

having gone without for so long. I kinda feel like a vampire, from one of those

books by... What's her name. She writes about really gay vampires. Anyway, that's

what I feel like.

"Again?" Hank asks softly, his tone and manner worlds apart from his usual

violent shouting and as he rolls his hips softly forward as if to slide his dick

back in my warm mouth without my knowing, I realize what's up. Hank's wife won't

suck his dick.

That's why he's so skittish now, or one of the reasons why. If anybody found out

that poor Hank was daily desperate for head he'd never again be able to muster

the terrified respect he extracts from all the Crosshairs' employees and he

would no longer be able to serve as stage manager, and I reckon that's got him

mighty nervous.

He's noticed how long I've delayed and probably figures I have an inkling. I can

hear the big tiger's breathing quickening and then his hands go for his fly, to

zip himself up and get out of here, but I bat his hands away with more strength

than you'd expect from an eighteen-year-old punk, and kiss him on the cock,

silencing his breathing on the spot. "As many times as ya like, big guy," I

reassure him and a sigh issues from his lips that has more to do with relief

than with the fact that my skilled lips are sliding back down around his shaft

and I go down on him for the second time, but much slower this time, to let him

savor it a bit more.

His fingers actually rake through my hair. It's not an affectionate gesture, as

such, but it's acknowledgement, something I wouldn't have expected from a

confirmed heterosexual like Hank. I guess he wants to apologize for barking at

me when I came in late, which was, truly, far more extreme than his usual

tirades. Hey, maybe he'd known he'd get to be in the Back Room later that night

and he was worried I wasn't going to show up and that he wouldn't get the

blowjob he'd so looked forward to. That in turn woulda made him feel guilty

about wanting to get his dick sucked, and that...

Never mind. It don't matter why he's here, or what he wants. I'm a professional,

and despite all that's happened, I still love my work. I love the throb of a

man's cock the first time I slip my tongue along it, the intake of breath when I

take the whole length into my mouth, my snug, warm mouth after teasing it for a

minute. I love the way I can make a man tense and relax simply by tensing or

relaxing myself and I love feeling a man cum in me, to feel such a powerful

orgasm inside me, to know I've given somebody such pleasure.

"This is... this is really nice," the big tiger groans softly and there's a hint,

obviously, of guilt in his voice. He's ashamed that he's breaking his role as my

superior, he's afraid I might use this against him sometime when he needs to

assert authority and he's maybe ashamed of the idea that this, my mouth bobbing

gently but deeply up and down his erection, is much nicer than having sex with

his own wife. "But... I've got to get back to work." Slight misery in his voice.

Nice.

I nod dot him, which makes him shiver with the sensation of his cockhead

slipping, twice, down my throat, where it is s well-received and welcome. Slowly

I pull off and Hank lets out a sigh of acceptance, but before he can withdraw

his hips to start tucking himself away again I grab his balls. "We can finish

this tomorrow, if you like," I say. There's no particular benevolence to my

idea, no generosity in my tone, and why should there be? Giving head's a small

effort on my part.

"That... I'd like that," says Hank, almost coldly, and finally pulls his hips back

so he can tuck his bits away and once he has himself zipped up, he turns on the

light. I'm still kneeling on the ground, butt-nekkid, and you know what Hank

does, confused horn-dog that he is? He actually closes his eyes and turns around

as if he walked in on his daughter getting dressed, flushing red where his fur

is white enough to see the blushing. "Oh, hey," he says as if trying to fill the

seconds it takes me to stand up, brush myself down, and start pulling my pants

on again. "Somebody left this for you."

From his back pocket he pulls a small envelope, sealed, and holds it out to me

without looking. "It's cool, bro, I'm decent," I inform him, trying not to sound

too casual with him as I button up and accept the envelope, tearing it open on

the spot and emptying the contents into my hand.

Four small ivory tiles, like Mahjongg tiles, except they have letters on them

and with a chuckle I realize that they're just plastic Scrabble tiles, two

vowels and two consonants. I pocket them quickly, shaking my head. "Weird fans,

huh?" I say and give Hank a nod, which he as expected doesn't return. I open the

door of the supply room and head out into the hallway, taking up the tank top

I'd left on the hook on the door. I expect Hank will be coming out of the room

soon, not wanting people to know he was the lucky guy who got to spend some time

in the Back Room and so he'd better move PDQ if he doesn't want to bump into the

second shift of dancers, who should be coming in shortly.

I say a few polite greetings, ducking my head into the dressing-room to collect

my longcoat, the room now full of a dozen or so naked males and females, all

exhausted, getting undressed and scrubbing make-up from their faces and breast

and bellies, stripping out of their tight, uncomfortable costumes and putting on

their cheap, ragged jeans and sweaters to get a few hours of sleep at home

before they start their shifts as waiters and receptionists and whatever it is

these beautiful young men and women do for their nine to five jobs.

After that I'm out the door, giving the bouncers each a kiss on the cheek just

to cheer them up and get them scandalously smart-talking each other about which

of them I find more attractive, a game they continue as I walk out of the alley

and wrap my coat around myself, warmed from the load in my belly and chilled by

the wind, warmed by the comforting normalcy of the tired business of sex, lust

music and life that goes on in the Crosshairs, and chilled by the four little

Scrabble tiles I have in my pocket.

"The minstrel boy to the war has come, in he ranks of the South you'll find

him," I say into the receiver of the only un-smashed phone booth for blocks

around, located right under a streetlamp and then I slam the receiver back down

and slump against the phone with clenched fists as if I can do something about

it all.

Malloy's fucking voicemail. Our goddamned code using his infinite supply of

fucking folk songs. It's a wonder I even remembered it, when we were talking

about it I didn't pay a whole lot of attention to him because I figured that if

trouble ever found me I'd be dead before I could tell Malloy about it. And now

he isn't even picking up his phone!

I back out of the booth and feel cool drizzle on my face. In the distance

there's a thunderclap, but I'm not worried about it starting to rain, it's too

far away. I wish it would rain.

South, I said in the song so the safe location in the north of the city is where

I need to go. I should have mabe said west because the eastern location is

easier to reach, but I think I can be excused for being a little confused right

now.

I feel drunk. Not full-on drunk, but the way you feel when you've had way too

much and you've thrown up and everythig and you want to sleep, but you can't and

you just sit at home and try not to think about how you're feeling.

"Hey, do I know you?" a voice asks? I look around quickly and don't see anybody

and then I realise that of course I do see somebody. A bum, lying at the mouth

of an alley I'm just passing, his brown blanket so perfectly blending with the

muted brown colour the pavement absorbs from the dreadful yellow street-lights.

"Sorry, pops, you got me confused," I tell him. Not in that hurried, disdainful,

trying-to-pretend-you-didn't-hear way that pepole use when they don't want to be

bothered by a poor person in case they're crazy or dangerous.

The bum chuckles and rolls over, snuggling up a little more under his blanket.

"You mean mistaken, son. And I'm pretty sure I ain't. You done a paintjob on

your fur, I see, but under lights like these I see ya clear as day," he

continues. I sniff the air quickly, but there's no scent of alcohol on him. He's

a big guy, under that blanket, with big boots and a warm coat and a hunter's cap

on his head that throws a shadow over his face. Maybe a bear or something.

I shrug my shoulders and turn away, but he grabs my ankle. I turn back with a

snarl. "Listen, pops, this ain't the night ta be botherin' me!" I'm shocked,

myself, at how loud my voice is. "I'm... I'm sorry," I say and I hunker down,

running my fingers through my now spikey hair. I sigh and look at him, and then

I notice the marking on his face. He's a badger, and now I'm this close to him I

catch his scent. "Holloway?"

He nods to me, and suddenly I feel very, very cold and in danger, and the

feeling of danger mixes with the fear I was feeling already and they sharpen

each other. My heart hasn't even had the chance to beat more than twice at its

accellerated rate before the badger yawns, his lips smiling. "Don't worry, kid.

You showed an old bum a ood time couple months ago and asked no more'n a coat

that was too ugly even fer me. I'll keep yer secret he way I keep my own."

"You have secrets?" I ask, and I don't know why exactly, but I feel really good.

I sit down on the ground and I see shadows of people moving, walking around me

and the bum in wide circles, but my heart's calming down simply from being

connected to somebody who knows me as Owen. I feel a pang of something in my

stomach and I hug my abdomen suddenly.

The badger nods. "Everybody does, kid, you know how it is. Sergeant Holloway

becomes a vagrant, and the cute piece of tail that walked into Bricktown,

balls-bare, with a weird thing around his sheath turns into... Well, what are ya

now, kid?" he asks, shifting into a sitting position against the wall. I sit a

little closer to him, leaning against him and actually enjoying the warmth of

his body, despite the powerful, unwashed smell.

I smirk at him, rubbing the swirling discolored patterns around my eye. "I'm a

singer," I say and we both start laughing. "No, no, really. I'm not bad,

actually," I inform him and, nodding, he takes my word for it, holding up his

hands in surrender.

"Well kid," he says, "I wasn't a very good sergeant."

There's a silence, then and a few more people walk past. Drunks, staggering out

of one of the dark drinking holes around here, men and women laughing in

high-pitched voices, all of them, and none of them see me or the old badger. I

look at him for a little while and think. Here's a guy I've known for, maybe,

half an hour in total. I let him fuck me in exchange for a raincoat, which I

needed at the time, and he'd have given it to me for free, except I don't do sex

for free. Owen didn't, anyway.

Owen didn't.

"Holloway," I say and stand up again, cricking my neck and extending my hand to

the badger lying on the pavement. "You wanna come into the alley with me?"

The old guy smiles so broadly at this and his face contorts in a wealth of

different emotions. Hopefulness, mistrust, bitterness, humor, lust and disdain

all at once. One of these wins out, though and with a groan he reaches up to

clasp my hand. I lean back hard to help pull him up off the ground, the already

portly badger weighed down by his heavy winter clothes and whatever supplies and

valuables he's got hidden in his pockets.

Clutching his blanket he staggers up to his feet and slaps a beefy arm acoss my

shoulders. "You know, I knew a private that looked like you look now once. It

wasn't weird, back then, for fags to get stomped on and I guess it ain't weird

now either. Either ya keep quiet, ya put up with the beatings, or you drop out,

simple as that. This guy was a putter-upper. He was a little shorter'n you,

little more muscular, too," the badger explains, hugging my shoulders, folding

his blanket over one arm as we walk, slowly, into the alley, with its wet

cardboard boxes and overflowing dustbines.

"Was he as good a cocksucker as me?" I joke and I realise i feel closer to

Holloway, now, than I do to anybody, even Malloy. He's the only one who knows

who I am, but even he's been... distant. Like he's trying to help me out of a

sense of personal defeat and pride, rather than actually helping his friend.

Holloway's just honest, living from one moment to the next, keeping a

comfortable distance from his past and enjoying whatever life throws at him.

Like me, for instance. A handsome young wolf with no gag reflex.

"I don't even know how good a cocksucker you are, kiddo, just that you've got a

really sweet ass. If you're offering, it's that ass that I'd like to try again,"

he says casually and I nod to him, actually kissing him on the cheek, so

terribly grateful to be near somebody I can be honest with.

I shrug off my coat and toss it onto a garbage bin. "It's yours, man. You don't

mind a stand-up fuck, do you? It's too cold for missionary, tonight," I tell

him, walking up to one of the least grimy wall and unbutton my pants, tugging

them down just enough to expose my ass. Wordlessly the big guy steps up behind

me, spreading the blanket out and draping it across his own shoulders. "I got a

question, bud, and don't mind not gettin' an answer. You fucked anybody since

you did me last?"

There's that familiar sound again, a zipper being undone, stuttering and

awkwardly, no doubt the zipper's rusty. "Not a soul," says the badger, nudging

the tip of his plump but surprisingly stiff member under my tail and into the

snug ring hidden there, which has seen a lot of visitors lately.

He's cautious as he enters me and there really isn't any reason for him to be so

I shove my hips back and take him all into me, tight, warm and comfy... "Share

your blanket?" I ask, finally feeling the chill in the air now that the shock of

what was in the envelope's starting to wear off.

Holloway leans closer to me, wrapping his arms around my waist and lets the

thick horse blanket fall over me as well, creating a comfortable little hutch as

we both share a nice, intimate, almost anonymous stand-up fuck.

Intimate, is that the right word? I'm just doing it for the warmth and the

comfort and the ego-boost of giving somebody pleasure like this, feeling so

sexy. He's just doing it to get his balls emptied, maybe he's imagining that

wolf private he mentioned so briefly, maybe that's who he's imagining as he

nibbles on my arched neck. So we're both having sex with ourselves, together,

and we couldn't be farther apart. It feels intimate, still.

"The new color suits you," he says conversationally, panting into my ear and I

suspect he's making small-talk to mask his inability to get off in any timely

fashion, so I start rolling my hips back in counter-point to his thrusts. Not

just pushing, but tilting, turning it upward to let his shaft slide up my ass at

a different angle, stimulating him more... It sounds cold when I describe it like

that, but if anybody's ever done it for you, you'll know how much of a

difference it makes. It's called the 'bunny hop' and, appropriately, I learned

it from Cannit, the hare.

"Jesus," Holloway groans and chuckles, hugging his bulky, pudgy farame more

tightly to my back, humping me with a bit more excitement. "That feels damn

nice," he adds as if it's something to be embarassed about and fucks me a little

harder, pressing me against the cold, wet bricks, pushing his thickly-dressed

body against mine and his fat prick up my ass. Outside the alley people still

walk by and all they'd have to do is turn their head and they'd see me getting

boned by a bum, no doubt thinking that I was just some street urchin selling his

ass to make enough money to pay for an immunisation treatment to kill the bugs

he no doubt picked up from selling his ass in the first place.

"Holloway," I whisper in a soft voice and he leans his snout closer to my ear.

"Have you ever had to hide so deeply that you felt like you were invisible?" He

doesn't slow his motions, but his hands move from my hips to my bare, cold

stomach, rubbing it swiftly to warm me up, kissing me on the crook of the neck

and shoulder, and nods. "I don't like it," I say to him and then I let out a

long, soft groan.

I feel him cumming in me, but it isn't that which makes me feel as warm as I now

feel. It's as if simply saying it makes it less bad and I gratefully accept

Holloway's simple silence just as I accept his load inside me and the way he

hugs me from behind tells me he's grateful to me, too, for my warm, tight ass

and whatever else he feels I'm giving him.

People pass us by and they don't look into our alley, and I wonder what they'd

think if they did look. A portly old wino, standing up against a thoroughly cute

guy, both of them panting in the wake of his orgasm. "You feel scared, son,"

Holloway says and I chuckle, not because he's right but because he's just shy of

being right. When he said it, fear wasn't on my mind, you see. But it quickly

returns, and with it the light twitching of my abdomen that I can never really

keep under control and which he has no trouble feeling, with his hands so

greedily groping my washboard tummy.

He says no more than that, then pulling his limpening prick out of me with a

polite cough and as I tug my pants back on and he goes to zip up his fly. I

think about sucking it clean for him, but God knows how long it's been since

he's washed it and despite all my prowess as a cockserver there are still some

standards of hygiene I cling to. I button back up and tug my coat on, shivering

more when I've got the woolen longcoat wrapped about me than before, because the

garment took up the night's chill in the time it was laid aside. I give the old

badger a kiss on the cheek and a smile, and without another word I walk out of

the alley.

And that would have been that, except as he lays himself down to go back to

sleep, Holloway calls out to me. "Hey kid," he yells and two people across the

street stop walking, unsure whether he's talking to them, and then quickly press

on. "I owe ya for the ride, so here it is. Somebody once told me, and I know for

sure you've heard this corny oldy before, so don't smirk, he said 'Don't get

mad, get even.' And that's good advice, it really is, but I got somethin'

that'll work better for you, I think. Don't get scared, kiddo... get serious."

My heart stops fluttering and with a calm I wouldn't have thought myself capable

of, I nod and turn away, heading for the uptown safehouse, careful to take the

biggest and best-lit streets, being very conspicuous in walking so as to attract

the least notice, you know how that goes. As I walk I rub a hand over my abdomen

  • as always, showing a smile in satisfaction as I feel my abdominals - and feel

no twitching there. I don't feel out of breath, in fact, I can find no physical

symptoms of anxiety at all and it then occurs to me that I'm truly not scared,

now, and that this is mighty peculiar indeed.

I turn the corner into MacMillan street, which is fairly busy even at this hour,

despite the shops all being closed. In the heart of summer it'd probably be

getting light already, but the people walking about are nighthawks, not early

birds, looking like they went to a movie, then out clubbing, then a drink and

only now are heading back home, taking the scenic route along the nice shops.

Jewelry stores with Swarovski crystal compete with liquor stores with fine malt

brandies, a high tech, whiz-bang computer place sits kitty-corner from a fashion

shop infinitely more stylish than the threads I pillage from the Haberdash when

I can afford it.

I hop the fence covering the mouth of the alley between a halal butcher and a

little place that's full of antique furniture, but you know how those shops are.

The owners are all sixty-somethings who want to collect and catalogue the

beautiful things they love so much and to be able to say 'I'm in antiques' at

their bridge meetings. The last thing they want to do is sell these things.

Also, when I say 'hop the fence' I mean 'clamber up a fence with straight bars

twice my height quick enough and quiet enough so's nobody notices me.' Just so

you know Malloy ain't the only guy with a little prowess when it comes to

getting' to places I ain't been invited.

This place, though? A door at the end of this alley, which belongs to nobody but

which everybody thinks belongs to somebody else, fitted with a lock so old an'

fucked up that it can't be opened 'less you jigger it just so, something - if

ya'll allow me to add to my rep as a breaker-inner - I discovered all on my

lonesome. That door leads to a house, and a real nice one, too. Weird thing is,

though, it don't look like it's been occupied for a while and what's weirder

still, it ain't been looted, neither.

Don't you think that's bizarre? A house full of pretty nice stuff, old furniture

and pictures, couple leather books and even letters! They were a pretty big find

when we discovered them, I tell ya. This'd been our first crash pad, me an'

Malloy, when we came to Maranatha and it felt like providence, especially cuz

half the letters was signed by some dude named Standish Mark Malloy, at least,

that's what the squiggly writing looked to be sayin', and all of 'em was dated

seventeen-somethin'.

You should have seen us when we saw those. Two pups - well, one wolfpup and one

dog too old to get this childishly excited about a find like this - frolicking

through the house, turning up the collars of our coats and pretending to be fine

eighteenth-century gentlemen. Malloy would flip up his shirt and half-open the

coat collar and walk through the house with his hands steepled as if he were a

pastor or somethin', and he'd find me, a hedonistic, rich merchant's son, and

have me kneel before him to receive a few coppers and a benediction, or I'd be a

choirboy and he'd be a sailor, just back from a trip to the Old Country. Those

games were so much fun, and Malloy, sweetheart that he is deep down, never

forgot to add a little money to the playing out of respect to my budding

professionalism.

And that bed... They say people were shorter back in those days, but whoever owned

this house wasn't one of 'em. The bed was perfect, although it smelled a bit

funky 'till we treated it with a creative mix of lemon juice and vinegar and

some other things that we discovered, through experimentation, could wrench the

stench from the old curtains, clothes and furniture. It was soft, and didn't

make no noise on account of the springs being so well-oiled they were still

greasy when we found 'em.

We didn't stay there long, though. First thing we did was find some other place

to crash so's The Old House, as we so imaginatively called it, would stay

secret. And it did, and so me an' Malloy decided that it'd make a good hideout.

I grab the latch. Lift, nudge sideways, wiggle twice, shoulder the door, lower

it, pull sharply, turn the latch and then simply let it fall open.

A steep stairway, tightly curved so that whoever owned this would have had to

hoist his furniture in through the windows. Never step on the third-from-the-top

stair, it's close to buckling and could take the entire staircase down and we

got no idea what's kept in the basement. Hoisting myself over the Doomsday Stair

with one hand on the wall, whose paper long ago peeled, and the other on a still

splendidly red-lacquered handrail, I reach the door at the top of the stairs and

enter the room.

It's a number of rooms, actually, but the owner of this house had it built

contrary to the sensibilities of the time and had it designed with a remarkable

openness so that you can see into all of them from any other, primarily on

account of there being no doors to hamper vision. Why he didn't just leave out

the wall s as well is a mystery to both Malloy and me, but neither of us can

deny the simple childish pleasure in playing hide and seek, naked as innocence,

darting through the rooms and over the furniture, finally to land, pinned, on

the bed and to, well, you know what Malloy and I do from time to time.

Speaking of whom, just as I'm opening the door and step into the small but

spacious, orderly yet labyrinthine house I see one of the alley-facing windows

on the opposite side being opened from the outside and a sleek black figure

positively oozes into the room, silently shutting the window.

"Hey, you just getting in? Sorry I'm so late I was... occupied," Malloy says,

sealing the latch on the windows, whose glass isn't smooth entirely but varies

in thickness, showing its age. "Did you know Alice has a girlfriend?" he says,

coming toward me.

I curl my lip at him. "Jesus, Malloy, get with the program," I snarl and give

him a quick hug and a kiss, which has strangely become our familiar greeting

these last few weeks. "We've got a serious- that is, I've got a serious- Alice

has a girlfriend?" All worry and thought drips out of my mind like Ben & Jerry's

out of a sieve on a hot day, as I picture the beautiful, effeminate young

lionboy, so popular with the older men who hire him, with a girlfriend. A girl,

who'd likely stand a very good chance of being more masculine than him,

although, no, his stature and manner can be quite masculine when he ain't

thinking.

Amazing, simply amazing how a bombshell like this can completely, what's the

word, relativate things. That's what I mean, I think. Like, I'm still worried

about the Scrabble tiles in my pocket and Malloy shares that worry when I hand

them to him but at the same time the powerful implications of those little

things are pushed from the number one spot on our priorities list simply by the

realization that there are still other things going on, things which are also

important.

I sit myself down on the couch, or sofa or chaise longue or whatever it's called

and Malloy seats himself next to me, pulling me across his lap. He's warm, warm

through the ridiculously thin short-sleeved black silk shirt he still wears even

in the cold winter we're having. My hand raises up and I cup his neck from

behind, a casual, familiar gesture that somehow, in its simple affection, feels

more intimate than his dick up my ass or his cum in my mouth and it makes us

both strangely uncomfortable, so I stop, and simply lie in his lap, thinking.

"This isn't so bad, then," I say and I don't even know for sure what I mean, but

Malloy gets me.

"It don't matter overmuch how all this plays out if Alice is all right. And

Nezzy, and Mrs. Ackerby and Double Bill and Mark and everybody else," he muses.

There's... I don't know, there's pain in his voice and I sense he's deeply unhappy

and I guess it's got to do with him pining after Alice so I don't mention it.

"N, E, O, W," Malloy reads out as he checks the tiles again. "How much will you

bet these are for a guy called Weno?" he jokes, but our laughter isn't as hollow

as it might have been.

I shake my head nonetheless. "It was addressed to me, dropped off with the

Crosshairs' stage manager."

"Hank?"

I nod. "That's the one. Somebody knows Luke McCall is Owen Zelazny, Malloy, and

I sure as fuck didn't tell anybody." I pause and I feel very small, lying on his

lap, though I feel the pressure of that sheath I sucked more than any other in

my life and always, up until the disaster some weeks ago, for money. "What's she

like?" I ask.

Malloy doesn't even flinch as he shifts trains of thought to Alice's girlfriend.

"Remember that batch of heroin hookers that got set free last year? That police

raid?" he asks, lightly toying with my navel. I stare up at him in amazement.

"She's one of them?"

"No, they were all Vietnamese," Malloy assures me with a grin, leaning down to

kiss my nose, "She volunteered as a social assistant to help them acclimatize to

local customs. She dropped out of high school to continue that work - she's

working part-time at the Regency drug clinic. I don't know how they met, but I

saw them coming out of a movie theater, holding hands and all that," the

dobermann says with a wistful chuckle.

I smile. "That is the sweetest thing ever. Have you talked to him about It, yet?

Has he been thinking about quitting? Malloy, we've got to get him out of my line

of work," I say, a cascade of concern and planning as if, in some bizarre way,

Malloy and I were Alice's fathers. "Things are changing, aren't they," I say

softly. Again, I'm not really sure what I mean, but I see something akin to

understanding in Malloy's eyes and while we don't embrace, we try to get a

little closer to each other.

"You know I love you, right?"

I nod. "Of course."

"And Alice, too? And Nezzy?"

I nod again. "Of course," I say again and he seems terribly, terribly relieved

to I turn my head and kiss that flat, shirt-clad stomach of his, so finely

rippled, so hard and I feel the muscles twitch like mine do when I'm scared, so

I kiss him again.

Then Malloy does something which anybody else might take the greatest offense

at, but which I'll never stop being grateful for. That arrogant, sexy fucking

horndog reaches into his shirt pocket and withdraws a rolled-up wad of twenties,

four or five of 'em, and tosses the money onto the ornate little table whose

lacquered mahogany surface has received a number of value-diminishing scratches

and cigarette burns and coffee stains since we moved into the Old House.

It's that casual act of paying me for sex - paying me, and very naturally

demanding sex, showing respect for my professionalism and testing it at once,

that reminder of what my life used to be like and how much we both want it back,

that more than any of the words remind me that Malloy is truly my best friend,

and just as he expressed his love in a curious way, so I express mine.

Two seconds flat and his zipper's down and my mouth is where he likes it the

most, both of us groaning, perhaps more at the memory of a better life than at

the sensations. His cock flexes between my lips, throbbing to life as I skin his

sheath back, swallowing and slurping hungrily on it and I remember that while it

may have been a while since I had a dick to suck, until I had Hank earlier, it's

been forever since I got to blow my buddy Malloy.

He's writhing on the couch, much more affected by the blowjob I'm giving him

than usual and I have to put some considerable pressure on his chest to pin him

in place - as much as you can pin down a firmly-muscled dobermann like him. A

good, solid grip on his balls does the trick though, and he lies back, arms

splayed out over the couch's backrest, eyes cracked open just a fraction to

watch me work.

I work with relish. I don't just savour the act, the taste and feel of a nice,

big cock in my mouth, the way my throat tingles when a little precum dribbles

down it, I savor my friend, Malloy, and he me, and I'm reminded again that it's

because we love each other so deeply and because we have such good sex that we

can never be lovers, but who gives a fuck? Honestly, who cares?

Up and down my muzzle moves, my skilled, deep, warm muzzle, lips sealed around

his throbbing member, sliding it along the gulley of my tongue and then into my

throat, swallowing hard around it and corkscrewing my head for extra

stimulation, loving the feel of that tapered cockhead sliding down my gullet. I

tell you, I suck on that thick, long doggydick like it's the best thing I've

ever tasted, moaning like a bitch, which I don't often do, my face scrunched up

like I'm in pain, the way it gets when you get something you truly, deeply need.

And Malloy's no different. He groans, his fingers run through my spiked hair, he

wheezes his breaths through clenched teeth and his steel-hard erection shows all

the signs of a male who's so far gone that he can't even cum just yet. I push

the issue, bobbing my head faster, gripping him by the base and by the balls and

devoting all my art to this, to getting him off but keeping him on the edge,

building and building the orgasm I need to taste so badly.

My head's swimming as I lay sprawled on that couch, fully clothed as Malloy is,

the sexual act no more than a kiss in an intimate spot - a deep, French kiss,

but a kiss nonetheless. I imagine myself an apprentice boy, pleasing the master

he respects so much, or a servant who brings a noble guest a meal and some

pleasure, and I imagine myself when I was fifteen and Malloy was twenty-two and,

not a day after our first, furtive fuck, I tried cocksucking for the first time

and realized I loved it, as I love it now.

Warm semen, a saltiness so familiar to me now, floods my mouth but I pay it no

heed. I swallow as much as I need to to keep breathing, the electrifying milk

only heightening my awareness of the taste of Malloy's meat and for his part, I

think he barely notices the climax either, it's just one crescendo in a symphony

of lust and even as it tapers off, the flow of cum, I keep sucking and he keeps

bucking, and before we know it our clothes are all over the place and furniture

is overturned and we're on the bed, sweating like dogs, and fucking, and fucking

till the sun comes up.

To be continued.

Available on paperback in 2005

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