Author's note: This story is the continuation of RAVAGED, but since RAVAGED was so long, I thought it better to post it as two separate entities.

Disclaimer: The Sentinel and its characters belong to UPN and Pet Fly Productions. I make no money from this story and no copyright enfringement is intended.

Dedication: This story is still for N'Wanda, is still her baby, so to speak. She started me writing it and I obliged. Thanks, Aim, my fanpartner, for all the inspiration and encouragement. And thanks for all the help. (But I'm still not having the brand sanded off!!) AJSB.

Murmuring voices, like the droning of insects brushed at Blair's consciousness. A touch, soft and caressing moved across his face, lingered on his lips and swept over his eyelashes. He wanted to push away the unwanted touch that sent a shiver down his back and drew him closer to the brink of reality and somewhere in his aching, fearing mind, he knew that reality would not be a nice place. Lethargy weighted his limbs, held him to the softness beneath him, unable to even raise an arm against the intrusion.

"Blair," a voice, familiar and frightening, whispered with breath that stirred the hair across his cheek. "Wake up, darlin'. Your master is calling you."

He sniffed and tried to snuggle back into slumber, wrap himself in the cocoon of unconsciousness that would be his only protection from who or whatever this thing was hovering over him. But the touch persisted, became firmer along his jaw, gripping hard and finding a pressure point, pressed.

Pain flashed up and down Blair's face, pain as sharp as a blade cutting through flesh and bone. He gasped and his eyes went wide open, his effort to pull from the hold uselessly weak and ineffective.

Blair's vision wove in and out, blurring then clearing for only a brief moment then blurring again. The touch on his face lightened, still firm, but not painful anymore.

"Blair, look at me."

He obeyed, fearing the pain again. Baker's face floated above him like some nightmare vision, too close and smiling slightly, a pleased with himself sort of smile.

"No," Blair said in little more than a whisper. "No!" came a second time in a strangled cry. He pushed back, trying to get away, but his body would scarcely obey him and Baker easily reached out, grabbing his arm and hauling him back towards the man.

"Feisty, isn't he, my friend?" another man said with a strong Spanish accent and Blair glanced up sharply to see the man, dark-haired with dark Spanish looks, black mustache and a thin cruel looking mouth. The almost black eyes pierced him with an interest he didn't like one little bit, the kind of interest Baker had in him.

"That he is, Fernando. Blair baby is real sweet too. He's going to be so much fun. I can guarantee it."

The man smiled down at Blair who still twisted, trying to free his arm from Baker's tight grip. Then Baker had his other arm, dragging him up to his knees on the bed.

With a raised hand to Blair's face, the man named Fernando caressed his cheek. Blair jerked away only to have the man's open hand come down in a sharp blow across his face then grab him by the hair and tilt his head back. The two men stood over him, holding him on his knees on the edge of the bed.

"Welcome to Argentina, little one," Fernando said, smile growing bigger. "But I doubt your stay will be a pleasant one."

Blair swallowed down a scream and the horror of his situation blocked all hope of rescue or redemption.

This would be a good time to just shut down, Blair thought. Radar off, telescope down, all systems off line. Take a nap, Sandburg. Faint, damn you.

But Blair didn't faint. He struggled again against Baker's hold on his arms and this Fernando guy's grip in his hair. He wasn't certain if he said anything coherent, but they got the idea and Baker just laughed that superior, arrogant son-of-a- bitch laugh that infuriated or terrified depending on where one stood. Blair was a lot of both.

Baker manhandled him until the man managed to force Blair's arms behind his back, bringing Baker closer. The fist in Blair's hair forced his face forward and Baker's mouth landed on his, smothering him with demanding lips and a tongue trying to enter his mouth. Blair clenched his jaws tight and this all made him wonder in absolute horror if this was to be the first of many rapes to come.

No! I can't go through this again. I can't live through this again!

His struggle became hysterical, but Baker had little trouble controlling him. The man was as big as Jim, bigger even, strong and heavily built. Then this Fernando was no midget either and Blair felt weak, so weak from drugs, he guessed and maybe lack of food. It was hard to say since nausea was all he felt rolling around in his stomach.

With no warning, Baker shoved him away, the hold on his hair released simultaneously. Blair fell back on the bed, rolled and came up on the other side on his feet, swaying a little, but standing and backing away until the wall stopped him.

He was on the verge of tears, his terror enough to fill the room and start oozing under the door and through any cracks in the windows. He shook with his fear and his anguish that all this was starting again, that after he thought IT was over IT had resumed as if time had stood still and that now the chances that IT would end was nearly nonexistent. Jim was thousands of miles away, had no idea where he was. No rescue was imminent, no ending to a hell of the worst kind.

"Well, baby. Here we are. I told Ellison I was thinking of flying off to South America with you and tada here we are. How romantic, sweetheart." Blair said nothing and watched Baker turned to Fernando. "Isn't he something. Fernando? Quite a beautiful package."

"Yes, Matthew. He needs a shower and some fresh clothing before dinner though, don't you think? I'm certain our little...guest, would like to freshen up after the trip. Of course, he doesn't remember it, but that's beside the point."

"Yeah, you get a shower, Blair and a shave. I want you clean shaven at all times and I've had some clothes laid out for you to wear for dinner. Be sure you do what I say or we'll find a less enjoyable way of accomplishing what I want. You understand me, sweetheart?"

Blair just stared.

A sneer replaced Baker's smile and he made as if to come around the bed after Blair.

"I said do you understand, boy?" Baker snarled through gritted teeth.

Blair hunched against the wall, cringing even before Baker had come near to him. He gave a little nod and hated himself for doing so.

The smile returned almost instantly as if the sneer and smile were simply two forms of each other. "Good. You be a good little sweetheart, Blair baby and you won't get hurt nearly so bad. Now, you be ready for dinner in an hour. Someone will be by to get you."

Blair watched Baker unlock the door and leave, Fernando right behind him. The Latino turned with a cold smile, looking Blair up and down appraisingly.

"I'm looking forward to getting to know you, Blair. You'll learn to enjoy our company one way or another. Relax and ride your fate. There's much less pain in the process if you do."

Blair stared at the closed door for a long time, just stared, his mind numb with fear, his body so weak he had to cling to the wall to keep from falling. Finally, he slid onto the bed and lay there, the room whirling around, his mind in a light- headed daze.

Not even the tears would come now. He just lay there and stared at the door that Baker and this Fernando guy went through and locked behind them. He felt paralyzed with his own shock of waking to see Baker's face so close to his, to have that man's hands on him and the lips pressing against his, the man's tongue trying to pry his teeth apart.

Nausea, like a Sherman tank, rolled over the terrain of his stomach, ripping up the tender lining.

God, it felt like he'd swallowed whole a large fanged animal that was chewing its way out of his belly...a badger perhaps or a wolverine.

And what would Baker do to him if in less than an hour they came for him and he still lay here just as he was, no shower, no shave, no clean clothes. Blair began to imagine the most hideous things and wondered if he could even come close to conjuring the kinds of horrors Baker was capable of, and now intended to direct towards him.

With a gasping sigh, Blair pushed up off the bed and looked around the small room. It contain a double bed, a window, two doors and that was all, nothing more. No paintings on the wall, no dresser or chest, no closet or mirror, no television or books or magazines. No nothing. Like a prison cell.

Blair climbed onto the bed to look out the high barred window. He had to grip the bars to keep from falling and he hung on, balancing himself to see he was easily fifty feet off the ground, high in a tower he would guess. A forest of trees lay beyond a cleared area about seventy yards all around the building as far as he could tell. The window would not open and he couldn't have squeeze between the bars even if he were prepared to contemplate death as a means of escape. He might very soon though. Very, very soon indeed.

Carefully, he sat back down on the bed then pushed off again to try the door. It was locked.

Surprise, Sandburg.

He paced back and forth a moment then with a certain self- loathing went to take a shower.

Blair was clean, shaved and dressed when they came for him. Two men, obviously Argentinean stood at the open door and gestured for him to precede them.

"Where are you taking me?" he asked just to see if he'd get an answer.

"To dinner, Senor."

"And if I don't wish to go?"

The man gave him a little patronizing smile. "We would be forced to drag you there, Senor. Do you really wish to waste your energy on resisting going to dinner? I'm certain there will be other opportunities for you to rebel that will be far more worthwhile. Now come, Senor Alverez and Senor Baker do not like to be kept waiting. You do not wish to test either man's tempers, little one."

Blair went then, feeling like he was in some bizarre science fiction movie. Everything seemed so alien, so distorted and out of focus. He still felt light-headed and lethargic even after the shower. He walked down the long flight of steps with his heart thumping in his throat and that damned badger still trying to claw its way out of his stomach.

The walls of the corridor below were of a pale smooth stone and the floor a mosaic Spanish style tile. Framed pictures lined the long hall and doors of dark rainforest wood were interspersed here and there, all closed to his searching gaze.

Just as he contemplated working up the courage to run, the two at his sides took hold of his arms and lead him down another hallway and down a long flight of steps to a large open foyer. They turned him to the left, pulling him into a parlor area.

There Baker stood at an open balcony, back to him and Blair thought how nice it would be to push the son-of-a-bitch right over the side. But it looked as though it was no more than ten or twelve feet and knowing Baker all that would do was make the man mad.

Fernando Alverez was pouring wine from a decanter and glanced up with a smile.

"Matthew, our pretty little guest is here and all clean and dressed. Marvelous."

Baker turned and flashed a smile of his own. He looked Blair up and down, obviously noting the tightness of the black trouser and the fit of his shirt. Blair had been none too happy with the sexiness of the outfit, but his clothing had been missing when he exited the shower and having nothing better to wear, put on the pants and shirt.

"Beauty. Sheer, magnificent beauty."

Blair felt a cold, shivering finger run the length of his spine and he wondered at this game Baker was playing.

Alverez came towards him and Blair fought to keep both men in view. He backed up as the Latino came close, but the two men that brought him in blocked his retreat, their hands going to restrain him. Alverez reached out a hand to his face and Blair turned away, remembering the last time Alverez had hit him for doing so. But this time the man chuckled softly, fingering his hair, running the strands between fingers and thumb as if it were fine silk.

"Beautiful curls. Beautiful eyes. Beautiful mouth and cheekbones...and body."

The man leaned close, breath fanning out across Blair's chin, the grip on his hair tightening so he couldn't turn away from the kiss at the corner of his mouth or his cheek or at his temple. Blair gritted his teeth, breath hissing out and he struggled against the hold of the two men in vain.

"And...I understand you are an extremely intelligent young man, Blair. That you are close to your doctorate, a college professor. My, my. Such beauty and brains all in one package."

The man turned and walked away from him, swept up his glass and drank down his wine.

"You'll soon forget all of that, little one," Fernando said, turning back to him. "That was another life, one that is over and done with. But then...we'll talk of that later...after dinner. Wine?"

Blair felt the hands fall from his arms, felt the presence of those men fade away from him, leaving him standing in this lovely room with its tiled floor and crystal chandelier, dark wood and outdoor smells wafting in through the open French doors.

He couldn't think and if his stomach wasn't hurting so badly he would be numb from head to foot. He swallowed hard and felt the knot of terror rise up out of his chest to choke him and that only served to remind him of the ordeal at Baker's hands that he had endured only four months ago.

He watched Alverez pour another goblet full and Baker took it from the man's hand, languidly walking towards him. Blair could do nothing but stare at this madman who acted like they were old friends getting together for a visit.

"It's a good vintage, babe. You'll like it. Drink it." Blair found himself taking the glass from Baker's hand, trying not to touch the skin, but Baker's fingers lingered over his, caressing purposely. "Drink it, darlin'."

"What's in it?" Blair asked coldly, surprised by his own tone. Surprised he had the courage to ask.

Baker smiled that arrogant smile again. "Nothing, sweetheart. If I want you drugged, I'll just have some of Fernando's boys hold you down and inject it into you. Got that?"

Blair looked away.

"Or...." Baker said, closer to his face. "If I tell you to drink something that is a drug, you'll drink it. As I said about consequences....You will be sorry if you don't obey me."

Blair swallowed again. "Then I suppose I'm going to be very sorry, cause I don't intend to do what you say very much longer."

To his surprise, Baker barked a laugh and walked back towards Fernando.

"The challenge has been issued, Fernando, my friend. This little one thinks he can stand up to us. I'm pleased to hear it. This will be such fun. I would have been disappointed if he gave in right away. We have so much planned for our little Blair, don't we?"

Fernando just smiled and sipped his wine, appraising Blair then said. "Indeed, Matthew. I believe he'll make a lovely guinea pig for my experiment. Feisty yet somewhat fragile."

"Oh he's stronger than he looks."

"Stop it!" Blair hissed at them. "Stop talking about me like I'm a piece of furniture or your goddamned pet! I'm a human being. I'm a U.S. Citizen. You can't do this to me. You have no right to kidnap me and force me to do anything!" With a flick of the arm, Blair flung the wine glass across the room, the liquid arcing out in a pink rainbow, the fine, delicate crystal shattering against the wall. "Goddamn you, Baker. God damn you to hell, you freakin' headcase. Gods, I've got to get out of here."

Blair knew he wasn't thinking rationally. Baker would never let him walk out of this house, but he had to try, he had to make some attempt at escape, anything to get as far away from this madman as he could get. He backed away and Baker just smiled at him.

"Come, come, Blair, a tantrum before dinner? Where are your manners?"

"Stop it! Stop acting like you have a civilized bone in your body! Stop acting like I'm a guest and not a prisoner here!"

"If you don't calm down, Blair, we'll have to start the experiment right away. We were going to let you have a nice dinner before we began, but I think you've just speeded up the process."

Blair turned then and ran back the way he was brought in, pushing at the doors that had been closed behind him. They gave under his hands, swinging out only to reveal four of Alverez's men standing there blocking the way. He tried going through them, but their hands grabbed at him, repelled and sent him back the way he came, pushing him before them like a line of defensive backs. Blair stumbled away, searching for another exit, noting in the back of his mind that neither Baker nor Alverez had made a move towards him, letting him scurry around like a trapped animal, desperate to find a way out of this nightmare.

Every door opened under his hand, but always two or three or four men, big and brawny blocked his way, forced him back to the center till he managed to get passed Baker to the balcony, ready to go over no matter how high, no matter the consequences, no matter the pain. The rational need to escape coupled with the irrational belief that he actually could and he hit the railing and scrambled to climb it. He didn't care what he broke in the fall, somehow he'd run away into the forest, anything not to let this nightmare go on one more moment and he knew it would only be the beginning of something far worse than he could have ever dreamed.

But hands gripped him from behind, three sets then four, dragging him back from the brink, pulling him back into the room where Baker still stood and Alverez beside him. He still struggled, yet he felt his strength waning, his resolve breaking down into futility and near to blasted tears again.

Oh, dear god, please!

But no one heard his silent prayer and Alverez was taking something out of a leather bound case, a syringe and he filled it from a vial he pulled from the casing also.

"Well, babe, I gave you a chance to do this easy, but hey, I'm going to enjoy it either way," Baker said, pushing up Blair's sleeve. "This will be the first of many injections, sweetheart. A little something Fernando has cooked up for the CIA and needed to be tested. You get to be the first."

"What is it?" Blair gasped.

"Curious even in the face of fear. I'm proud of you, Blair baby. Tell him, Fernando."

"Certainly, my friend." Fernando turned to Blair, the needle in the man's hand glinting brightly, ready to sink into flesh with it's sharp oblivion. With his other hand, Fernando stroked Blair's face, thumb running over the cheekbone and around to push the hair back behind Blair's ear. "It breaks down resistance, little one. There are other drugs that are similar, but the side effects have been too disturbing. Mine will, I hope, prove to quickly squash a man's will power, the capacity to think of his own accord. It should enslave the mind and turn it to the will of the master. Coupled, of course, with other types of persuasion, but the point is to speed up the process. What normally would take months of torture and drugs should be reduced to a month or two. We shall see, pretty Blair, how long it takes for you, an intelligent man with a strong will and a strong moral conscience to bow to our desires and to our will."

"No," Blair breathed. "No! Oh god no! I won't!" "We shall see."

The needle pricked Blair's arm, then jabbed deep into the flesh. He felt dizzy and nauseated, sick enough to throw up, but there was nothing in his stomach to vomit. Those holding him, dropped him to the floor and he collapsed there, breathing hard and the sobs came, overwhelming his dignity and all else around him. The room began to spin, faster and faster, whirling and he clung to the floor wishing someone would stop the ride so he could get off. He felt as though he was standing on a high cliff looking down into forever and the vertigo was about to pitch him over. Complete lethargy weighted his limbs and his sight dimmed, darkness seeping into his vision until nothing was left but eternal damnation.

"Take him downstairs," Fernando Alverez said. "Use the ceiling chains."

"Should we remove his clothing, Senor?" one man asked as he supervise another who picked Blair up like a sack of potatoes and threw him over one broad shoulder.

"No," Baker cut in. "Just the shoes and socks. Leave the rest. I'll take care of them myself." He gave the man a smug smile and the man nodded, leading the way for the one that carried Blair.

Baker watched them go, imagining Blair naked again and at his mercy. He chuckled and drank down the rest of his wine.

"I don't know, Matthew. The boy does seem rather fragile. Are you certain he will be a good subject for this experiment? I need to show the CIA liaison results within two months."

"He'll be an excellent subject, Fernando. I guarantee it. He might not win any physical battles, but mentally, he's smart as a whip, sharp. I've watched him for a long time. He's stubborn and strong in ways that physical strength can't measure. And we get to enjoy sweet little Blair's company while we're at it."

"You are infatuated with him, aren't you?" Baker turned a raised eyebrow at his companion. "You could say that. He belonged to James Ellison, but now he belongs to me."

"This Ellison fellow must hate you for what you've done. Any possibility he might come looking for his lost property? That he might actually find him?"

That smile returned to Baker's mouth, tight and hard and full of malice.

"I'm counting on it, Fernando. I'm counting on it."

Blair woke with a foul smell burning the inside of his nose, sending a bitter taste to sit on the back of his tongue. He jerked back and that only sent streaks of pain running up into his arms and neck and down his spinal column. He heard a moan passed the roaring in his ears and recognized his own voice, seeming loud and echoing inside his head.

"Blair, sweetheart," a familiar voice said near his face and a hand gripped the back of his head, fingers lacing in his hair and pulled his head up. "Time to wake up and face your master. You sure are sensitive to that drug, boy. We're going to have to tone that down a bit or we won't have any fun at all. Take a note Fernando, cut back the dose for now. I don't want him a zombie. There's no fun in that."

With another moan, Blair slitted his eyes open, wondering why his wrists hurt so badly or his arms. Baker stood before him, close, holding his head up by his hair. The badger was back, gnawing and clawing at his gut and the room spun like one of those carnival rides he used to like to go on as a kid, but could barely stand as an adult.

He took a shaky breath and Baker let go of him. Surprisingly, he could hold his head up on his on. He let his eyes roam around the chamber, barren mostly except for a long table with straps attached and another smaller table with assorted items laid out of which he had no desire to find out what they were for. He realized that he stood in the center of the room, chains running down from the ceiling, capturing his wrists in shackles. The chains were pulled tight, spreading him out in four direction, his ankles also shackled by chains attached to the tiled floor.

Baker wasn't alone in the room. Alverez was there also with a small tape recorder in hand. The man leaned against the door casually watching him, waiting for something to happen or begin.

Baker reached out both hands and gripped Blair's face, pushing the hair back behind his ears. The man just stared into his eyes, thumbs running over his cheekbones and across his lips.

"You see what happens when you don't behave, babe? Look where you are now. It's not going to be pretty, baby and unless you are into pain of the extraordinary kind, you're not going to have any fun at all. I, on the other hand, will enjoy it very much. Your pain is my pleasure. Your agony is my priority. You completely naked and at my command is my goal, Blair. Now, let's get started."

Baker let him go and pulled a knife from his belt. A gasp escaped Blair at the sight of the long blade, glinting with its sharp edge, but he couldn't think, couldn't even find words to beg for mercy or shout his defiance. All he could do was watch Baker put the tip of the blade near his throat, at the collar of his shirt and with one quick stroke, slice the garment to Blair's waist.

Blair felt a little itch of pain, a slithering of something wet slip down his chest and stomach. He closed his eyes, determined not to look down or at Baker while the knife moved in the man's hand to poise at his upraised wrist then slice again till the shirt hung from his left arm. Soon Blair was shirtless and Baker had started on his hip, cutting the fabric of his pants down one leg then the other.

Blair had begun to hyperventilate, his breath labored and his mind wanting to shut down amidst the horror of his situation. Yet, he took in everything that was happening, almost in slow motion, each frame of this surreal movie advancing like the scenes of a bad film, taking forever to get anywhere, but knowing there was no way it was going to get any better.

Then the deed was done and Blair stood naked and chained and vulnerable to anything Baker wished to do to him. Baker stood looking him up and down, the knife slipped back into it's sheath at the man's belt.

"My, my, what a fine beautiful piece of flesh. You are simply gorgeous, sweetheart."

Blair refused to look at Baker, ignoring the man's remarks as if he wasn't there, a foot and a half away from torturing him in some terrible way.

"You think you can pretend I'm not here, babe?" Baker's hand shot out, a hard backhanded slap across Blair's mouth, then a gripping of his chin by steely fingers, reaching up to find a pressure point and pressing in."

Blair cried out at the explosion of pain up his face. His vision went dark in his right eye and his teeth felt as though they were being extracted without novocaine. The pain turned to agony when it reached his temple and shot through what surely had to be the center of his brain. Then the pressure subsided and only warm fingers rested along the side of his face, massaging gingerly. He gasped for breath and resisted the urge to start begging.

"You see how easily I can administer pain, little baby? Do you know that's what I do best?"

Blair shook with fear and what he thought was a reaction to the drug Alverez had given him. He wouldn't play their game. He wouldn't give in to them no matter what the drug did, no matter what they did to him. He just had to concentrate and fight off his body's reaction to both. Maybe he could do what he had taught Jim to do, turn down the dial to the pain and to the drugs. But Jim had the genetic advantage, the built in ability to make this work. Blair had only knowledge and prayed he might use it to his advantage for, at least, a little while. So, at least, he could go down fighting and not collapse into insanity right away. He couldn't let Baker win!

"I wonder where else on your pretty little body I can find places like this one, places that only take a bit of pressure to send agony blossoming out."

Baker's hand slid up Blair's arm to the crook of the elbow and the man's thumb pressed. Pain exploded up and down Blair's arm, into his shoulder and back. His fingers went numb for a moment then began to throb with pain.

Blair cried out again, unable to contain the outburst, unable to keep from writhing in his chains, unable to get away from Baker's hold. He was breathing hard by the time Baker released him, eyes squeezing shut. The man's hand wandered over Blair's body, sliding down his arm then down over his chest. Baker pinched one nipple hard, the other hand going up to tweak his other nipple.

"Does that feel good, sweetness?" Baker moved closer, body pressing up against Blair's, hands moving around to grip Blair's buttock and pulling forward till Baker's groin moved against his.

"Oh baby, yeah. Soon, real soon." One of Baker's hands moved up his back and into his hair and the man forced his mouth down hard onto Blair's, bruising his lips, crushing the breath out of him.

A wave of futility washed over Blair, a feeling as if no one anywhere could possibly help him or would...that he'd be forgotten in a short while and the world would go on without him, unchanged as if his presence was unnecessary. No one needed him, no one cared enough to save him from this nightmare, perhaps not even Jim.

No! his mind screamed at him. It's the drug making you think that. It's the drug! Fight it! Jim loves you. Jim will look for you...will find you. Oh god, just stay sane until he finds you.

Then Baker moved back, not releasing him, but looking at him like he was a prize and to Baker he supposed that was what he was...a prize, a trophy stolen away from Jim Ellison. Blair saw such triumph in Baker's face, in that smug, self-righteous smile and the possessiveness of Baker's hands all over his body. And all Blair wanted to do was wipe that smug, self-righteous smile off of Baker's face forever.

"What now, sweetheart? Where else can I show you what pain is all about? How about here?" Baker ran a hand up to Blair's collar bone, across to near the shoulder joint and dug his fingers in.

Blair screamed at the excruciating agony that shot across his chest, up his neck and arm. He saw stars streak across his vision and almost passed out just as the pressure eased. Something vile smelling assaulted his nose again and he came back to the horrible reality of the present with drug induced clarity.

"You psycho...freak!" Blair gasped, uncaring of what would happen. Baker was going to hurt him no matter what. He might as well say what he wanted. "You are not going to get away with this. Jim's going to find me and he's going to kill you."

Baker laughed just as Blair expected. It was that or hit him...or both.

"You know, sweetheart," Baker said, hands moving slowly down Blair's body, down his chest and stomach, fingers running along his thighs then back up to massage his genitals. "You should be very careful what you say to me." With that, Baker clenched his hand into a fist, thumb and fingers squeezing Blair's balls until a strangled cry was wrenched from the young man.

Baker let go and walked over to the table where the assorted instruments lay, fingering each one as if thinking of each's virtues. Blair sobbed with pain, the chains keeping him upright when all he wanted to do was curl up in fetal position and go catatonic.

"I told you he's strong, Fernando," Baker said, turning around with a long leather strap in his hand. "He takes what I dish out to him and still comes back with a smartass crack and threats. Takes a good set of balls to do that and he's got those."

Fernando chuckled and Blair managed to glance up as the pain started to subside. He saw the strap in Baker's hand and closed his eyes, feeling sick. He'd never been beaten as a child, not even a simple spanking. Naomi didn't believe in corporal punishment and she never allowed any of her many boyfriends to lay a hand in violence to her son. But now, Blair would find out what it felt like, would know the pain as few would ever know.

"Ah, an interesting way to begin, Matthew," Fernando said. "It will leave marks, but nothing permanent. Bruises, but no scars."

"Yeah, I just feel like getting out some hostilities this evening and this seems like a good way to do it. I think Blair baby needs a good, old fashioned whipping."

Baker came to stand before Blair, brandishing the strap in both hands, snapping it in front of Blair's closed eyes. Finally, Blair opened his eyes, gaze cold as the Arctic and Baker just grinned at him.

"I tell you what, Baker," Blair said, his voice steadier than he would have hoped. "Let me give you a reason to beat me...Pig! No. That would be an insult to pigs. How about --- lowlife scum? Or---perverted dirtbag? Or---sick son-of-a-bitch bastard."

"Shut up."

The strap lashed out, striking Blair across the cheek. Baker was in his face right afterwards, a sneer tugging the grin from his lips. Blair felt the welt rising along his cheek and the pain pulsed like fire.

"You think that's real cute, don't you, sweetheart? I'm going to show you how cute that was. I'm going to beat some of that cockiness right out of you."

Baker stalked around behind him and Blair tried to ready himself. He tensed as he heard the whoosh of the strap, the sound of the leather slapping against his ass registering before the pain of impact. He yelped before he could clamp his mouth shut against it, the pain radiating across the tender skin of his buttock. Another blow came at the underside of his ass, catching him partly across the upper thighs. Blair cried out again and realized he couldn't keep from it.

"Where's all the hostilities...coming from...Baker?" Blair said with a sniff, readying himself for the next blow. "Couldn't get your own boyfriend so you have to steal someone else's?"

The blow landed across Blair's shoulder blades, his breath knocked out of him and the stinging fire washed over his back in a wave of agony. He bit his lip and held in the cry. The next blow wrapped around his side leaving a burning welt sideways across his back.

Blair bit off another yell, determined to have his say. "So no one will come...with you willingly, to South America, Baker? You...have to resort to kidnapping? No one...can...stand to look at your ugly...face...or stand your...lousy personality?"

"Shut up, brat!"

Baker swung again and again, hard and fast, the leather ravaging Blair's backside. He started sobbing with the pain, too much agony to contain any longer. And all the while, Alverez stood leaning against the door, murmuring into his little tape recorder, documenting the "experiment" as if Blair was a lab rat, a human guinea pig for them to use as they saw fit.

Blair had bit his lip raw by the time he realized the beating had stopped. He waited with eyes closed, his breath gasping in his chest and dry throat.

"We're not done yet, little brat," Baker whispered in his ear and a hand caressed his sore buttock. "I'm feeling a need after all this foreplay, a need to fuck your pretty ass. It's all red now, a lovely crisscross of scarlet streaks."

Oh no...it was coming. Blair knew it would sooner or later. He swallowed passed the dryness in his throat, trying to work up enough saliva to say something sarcastic, but he couldn't get his lips to form around the words, his tongue feeling too big and the lethargy weighting his limbs made him feel as if he was about to be ripped apart by the pulling of the chains on his wrists and ankles.

"Nothing to say before I put my cock into you, baby?" Baker's fingers worked their way into his hole, feeling slick with lubrication. "Yeah, your ass is nice and tight. Jimmy hasn't been fucking you much lately...right? He was letting you recover from that little gang bang a few months ago, wasn't he? How sweet of him. Such a softie, Jimmy boy is. I'm lubing you up good cause we're going to have lots of these sessions, baby. Lots of fucking and I don't want you bleeding on me all the time. We'll keep you nice and slick for my cock and Fernando over there I'm sure he wants to have a go at you too. Don't you Fernando?"

"Indeed, my friend," Fernando agreed. "Very soon I'll want to get to know little Blair much more intimately. But enjoy yourself for now, Matthew. I see you can not wait. It's been too long. Four long months since you pleasured yourself inside of him. Please continue. I'm enjoying the show."

Blair gritted his teeth, nausea rolling, churning inside his stomach. That damned badger had just about consumed the lining of his stomach and was now working on his bowels as well.

"You...sick...bastards," Blair hissed. "Jim...is going to kill both of you. He'll...kill you...for me. Rip your...balls...off and shove them...down...your throats...until you choke to death."

"Quite a threat, baby," Baker snarled in his ear. "But we'll see who gets who. Now, no more talking. Time for fucking."

Blair's body automatically tensed and the pain of anal entry shot through him like a bullet, fire and ice, slicing and ripping, tearing at his bowels. He cried out and jerked forward, trying to get away, but Baker grabbed his hips and forced him back to meet the thrusts, pulled out and shoved back in with brutal velocity. Baker pounded into him, doing it hard, angling for maximum penetration, spreading him wide for deeper access. And Baker made it last. Just as Blair thought the man was done, Baker would slow up and let the pressure ease then begin again until finally Baker came in a series of hard thrusts, arms wrapped around Blair's waist, hands running down Blair's thighs and pressing him to the man's body.

Baker stood there deep inside of him, just holding Blair to him. One hand moved up to sweep Blair's hair from his neck and Baker latched on with his mouth, tongue licking at the perspiration, teeth sinking in to leave his mark on Blair's neck and shoulder in three or four places.

With a slow, languid movement, Baker pulled out, hands running over Blair's body.

"Oh baby," Baker crooned. "You are one sweet fuck." Blair's head fell forward, his mind numb, but his body screaming for relief. Everything hurt, inside and out, from his head to his toes, he hurt and he had never been too fond of pain. He couldn't swallow anymore. He couldn't breath without gasping. He couldn't think with his mind so numb and his body cursing even the smallest movement.

Baker came around in front of him. Blair could feel the man's eyes on him, could feel the hot breath of the man he hated more than anything, the man he wanted dead by some horrible means. He felt Baker's fingers lock onto his hair and drag his aching pounding head up and the other hand played along the welt running across his cheek. He couldn't help but open his eyes and gaze into the cold depth of Baker's eyes.

"First round goes to me, Blair sweetheart. I think we've established a rapport with one another. We understand each other now, don't we? It'll take time, darlin', but you'll learn that I'm your master now and you are my slave. And you'll keep hurting as long as you fight against that. But, that's all right. I'll enjoy it either way and I know we have years of self-esteem to break down, years of happy times, childhood, adolescents, life experiences we have to bury under pain and drugs and lots of sex. But in the end, babe, you'll be nothing but my sweet little slave, ready to suck my cock on demand and turn your pretty ass up for me to fuck. You'll see. I'll win and James Ellison will lose."

Jim ground his teeth in suppressed rage. He didn't want to deal with Johnny Payton, but dealing may be the only way to find out where in South America Baker had run off to, dragging Blair with him.

He and Simon walked the long corridor of the prison facility where Payton was awaiting his trial for two counts of kidnapping, assault, sexual assault and attempted murder. Jim wasn't certain the attempted murder charge was going to stick, but the rest was cut and dry, accept the main witness, the victim had been kidnapped again. Jim was now the only witness to the crime.

Then Jim remembered that wasn't the point anymore. They needed information and Johnny Payton might be the only one who knew anything. He might be the only one that could narrow down an entire continent to a country...a city...a place...a name. Anything to help them find where Blair had been taken.

He hadn't been able to go back home, not to the loft where everything would smell of Blair and remind Jim of his failure to protect his mate. Simon had made Jim come home with him, unwilling to leave Jim alone to face a sleepless night of torment, imagining what was being done to Blair that very moment. He'd never forgive himself now, never. Then he remembered Blair's words. "Not your fault, not my fault. We know who's to blame."

They waited in an interrogation room and watched as John Payton was brought in dressed in an orange jumpsuit. Payton sat with a smug look on his face.

"You be sure to keep your distance, Ellison or I'll file charges against you."

Jim pushed back the red haze of murderous intent and concentrated on what would get them what they wanted. Baker's hideout in South America.

Simon put up a hand and Jim stood back, hands clenched behind his back just to keep them from going for Payton's throat.

The image of Payton raping Blair and choking him nearly stole Jim's mind from him. And he remembered the blade in Payton's hand, cutting his cheek, crisscrossing his chest. He had scars from that display of power.

"Baker came for Blair baby, didn't he, cops? That's why you're here. You want my help. You want to know where Baker's taken that pretty little boy, don't you?"

Jim took a deep breath and somehow he heard Blair's voice telling him to relax, to breath and not let his emotions take control. He obeyed the phantom voice of his lover and cherished even that little bit of remembrance.

"Where has Baker taken Blair Sandburg, Payton? You know, don't you?" Simon said.

"Maybe I do. Maybe I don't. But there are some things that stimulate my memory real well. You got a cigarette?"

"No cigarettes, Payton," Jim growled.

"I'll take one of those fancy, expensive cigars you carry...Captain." Payton made the title sound like an insult.

Simon pursed his lips and stared hard at the man. He pulled out his case and drew out a cigar, laying it on the table. Jim watched Payton smile and languidly pick up the stogie, smelling of it with pleasure.

"Ahhh. Now for a light."

Simon leaned over the table with a lighter and Jim thought his captain had to restrain himself from lighting Payton's face instead of the cigar.

Smoke filled the room and Jim had to tone down his responses. He saw Payton take a long draw and make smoke rings.

"Where's my partner?"

"Now, don't get in a hurry, Jimmy boy. We've got things to discuss, like what's in it for me."

Jim just stared hard at the man trying to control the urge to kill.

"You give us the exact location of where Baker has taken Sandburg and we'll talk to the district attorney about going light on you," Simon offered.

"You get me complete immunity and I'll give you what you need to find sweet little Blair."

Jim squeezed his eyes closed. The D.A. would never go for complete immunity.

"The best we'll be able to get is a reduced sentence. We could get the attempted murder charge dropped," Simon countered. "Maybe the kidnapping charge."

"Not good enough, cop. I want immunity." "We can't give it to you, Payton." Jim slammed his fist down on the table. "The D.A. will never go for it."

Payton took another long drag on the cigar, taking his time blowing out the smoke and sending it wafting Jim's direction.

"They don't have much of a case, Jimmy boy, with Blair baby missing. And they have no case at all if you don't testify."

Jim felt his blood pressure rising, felt the blood pounding in his veins, about to burst in his head.

"You give me some proof that you know where Blair is, Payton. Put up or forget it."

Payton seemed to mull that one over, seeming to be thinking on the pros and cons of giving away even the smallest of information.

"Okay, something in good faith. I'll narrow it down to the country for you. How's that? Then you go to the D.A. and you get me a deal that's worth more than that. I want complete immunity."

Jim and Simon both stared hard and nodded. Payton smiled that smug smile again. "Argentina, boys. Argentina."

Blair heard a door open somewhere far away, so distant to his pain-filled body and mind. His hands were numb, but everything else was agony, throbbing and burning, pulsing with the pain inside and out. He flinched from the hand that reached under his hair and touched his face, tilting his head back with a firm grip on his chin. His eyes opened involuntarily, slitted open to see Alverez there before him, far too close.

A cup was put to his mouth and he drank down the water offered, would have gulped if Alverez had let him.

"Sip it, little one. We don't need you to be sick." Others were in the room, some of Alverez's men. They moved around him, cleaning him with damp, warm cloths while Alverez checked his pulse and his heartbeat, looked into his eyes with a light. The man made notes on his little tape recorder then put it aside and drew out that box that held a full, ready syringe.

Blair whimpered, but Alverez just smiled at him, patting his cheek gently. The needle slid into Blair's thigh, sending a wave of dizziness through him, cascading up and down his body, swirling around him like a cyclone. He didn't lose consciousness this time, just felt sick to his stomach with vertigo.

"Please," Blair whispered. "Please...don't...." "It's too late for begging, little one. You chose the path of resistance and you must play the game thus. I have no more mercy than Matthew Baker, so don't think I shall be of any help. I am paid well by your government to create my special concoctions. And Matthew brought you to me for the purpose of testing my drug." The man grinned at him knowingly. "Ah, I know that he covets you. He is obsessed with you. He must own you and make you his slave, so his motivation was more than just the usual. By using my drug, Matthew and I both get what we want."

Alverez stepped closer, hands moving to caress Blair's face, run fingers back through his dark curls and tilt his head back again. Blair watched the man lick his lips as if hungry, ready to devour a seven course meal and Blair knew he was the main course.

"And," Fernando Alverez said, breath hot on Blair's face. "Matthew is so very generous to share his prize with others. He will share you with me and I am so looking forward to that moment, my sweet Blair. What a beautiful name for such a beautiful boy." The man's lips latched onto his, kissing him deeply, fingers forcing Blair's mouth open. He felt Alverez's tongue move against his, trace his teeth around his mouth.

Blair struggled against the man's hold, but Fernando only gripped him tighter, mouth moving down Blair's neck and shoulder to suck and bite. Without hurrying, Fernando released him, stepping back to let his servants finish the job of washing Blair, holding him still by his hair as they shaved him and cleaned his face.

"Matthew and I will return for another visit this evening, my sweet. I will have another injection ready for you at that time. Then we shall continue your lessons in pain."

Blair shook his head. "No, please."

"Deny it all you like, Blair, but tonight we shall begin again and I will hear your cries of agony and they will sound like music to me. You see, I enjoy a beautiful man's pain. It, as you Americans say, turns me on."

Blair watched them all go, his breath heaving in his chest. A sob caught in his throat, slowly making its way up and out of his mouth. Another followed and soon he was crying hysterically, his sobs consuming his reason, consuming any rational thought. He cursed, anger rising into rage at the injustice, at the outrage he felt.

How dare they do this to him? How dare they believe they have the right to destroy him this way? To take his freedom and his body, take his honor and his sanity? How dare they?

"Jim...help me," Blair whispered through his tears. "Oh god...please...."

"Well, there we are. Your third injection, sweetheart." Baker stood before Blair, gazing up and down, taking in Blair's agonized stance, the painful set of his face. Blair could feel the protest of every muscle that demanded he move when he could do nothing of the sort. What little he could do only set his muscles aflame with need to stretch, to move, to lie down, to run...to do anything but remain in this position one more moment.

"How ya doing tonight, Blair baby? Got some cramped muscles? Your backside throbbing from that little beating I gave you last night? How's that tight little ass of yours doing? Ready to be fucked again?"

Just move a little closer, you freakin' psycho and I'll spit in your face, Blair thought as he tried to maintain a cold steady stare.

"Nothing to say, darlin'?" Baker taunted him. "Aren't going to beg...plead?" Baker chuckled, moving over to the table where the various instruments lay, waiting for use.

Alverez pulled out a stethoscope and checked Blair's heart, took his pulse again and blood pressure as best that could be with Blair's arms over his head. The man put a cup to his lips and made him drink all of the water before releasing him again.

"Can't let you get too dehydrated now can we. And we must watch your blood pressure as well, little one."

Blair just stared at him, the pain starting to become a part of him. He closed his eyes finally and tried to pretend this wasn't happening, that he was having a terrible nightmare and Jim would wake him any moment now and he'd tell Jim how real the dream had seemed and how horrible it had been.

But then Baker's hand touched his face, gripped his chin and Blair's pretending ended in a flash of pain up his face. No dream was this, no nightmare, but reality gone terribly, horribly wrong. He sucked in air through clenched teeth, feeling the trail of the pain running up to his temple and across his teeth and jaw muscles.

Baker's hand moved with a languid grace, never leaving Blair's flesh, just trailing ever so gently till the fingers reached a pressure point and the hand administered pain with little more than a touch all the way down his body.

He was gasping for breath when Baker stepped back, observing the reaction to the action, gaging, Blair guessed, how much he could take of this torture.

"How you doing, sweetheart?" Baker said over his shoulder. The man moved Blair's hair to the side and licked his neck, kissed the nape. "Oh so sweet," Baker murmured. "What should I do to you tonight? Another beating? Nah. Maybe tomorrow I'll make a special trip down. I think tomorrow we'll up your sessions to two a day and maybe we'll see what the front of you looks like after a good long whipping."

"You are one sick son-of-a-bitch."

Baker laughed in Blair's ear. "Yeah, I am. I think I've got something real special for you tonight."

Baker moved around him to the table again, picking up a device that Blair recognized and a cold terror settled into the pit of his stomach.

"Do you know what this is, babe?" Baker asked coming to stand before Blair again.

The thing was about the size of an electric razor, black plastic with a grip that fit nicely into the palm of the hand. Blair stared at it with trepidation. He had seen it used once, seen the man convulse and fall to the ground nearly unconscious.

"It's a stun gun. Some call it a tazor though there's a bit of difference that I'm not going to bother to explain. Gives off an electrical charge though. Packs quite a punch, normally about 200,000 volts and I've made some adjustments for more control and more voltage. Here, let me show you."

Baker reached out to him, pressed the thing to his side and pushed a button. An electrical shock seared Blair's skin, a jolt of electricity going through him. Blair cried out and jerked in his chains. He stared in wide-eyed terror and knew that had been a low voltage.

"Dear...god," Blair gasped. "Oh dear...god." Baker laughed and Blair watched the man admire the instrument then look up at Blair's frightened expression. Blair felt the fear tight in his throat, pound in his chest.

"Please....oh god...please!"

"Please what, Blair baby?" Baker crooned, moving to stand as close as a breath. "Please don't hurt you? Please don't touch you with my little toy? You should have thought of that when you defied me, sweetheart. Cause now you're going to pay. And damn straight it's going to hurt."

Baker took one step back and pressed the stunner to Blair's body, just below the navel. The shock of it jerked him in his chains again, a cry of helplessness and despair dragged out of him. Blair felt tears burn his eyes when he could think again, could make his mind function in any manner again. He felt the shiver of aftershock, a tingling in his nerves. And he tasted the metallic flavor of blood and knew he had bit his tongue.

"You will have to use the gag, Matthew. He's bleeding from biting himself."

Baker took hold of his face and looked him over. "Should have already, but I got ahead of myself, baby. Can't have you biting off your own tongue. I like to hear your voice ever now and then.

Blair drew in ragged breaths and watched Baker pick up something else from the table. It looked as if it was made of some plastic with straps hanging from either side. Baker grabbed his face again and shoved the thing into his mouth, effectively gagging him. Baker strapped the thing around his head, buckling it in back.

Then the man was coming at him again and Blair pulled at his chains in an hysterical frenzy trying to get away from the touch of that abominable thing. But there was nowhere to go and the stun gun touched the palm of his hand, sending a shock down his arm and back.

Baker walked around behind him, a shadow clinging to the wall, a dark force trying to take his sanity, trying to suck out his soul. The sobs came in earnest as the tazor was applied time and again to different parts of his back and buttock. Each application took minutes to recover from, but Baker brought Blair back from the edge of unconsciousness with smelling salts and slaps to the face each time he hovered too close to that brink.

A growing fear eclipsed all else, a fear of the ultimate application. Blair felt the gun at his crack, pushed up nearly into him. He heard his own muffled scream echo in the room, tossed about with the reverberation of an almost empty room. He sank into semi-consciousness again only to be brought back.

Baker stood before him, fingers brushing the tears from his cheeks.

"Poor sweet little baby, Blair. Precious darlin'. One more time or two or three then I'm going to pump my dick into you. I'm going to enjoy that pretty ass of yours, boy.

"Now, somehow I think you know what comes next. You know we can't be finished with this little shock session until I've given your balls a good zapping."

Blair squeezed his eyes closed and prayed for unconsciousness that he couldn't be dragged out of with smelling salts. He felt the cold edges of the device touch the skin of the sack, felt Baker begin to press the button and the shock up through his body was like nothing he'd felt before, the pain sinking into the marrow of his flesh and into his internal organs it seemed. He knew he screamed again through the gag, but darkness took him down momentarily. The slaps brought him back to the now, hard backhanded slaps and Baker yelling in his face.

The tazor shocked Blair again even before he had fully come around, jerking his body like a puppet on a string. He felt the pain originate in his penis and slide up into his bowels and intestines, anchor in his stomach and reach for his chest. Again the darkness took him and he came to with Baker already behind him, working the hard cock into his ass.

"Oh baby, yeah. You are so tight. You'll squeeze me real good tonight. Oh, yeah."

Blair sobbed out his horror, scarcely able to breath through his tears and the gag. He didn't care. He wanted to die. It was better to die than suffer this agony and indignity for this eternity of days and nights, nothing better to hope for than a torture less painful than this.

Baker drove into him, fingers digging into his hips and pulling him then shoving him away, the cock sliding out and thumping back in without an ounce of mercy. Pain radiated up Blair's back and down his thighs, his rectum aflame with agony. Baker's harsh breath rang in Blair's ear and he felt the man sink teeth into his neck, sucking and pounding into him until the pain reached a climax that matched Baker's orgasm.

Blair didn't want to think anymore, didn't want to remember anything anymore, but Alverez stood before him, stethoscope in hand and Baker stood behind the man looking sweaty and sated, licking his lips almost feverishly.

"He okay, Fernando? I tell you he's stronger than he looks."

"Indeed, Matthew, his heart is beating strong and his pulse is rapid, but strong also. He will survive this night even if he wishes otherwise."

"Good...good. So, no problem with upping the sessions to two a day?"

"Certainly. Starting tomorrow if you wish." No...please, no. Dear god, please have mercy on me, Blair pleaded to some unknown god or goddess, anyone that would listen to him.

But no answer came, no rescue or divine intervention to this hell created seemingly just for him on this earth.

Baker was there again, unstrapping the gag. Blair gasped and sucked in air like a drowning man. The hands on his face took hold of him possessively, thumbs running over his cheekbone, across his lips. Baker's mouth was inches from his and the man's tongue licked the lips again and pressed to his, a deep kiss that went on forever.

Blair shuddered with the man's nearness. "I know you hate me, sweetheart," Baker said after breaking the kiss. "I know you're longing for your Jimmy boy, but before we're finished you won't even remember who James Ellison is and all you'll know is that I'm your master and that you obey me without question. You won't even remember your own name unless I call it, baby. A few more nights of this and you'll be begging me to make you my slave so you can get down from these chains."

Blair just shook his head. "No," he whispered without defiance, just certainty that he'd never let Matthew Baker become his master if he could stop it.

Baker smiled the smile of the sadist. "Then you are in for a long ride, darlin'. It's going to be a long painful ride to hell and back."

"Jim, we knew the chances that the D.A. would give complete immunity were almost nil," Simon said as the two men left the government building. "Calm down. We still have something to give Payton. He's bound to give us more information for it."

"It's not enough, Simon," Jim replied getting into the passenger side of Simon's car. He didn't even trust himself enough to drive at this moment, his hopes dashed by the D.A.'s refusal to drop the cocaine charge and reminding them of the fact that Payton had violated his parole in New York. All Jim could give Payton was his assurance that he wouldn't testify to the other charges, effectively destroying the D.A.'s case and promising that if they found Blair that he too wouldn't testify either. "Even if Payton narrows down the location to a city, we're still talking about miles of possibilities. Blair could be anywhere in Argentina and every moment that passes is another moment he is suffering something horrible at Baker's hands."

Simon pulled into traffic, heading for the jail. "I know, Jim. Don't think it's not on my mind constantly. I care about what happens to Blair. I'm worried sick too."

"He's hurting, Simon. I feel it. He's in terrible pain." "Jim, this won't help Sandburg. You've got to block this out of your mind and get yourself pulled together. You've got to concentrate on your covert ops training. This is a mission and we have to not let our personal feelings cloud the objective."

Jim turned to stared at Simon, studying the man who was his captain, his superior officer, his friend.

What kind of mess would I be if not for Simon Banks? he asked himself. Jim knew the answer without really thinking. He'd still be zoned out and in a hospital if not for Simon Banks. And Blair would be left to suffer until Baker destroyed him completely. Jim shuddered, feeling nausea roll through his stomach.

Blair, I'm coming to get you, we're coming. I swear Matt Baker will die for what he has done to you...what he's doing to you at this very minute.

"You're right, Simon. Thanks for reminding me. We've got work to do...a job to do. But don't think that when we find them that I'm not going to take my revenge on Matthew Baker. He's going to die for what he's done to Blair. Just stay out of my way when the time comes."

Jim felt Simon gaze over at him while they were at a traffic light and his captain was studying him in return, gaging the seriousness of his intent.

"I have no authority in Argentina, Jim. I won't even look twice if Baker ends up dead. But I hope that's something you can live with afterwards."

"Wake up, little baby. Your master has come for another fuck."

Blair jerked awake and cried out at the pain that lanced up and down his arms and through his entire body. He swallowed hard and Baker put a cup to his lips and forced him to drink.

Alverez had come earlier, but Blair didn't know exactly when. The man had supervised his cleaning and shaving and injected him again with the drug.

He felt that he would float away if he wasn't chained down, yet at the same time, his head felt so heavy he could hardly hold it up. Pain had come to take up residence permanently in his body, a neighbor to the badger that lived in his stomach and bowels, the agony so intense he didn't even know how his mind continued to function through it all.

Baker stood before him, smiling again or still. Blair didn't really know or care, just wanted one of them to die and leave the other one alone. He squeezed his eyes shut and swallowed again, licking his lips and feeling nausea rolling over and over again in his stomach.

Baker reached out, hands going to stroke Blair's face and hair, fingers running back through the curls to pull Blair's face forward. Blair clenched his teeth and made his lips hard and unyielding to Baker's mouth, determined to defy if not outright fight the bastard. Baker shoved him back and stood gazing at him again.

"Still not ready to give in, sweetheart. Too bad for you, cause I'm just filled with ideas on how to make you hurt and how to fuck your pretty little ass."

Two of Alverez' men came in carrying a narrow table or bench of some sort. The one named Ron followed them in and sneered a smile at Blair.

"Hey, Blair...sweetheart. Lookin' a little rough around the edges there, pretty baby."

With cold contempt Blair stared, hatred seeping out from his gaze. He wished hideous things on these people and wondered if his karma was just sending the negative energy back at him.

They positioned the piece of furniture before him, a narrow padded bench that Blair could find no purpose for, but had a sudden foreboding dread grip him. Then his captors were unchaining him from the ceiling, removing the chains by a link and between them they forced him over the bench to reattach the chains to rings in the floor on the other side of the bench.

Blair screamed in pain, the movement sending agony lancing up and down his nerve endings throughout his body from the sudden change in position. He sobbed and nearly passed out, retching from the overwhelming nausea and the pressure across his stomach.

Baker had him by the hair, dragging his head up. "You don't appreciate a little movement, baby? Man, we just can't seem to please you, can we, Blair? But I think I like this new position, your pretty butt sticking up in the air, ready for me to fuck or Ron over here. He'd like to fuck your ass again."

"Yeah, I want it bad."

Blair just gasped in shallow breathes, his mind going numb, trying to shut down in self-protection. This was hell. It had to be hell. He had never believed in hell before, but this was definitely it.

"Now listen sweetheart, listen to me. You're going to suck my dick now."

Blair shook his head and he wondered where he got the energy or courage to do so, but the action had come involuntarily. He wasn't ready to give in, not ready to let Baker win this particular battle just yet.

"Still some pride left in you, Blair baby. We've got to get that nasty pride out of you before we can start making you the perfect little sex slave. You need to forget about dignity. We've pitched that right out the window. You need to forget about who you are cause you are nobody now, but my property. You've got to forget about self-esteem. Nobody here cares. They all know what you are here."

Blair shook his head again, angered by Baker's assumed power over him. But Baker just gripped his hair tighter and jerked his head back further.

"You are going to suck my cock, sweetheart. You are going to do it, now."

Baker let him go and brought over a chair one of Alverez's men had brought in. He seated himself and opened his pants, drawing out his hard cock. Baker dragged Blair's head back up and forced his face forward, the cock pushing at Blair's mouth, demanding entrance.

Blair clenched his teeth again, determined to not open his mouth, determined to defy Baker's orders. He tried to shake off the man's grip, but had no maneuvering room. And he could tell Baker was getting angry, the grip tightening to brutal and the fingers probing at his face, trying to get his mouth to open.

"You little brat, I swear I'll beat you senseless if you don't obey me."

"Go to hell," Blair hissed through his teeth. He almost laughed when he remembered he was already there. But then he felt his mouth opening under the pressure, the pain in his face and up into his head almost more than he could stand. And the cock filled his mouth, choking him and pushing down his throat. He gagged and retched then with vicious intent, Blair bit down as hard as he could and knew he had caused pain when Baker jerked out of his mouth with a yelp, the chair scraping back across the floor.

"God damn you, brat. You'll pay for that." The backhanded blow sent stars streaking across Blair's inner sight then another almost put his lights out. The salty taste of his own blood bathed his tongue, filled his mouth and he made a feeble attempt at spitting.

He heard Baker go around behind him, heard the swoosh of the leather strap and steeled himself for a familiar pain. And the agony came like a lightning storm, fast, strike after strike and the thunder of his own cries and harsh breath filled his hearing until he was begging for it to stop with drenching downpours of sobs.

Baker was before him again, dragging his head up again to stare into his tear-streaked face, sneering at him with such rage, Blair thought he might be about to die.

"I've had just about all the pussyfooting around I'm going to take from you, boy," Baker growled at him, jerking his head to the side and back. "You are going to suck my dick and you're going to do it right."

Blair shook his head again and waited for death. But Baker just smiled at him, an evil smile that made Blair cringe inwardly.

Behind him, Blair felt Ron run a hand over his ass, between his legs and grip his balls in a tight fist. Blair gasped and breath went even more ragged.

"You're going to do it, baby...or Ron there is going to cut off your balls. Castrate you...make you a eunuch. What would Jimmy boy say to that, Blair baby? Would he be disappointed? Nah, he could still fuck your ass. Not that I'm going to let him, but I still can whether you've got your balls or not."

"No," Blair cried out, anguish and despair finally wrapping around him and not letting go. "Oh no! Please, oh...oh...god...please. No."

"You know what you've got to do, sweetheart. Just open your mouth and suck my dick real good till I come and you'll keep your balls....for now anyway."

Baker grabbed the chair and pulled it over to sit again without letting go of Blair's hair. Once again he positioned himself, the cock poking at Blair's mouth.

Dear god, why is this happening? Why is this being done to me? What god did I offended so thoroughly that it would do this to me?

Blair felt Ron still behind him, squeezing his balls cruelly, fingers probing at his ass, slipping them into him and Blair knew the man was getting ready to rape him. The tears streamed down his face, but he opened his mouth at Baker's insistence and let the hard cock shove down his throat to choke him once again.

"Suck it, boy. I'm not doing the work here." Blair obeyed, retching and sucking and crying, black despair sinking into his soul and into the marrow of his bones. Ron's fingers pushed at his hole, stretching him and then the hand squeezing his balls moved to his hip and the fingers turned into a long hard cock that shoved into him with a sharp thrust.

He gave a moan of pain, but Baker's hand in his hair allowed nothing more and Ron's fingers gripping his hips held onto him, forcing them into a rhythm. Baker came in his mouth shortly thereafter.

"Swallow it, baby. Take it all. That's it." But the pounding from behind didn't let up even after Baker withdrew from his mouth, a swift constant beating. Blair's body jerked forward then was brought up short by the chains around his ankles. And Ron pulled him back jerking the chains around his already mangled wrists. Blair felt a wetness trickling down the backs of his hands and fingers and looked up enough to see blood seeping from his wrists, trailing down to drip off his finger tips to the floor.

Ron came in a rush of hard thrusts that made Blair cry out with the agony of it. With a sigh of what sounded like satisfaction, Ron pulled out of him and ran hands over Blair's beaten back and buttocks, running between his legs to squeeze and fondle his genitals once again.

"Oh baby, you've got the tightest little ass. Man, what a fuck."

Blair just lay across the bench and sobbed, quiet little shallow sobs that pushed against his ribcage, ran up his throat and escaped through his open mouth that was slack with shock. His body throbbed with pain, throbbed with every breath he took and every little movement of his twitching muscles and the beating of his heart. He hurt from the blood rushing through his veins and even the process of thinking hurt so he didn't try, just lay there without thinking of anything. The pain consumed all of his thoughts anyway.

Baker's hand in his hair, jerking his head up again, brought Blair back to the horror of the moment, from the brink of divine oblivion.

"Hey, baby. That was fun, but we got to go for a little while. We'll be back though, promise. How about I just leave you like this for now. Better to fuck you again anyway."

Baker let Blair's head drop and one of Alverez's men moved forward to clean him off, wash his face and force him to drink more water. Blair felt the other man behind him, cleaning him up after Ron had finished with him. Misery overwhelmed him and he began to weep, ignored by the men whose only job was to keep him ready for the next time Baker came and Alverez.

One man then the other left the room and Blair was once again alone. Alone to wait for the torture to begin again in a few hours.

Too long. Everything was taking too long. Getting in to talk to Payton. Talking to the D.A. Getting a hold of an old army contact in Argentina that helped them get an inconspicuous flight into the country with the weapons they needed, but would have never been allowed to carry on a commercial flight.

Jim tried to relax, tried to let his mind drift into a doze, but all he could see in his mind's eye was Blair suffering at Baker's hands. And he didn't even have to conjure the images from his imagination. Oh, no. He had been given a first hand view of how Matt Baker takes his revenge and what the man would extract from Blair as further payment for Jim's "crime."

But if he didn't get some sleep soon, he was going to be worthless, an exhausted shell of a man who would be no good to Blair.

Jim let the memory of Blair's voice relax him, the way Blair could with that even, soothing tone, the rich voice full of life and love. He would remember that voice and he would hear it again, would treasure Blair's closeness and warmth. He would gather his lover into his arms and never let go again, if only the powers that be would allow him one more chance to do this right.

He finally dozed, drifting off with thoughts of Blair wrapped around him, dreaming of that beautiful face and the gorgeous flow of hair, framing exquisite features. He dreamed of Blair's touch and thought he heard that voice pleading with him...to help...to please help him.

Jim came awake with a start and Simon's hand steadied him. "Careful there, buddy. We'll be landing in about twenty minutes. It's a small, secluded airstrip about forty miles from Buenos Aires they just told me. Will we have a ride when we get there?"

"Yeah," Jim replied, rubbing his face and sniffing. His dream vision still had Blair's image etched on his inner sight and he had to pull his mind away to concentrate on the topic at hand. "My friend in Buenos Aires will be waiting for us. He can get us into town, but he has a wife and four kids now and isn't willing to do more than get us to the city and a little document searching."

"He's done quite a bit already. We'd never have been able to get these kinds of arms into the country otherwise. And I don't feel like going up against someone like Baker without them." Simon slapped his hidden holster and Jim knew exactly how Simon felt.

They watched the decent and landing from the window then gathered their one bag each and exited the plane. Jim's friend, Carlos Jones stood beside a Toyota Celica, the blend of Spanish blood and something Nordic an interesting combination of characteristics.

"Jim Ellison, it's been a long time." The man shook his hand and they hugged. "I wish it was for better reasons. I'm sorry about your friend."

"Thanks, Carlos. This is Simon Banks. He's my captain back on the force in Cascade."

"Pleasure, sir," Carlos said, his military background obvious by his demeanor. They shook hands. "Should have known you'd end up a cop, Ellison. Doesn't surprise me in the least."

Jim gave the man a smile. "Carlos. Can you tell us anything about a man named Alverez?"

"Pretty common name down this way."

Dust kicked up and blew around them on the narrow strip of land cut out of the shrub laden grassland.

"Yeah, that's part of the problem," Simon offered. "The man we got our information from is a felon," Jim said. "All we can hope is that he was straight with us cause God help him if he was lying about this man named Alverez. Says this Alverez lives about a hundred, hundred fifty miles from the capitol. He wouldn't tell us much, so we're still guessing some. Anything you might be able to come up with, Carlos I'd be grateful for. Blair is my whole life."

The man looked at him with a strange expression, a light going on like a florescent bulb.

"Jim, are you saying this guy Blair is...is...what is he to you?"

Jim looked the man straight in the eye, hoping he wasn't about to lose an ally and much needed contact in this country.

"Blair is my lover, Carlos. He's my lifemate. Matt Baker is out of prison and he's kidnapped Blair and intends to hurt him very badly. He's probably already started."

"Oh, man. Jim, I didn't know. And Baker, shit. That man's a nut case."

"Yeah, well, considering what he's already done, that's an understatement," Simon injected.

"What?" Carlos asked, eyebrows drawing together. "This is the second time he's taken Blair." Jim swallowed hard and looked up into the sky where birds wheeled about the clearing. Vultures, he thought. "Four months ago he kidnapped Blair and me. Beat and raped him repeatedly, Baker and five others. Baker forced me to watch it. But that wasn't enough for him."

"God, Jim. I'm so sorry. I'll do what I can, but I don't know any Alverez. If I find something out, I'll let you know. Why don't we go on into the city? I know you want to keep a low profile so I got you a hotel room and there's a jeep you can use waiting."

"Carlos, you are a true friend. Thank you." "No problem, Ellison. I wouldn't want an enemy left in Matt Baker's hands let alone a friend. But you owe me a trip to Cascade sometime for me and my wife if everything works out for you."

Jim nodded. "It's a done deal, Jones."

Time had lost all meaning and agony was just a word, not something tangible that could be defined or ordered or understood. Horror no longer meant something that shocked. Terror couldn't pull a scream from a despairing soul. Life was something to be endured and misery was the only foundation of existence.

Blair hung in his chains, almost unable to lift his head. He tried once and managed to raise his chin a little only to realize he had no reason to try. He listened to his own shallow breathing and listened for the sound of footsteps outside the door to his prison, his own personal torture chamber.

He could no longer say how long he had hung there, no longer knew how many injections he had been give of Fernando Alverez's drug. He didn't know how many times Baker had come or how many different ways he had been tortured. But he did know that Baker would come again to hurt him, to rape him and Alverez with his blasted syringe would touch him ever so gently, run hands over his body and jab him with that damned needle, then promise they would have time together very soon. Somehow, he feared Alverez's gentle suggestive touch over Baker's known brutality. Alverez was hiding something, planning something and Blair knew, somewhere back in his drug-dulled, pain-filled mind, that the something was terrible and was meant for him.

Blair heard them coming, an echoing of boots down a long hallway of stone. He heard the key rattling in the lock and the door opening through the pounding of his heart and the sharp increase in his rasping breath.

"Oh god, please," he whispered.

The lights came on and Blair realized how dark it had been and how much he didn't care. Alverez lifted Blair's chin and studied him as if he were some specimen for an experiment. Then Blair remembered that he was just that, an experiment. But the humor never reached him, his senses too clouded and the agony of his body too consuming. He stared into the dark eyes of Fernando Alverez and felt almost lost there, as if he had fallen into a void, no light, no goodness, just calculated cruelty for its own purpose.

"Ah little one, even in pain, you are beautiful, even in a near drugged stupor, you are sublimely lovely."

Alverez moved closer, lips touching the corner of Blair's mouth, kissing lightly, gently and Blair shivered as the kisses moved across his chin to his ear and down the long line of his neck. The man's hand moved to the back of his head and laced fingers into his hair, holding him, maneuvering him this way and that as Alverez kissed Blair's throat and up along the neck to the other ear.

Blair didn't fight. He hadn't the strength to fight any longer or even show simple resistance. He hung in his chains and wallowed in his despair. Blair saw passed Alverez, Baker standing and watching intently. Baker seemed engrossed by Alverez's little display and the thought of being a sideshow entertainment made Blair feel nauseated, the sick feeling rising, but nothing was there in his stomach, food nothing but a fading memory.

Alverez's mouth touched his, pressing, the man's tongue sliding across his lips and teeth. It would take nothing to pry his mouth open at this point, but Alverez didn't even try, just kissed him, long and lingering. The man's hand moved through his hair and across his face, caressing and the mouth moved in little kisses against his cheeks and nose, his temple and brow.

"Oh my little Blair, I know you are tired of hurting. Your body is aching for release, throbbing with desire to be brought down from your long imprisonment in these chains."

Blair found himself nodding anxiously, little rapid nods with ragged shallow breaths as companions.

"Of course, you hurt so much and you've had nothing to eat in so long. Poor sweet bambino. My little one, it is nearly time for your release. But only you can tell us if it is time and we will know that by your actions. By what you are willing to do." Blair's brow furrowed. What did they want him to do? What did they require of him? He had already begged, pleaded till he didn't have the strength to do so anymore. What more could they possibly want? Then he knew.

They want you to obey them. They want you to suck their dicks and let them fuck your ass.

Is that all I'm good for?

Blair didn't know anymore. He didn't know anything but the pain that filled his body till he overflowed with the agony of it. He didn't know anything but the misery and the fog in his brain that would not lift or dispel. He only knew that he wanted to stop hurting. He wanted to sleep forever. He wanted to...go home. Home? What was home? Where was home? Who would be there in this place his mind insisted was important?

Jim, Jim, Jim. He had to remember that name. It was important that he remember.

"Oh, my little one," Alverez crooned to him, hands moving up and down Blair's body gently yet the action repulsed him, made him nauseated. "You know what you must do. You know you must prove your obedience to our wishes, our needs...our desires. You must acquiesce to our commands. Then you will be taken down from this torment. And you will have learned a valuable lesson."

Lesson? he thought. What lesson? He didn't know he was suppose to be learning something from all this horror. "But you must agree to obey us, my sweet bambino. For you know what will happen if you agree then disobey?"

Blair stared then slowly shook his head, realizing Alverez actually wanted some sort of response. He hoped it was the right one. Alverez smiled at him and Blair felt a wash of relief. He swallowed hard and tried to pay attention through the pain and the mind-numbing drug.

"You will be punished, little one. You disobey and the punishment will be terrible. I promise. But first you must prove you are worthy of the chance I am offering you."

Fernando Alverez's hands ran up Blair's arms, fingering the shackles. Blair's gaze rose and his breath heaved in and out, desperate for relief, desperate to be released.

A sob escape his dry mouth as Alverez hesitated, stroked the metal surrounding Blair's mangled wrists.

"Please...." he gasped out. "Oh...please...." The smile again pulled at Alverez's mouth, amused, Blair was certain, and pleasured by his humiliation.

"Then you are ready to prove yourself ready to obey?" Blair squeezed his eyes closed, shaking and sobbing. He nodded ever so slightly.

"Say it, Blair. Are you ready to obey our commands?" Sobs took his voice from him, stole it in his moment of need. Blair fought to gain control.

"Yes," he whispered finally.

Alverez patted his cheek then motioned his men to lower Blair down. "Good enough."

The men lowered Blair to his knees, slowly bringing his arms down and he cried out at the sudden rush of circulation, a throbbing streaming up and down and across his shoulders. They held him up by his hair and Alverez stood before him, looking down on him with that smug satisfaction. Not far behind, Baker leaned against the wall, smoking a cigarette and watching, just watching it all. "Now the test, Blair. Now is time for you to prove your obedience. If you fail now, we'll just put you back in your chains. If you succeed, a warm bath and bed are waiting for you. Long hours of uninterrupted sleep is your reward if you pass this test." Even drugged and in agony Blair knew what Alverez expected. He watched the man unbuckle his belt and open his pants. He watched the man draw out his hardening rod and the hands in his hair pulled his head up further, realizing he didn't have the strength to hold himself up. But they would make him do this, suck Alverez's cock or be put back in the chains to hang for how much longer? Till he died? And how long would that take? Too long.

Blair tried to swallow, tried to moisten his mouth. He watched Alverez swirl a bit of wetness around the head then take Blair's hair and slowly bring his face forward to meet the man's cock. Blair blocked everything from his mind and found very little there at this moment, his thoughts in chaos, nonsensical and useless anyway. He opened his mouth and moved forward to take the long rod into his mouth and let it push at the back of his throat. He began to suck without prompting, wanting to get it over with as quickly as possible. But Alverez had other ideas. He pulled back and caressed Blair's face, running fingers over Blair's lips and chin. "Not so fast my sweet boy. Lick the balls. Make them wet and lick the shaft. It feels good when that is done." Blair closed his eyes and obeyed, letting his tongue lap at the sack and lick the man's cock, varying the process then sucking again at Alverez's insistence.

Alverez stiffened and moaned, shoving into Blair's mouth hard, nearly gagging him as the long rod stroked his throat, the man coming in his mouth. He choked and coughed, but Alverez ignored Blair's distress, fucking his mouth until the man began to soften and withdrew. The hand released the hold on his hair and Blair slumped forward, hot cheek pressed to the cold tiled floor. The shackles tugged at his ankles, but Blair ignored the pain, his body too uncaring to move. Blair felt a hand touch his cheek, fingers sweep back the hair from his face and caress.

"Good job, darlin'." Baker's voice came like a shroud of death. "You've earned a little rest."

Blair felt the stab of a needle in his thigh and let the soft cotton darkness take him into oblivion.

"So Matthew, have we broken our little Blair?" Alverez sat back in his chair, one hand smoothing through his thick black hair, the other holding a cool drink made for slow sipping. Baker let a smile tug at his mouth and gave a moment to thought. But he knew the answer to that question.

"Nowhere close, Fernando. Damaged, but not really broken. He still has some fight left in him. I guarantee it. Blair just couldn't take the pain any longer. And if he hadn't given in when he did, we would have had to take him down anyway or watch him die in his chains. And I don't want him dead. I want him mine. I want him obedient to me." "And so shall it be," Alverez said with a chuckle. "As Matt Baker commands. And how would you have us proceed?" "Give him some time to rest. He's weak as a kitten right now. He needs some strength then the lessons begin in how to be a good little slave. Keep up the injections though."

"Of course, the experiment must be completed. I received a call yesterday. Your colleagues wish for results as soon as possible." "They'll have their results when there are results to have, Fernando. Don't let them push you around. Don't be afraid of the big bad CIA. They're not as big and bad as they think they are." "Fear has nothing to do with it, my friend. I wouldn't want the funding to be jeopardized is all. I wish to continue my work and my lifestyle in the manner in which I have become accustom." "And so shall it be," Baker threw back. "Now, I want to go visit my little Blair for a while. He'll probably be sleeping, but I want to check on him. He's had a difficult ten days." Baker nodded to his companion then headed up to the tower where Blair had been placed after being brought out of the dungeon. He smiled to himself, thinking how medieval that sounded. The dungeon, indeed. Maybe he could play on that theme to control his little captive. I'll put you in the dungeon if you don't obey. I'll have you in my bed regardless, sweetheart.

Baker laughed at the thought and took two steps at a time up to the landing. With a key, he unlocked the door, finding one of Alverez's men there watching over the patient.

"How's he doing this afternoon, Juan?"

The man stood up upon Baker's entry and bowed. "As well as can be expected, Señor Baker. He's been very quiet, hardly moving at all." "Good. He needs his rest. Go take a walk or something, Juan. I'm going to sit with him for a while. Be back in fifteen minutes or so." "As you wish, Señor."

Baker shut the door and returned to the bed. He sat on the edge, his fingers reaching out to touch the unconscious man's pale face, listening to the soft breath of Blair's breathing. "Oh sweetheart, even after days and nights of torture you are still the most beautiful man I've ever laid eyes on." Baker smoothed Blair's hair out on the pillow, let the back of his hand caress Blair's cheek, fingers running over the full lips and brush the eyelashes ever so gently.

"We're going to be inseparable, baby. You at my feet, my little pet. Yeah, you're mine and I'm going to make sure you know it, that you live and breath just for me."

He leaned over and kissed Blair's mouth, but the lips were slack with drugged sleep.

"I'll teach you to kiss me the way you used to kiss Ellison, Blair. You'll give everything to me the way you used to give it to Jimmy boy. Yeah, baby, just the same way."

Pain, terrible horrible pain ripped out his gut, slashed across his back and legs, his face. A shock saturated his insides and the agony consumed him.

"Blair!!!"

Jim woke with a screaming of his lover's name, visions too real, too vivid not to be happening, not to be occurring at that very minute. Simon was beside him, hands on his shoulders shaking him till he came out of the nightmare gasping for breath as if the room had been sucked empty.

"Hey, relax Jim. It was a nightmare."

"No, Simon, no." Jim firmly pushed Simon away and rose from the bed. He strode across the hotel room to the window, hands rubbing his face, trying to rub the horrid image and the screams of his partner from his mind.

"Blair is suffering. He's hurting, he's going through hell, and I'm sleeping in a decent hotel room, getting my eight hours while he suffers at Matt Baker's hands."

"Jim," Simon sighed and came to his friend's side. "You can't help Sandburg if you've exhausted all your energy feeling guilty. Would you have Baker succeed, take Blair and destroy him just so you have a reason to wallow in your self-loathing?"

Jim turned a glare on Simon, something irrational taking hold of him and he had to fight it down, rein it in before it destroyed them all. He knew Simon was just trying to get him to think, to overcome the self-blame.

"Baker has taken Blair and I have to take Blair back. He issued a challenge, Simon. That's what this is about. Matt Baker getting the upper hand on Jim Ellison, one upmanship. But he's a brute of the worst kind, without remorse or mercy. Blair and me escaping was too much for him. Baker didn't get the last blow in and now he's challenged me. It's got to end here, Simon or it will never end. Blair will be an empty shell and I'll be to blame."

"Then get a hold of yourself, Ellison, cause I want to leave this country with two of my best friends alive and with some semblance of sanity."

Jim actually smiled at Simon, giving the man some reassurance that he wasn't yet totally crazy, but Jim had no intentions of leaving Argentina without Blair alive and Matt Baker dead.

Something warm touched Blair's face, nothing human or animal, nothing artificial. Something naturally warm slid down from above and cast heat upon his cheek, soft and light.

Then the pain began to throb, first in his wrists, arms and shoulders. Then his entire body filled with the liquid swelling of agony and he moaned, unable to contain the sound. His head had a complete drum corp tromping through it, using his brain as the kettle drum.

He felt suddenly very sick to his stomach and hands helped him as he retched over the side of the bed, nothing in his stomach coming up except bile.

Someone laid him back down and drew a cool rag over his face and he wished for some drug to take him back down into darkness, away from the pain.

Blair got his wish and he felt the stab of the needle, so familiar now, in his thigh. But that was nothing in comparison to the waves of torment pounding at his body.

Yet the drug didn't quite send him back into complete oblivion, just let him ride the current of air that lifted him. He knew the poor soul that this body belonged to was him and that he was simply watching from above because too much pain lay there in that tortured flesh. He knew when he finally anchored again there that the torture would resume in some manner or another.

Let me die...please. Whoever is out there controlling all of this, please just let me die now. I don't even care where I go or if I go anywhere. Put me in a vacuum, leave me in limbo, but please don't make me go back to that nightmare.

But time passed and he sank back down to lie there in that ravaged being, whispering prayers of death and wondering whose death he prayed for.

Blair realized that it had been sunlight he had felt as he slitted his eyes open and saw the window above him and dusk beginning to fall behind those iron bars and that tempered glass. He let his blurred gaze slide around the room, finding an IV dripping down a tube into his arm and one of Alverez's men sitting against one wall reading a magazine.

He tried to swallow. He tried to lick his lips with small success. That got the attention of the man who came to him with some water and helped him to drink. Blair lay back, exhausted by this little bit of exertion.

He would have cried then and there if he'd had the strength. This reality was too cruel, too horrible to be his life. Yet, here he lay, too weak to move much, too sick to his stomach to even try to sit up. And the memories came now in quick violent flashes. Memories of what had been done to him and what he had been forced to do to end the agony.

Blair let his gaze slide down his body. He felt his nakedness beneath the sheets and blankets that laid over him, outlining his form to some extent. Each wrist was wrapped with gauze and tape, just a bit of redness tingeing the white of the fibrous cloth. His body ached now, throbbing in rhythm with the beating of his heart and the pounding of his pulse.

For far too long Blair contemplated how long he had hung there in those chains...in that room.... He thought of the beatings and the brutality of the rapes. He thought of the stun gun and the tears slipped down his face without his permission. Shudders shook his battered form, the quiet sobs ignored by his guard...or his nurse. He didn't know which this man was. Perhaps both.

Then when he tried to lift his hand to his face, the man pushed his arm down and with a cool, damp cloth, wiped his face clean of his tears.

Am I not even allowed to wipe away my own tears? Am I to ask permission for every little move I might make?

The thought terrified him and despair wrapped around his heart like steel mesh, constricting his chest till he thought he'd go insane with the suffocating feeling.

Blair closed his eyes and prayed that soon the drug would empty his soul and his body of pain and that if he had any luck at all perhaps the drug would take his mind and empty it as well.

"How's my little Blair doing today?"

Blair opened his eyes, not wanting to, but doing so anyway. The voice forced him to respond, demanded it and he obeyed. Baker stood over him, gazing down with hands on hips, smug smile pulled up a bit, brown eyes calculatingly cold as always. But Blair didn't answer, just lay there staring up at the man who had repeatedly raped him, tortured him and had threatened to cut away his very manhood if he didn't comply with the most vile of commands.

Baker sat on the bed beside him and Blair shrank away, tried to move away, pushing at the bed with what little strength he had recovered from those long days and nights of endless torment by this man's hands.

Baker caught him in a steel grip, pulling him back to lay close to the man.

"Where do you think you're going, sweetheart?" Blair looked away, feeling that anguish coming over his features, knowing that Baker got a sick kick out of it and that he might not be able to control the tears. He couldn't control anything else in his life, why would he think he could control his crying when the flood was pushing at the back of his eyes and the pain was lodged in his tight throat threatening to choke him.

"Not up for answering questions are you, baby? Still kinda drugged out, aren't you?"

Why couldn't he think of something to say to this man? He'd even stood up to a serial killer who had intended him to be the man's next victim, but he couldn't think of anything to say to this maniac, nothing that would truly hurt Matt Baker in the least. At least when he had struck out verbally at Lash, he knew he had drawn figurative blood. But this man had no blood. Ice water flowed in this monster's veins.

Baker reached out a hand, caressing Blair's face, thumb running over Blair's lips and down his nose. He felt his body begin to shake, fearing torture, slowly becoming programmed to fear the worst when this man touched him.

"Shhh, shhh, shhh, sweetheart. Everything's okay. I'm not here to hurt you. I'm here to check on you. See how you're recovering."

The hand smoothed his hair and ran lightly down his neck. Fingers trailed across his cheek and chin. Blair closed his eyes and waited for the rape to begin with a stoic emptiness.

"You are so beautiful, baby. You are as sweet as candy. And you are mine. Yeah...mine."

The man's mouth came down on his, not too hard, but not gentle. Blair didn't think Baker knew how to be gentle. It was all taking to Matt Baker and nothing else. Blair didn't have the strength to fight. He lay there, unresponsive to the man's touch or the fevered kiss.

Baker released him and sat back, staring at him with the same calculating coldness.

"You've got a lot to learn about keeping your master happy, boy. You've got a lot of lessons to learn in the next few weeks about being my little sex slave. I'll let you rest a bit longer, but after that, you better learn fast or the punishment will be more than you'll want to deal with, baby. Mark my word. You know just a little of what I can think up to hurt you."

Blair watched the man rise and cross the room to the door, unable to take his eyes from his tormentor for some torturous reason his muddled mind couldn't fathom.

"You think about that, Blair, with what little thinking ability that drug has left you. I'll be back to see you again and I hope you'll have taken my advice. Be good to me, sweetness and I'll be good to you."

"You will obey me, boy. Baker said you had to obey me!" The strap fell again against Blair's bare back, his arms twisted and stretched out on either side by two big men, fists in his hair holding his head still, forcing him to stay on his knees on the tiled floor.

The one named Ron swung the strap again and again, listening, Blair knew, to the sound of his cries, angered by his defiance. He would never willingly let a collar be put around his neck as if he were someone's dog...an animal in a circus or zoo to be lead around by a leash.

He had not fought them even when he realized what they intended for him, after all some clothing was better than no clothing. They had dressed him in a loincloth as if he were a lifesize Tarzan doll and they had put a ring in his pierced nipple. Then they held him down, not even giving him a chance to protest while they pierced his other nipple as well, another gold ring hanging there, throbbing with pain.

Now they would put a gold collar on him. Not even Alverez's drug would make him willingly comply with this debasement, this violation of his humanity. Not now when he had regained some bit of strength after the long days and nights of torture that seemed like only yesterday. Blair really didn't know how much time had passed. Sometimes he felt as if he'd been in this nightmare forever. At other times, he felt as if only yesterday he'd had another life that now was retreating from him at a dizzying speed.

"You will do as I say, brat." Ron leaned over him and hissed in his ear. "Baker's going to be really mad if you don't have that collar on when he gets in here."

"No," he gasped. "I'm...not a pet."

Ron grabbed him by the hair and jerked his head back, the other two releasing their holds. "No, not a pet, sweetheart. A slave. A sex slave. Matt Baker's property. Get that through your pretty little drugged head, baby."

"No!"

"I think you like hurting, Blair. I think you like pain." Blair shook his head.

"Yeah, boy, you must or you would obey me. It's just a pretty necklace."

"It's a dog collar!"

"Whatever, babe," Ron snarled. "I don't care what you think it is. You are going to wear it."

"No!"

"Stupid brat."

Then the beating began again, blow after blow falling till Blair felt a trickle of something wet slide down between his shoulder blades.

"Goddamnit! Now look what you made me do. Get him over to the table and hold him still. I don't have time for this nonsense."

The men dragged Blair up to his feet and hauled him over to a table where the collar lay and tools as well as a soldering gun.

"This collar here is permanent, baby," Ron said to him as the two brutes forced his head down onto the table, cheek pressed into the polished wood. "No one will be taking this puppy off without a lot of work."

Blair gritted his teeth, the room starting to whirl on him. The sick feeling came over his stomach and the feeling that the badger was still there gnawing away at some new part of his anatomy, his liver or his pancreas...maybe his spleen. He didn't know, but he knew that pain was his companion and humiliation was his new best friend.

He struggled against the holds on his arms, but the two men's bodies pressed him into the table and they twisted his arms till he thought they would break.

Ron slipped the collar around under his face, his hair held up away from his neck. The heat of the soldering iron pressed in on him and the metal grew uncomfortably warm against his skin.

A swirl of despairing lethargy sank into Blair's soul, a feeling of bottomless emptiness opening out before him and he was on the verge of falling over into the pit. And the pit was full of vicious monsters ready to devour his body, crack open his bones and suck out the marrow. Yet, he wouldn't be dead, just endlessly tormented, his body tortured, his mind made numb, turned into gray jelly. He felt as if his essence was melting and dissolving, seeping out of the pores of his skin.

What was the use in fighting them? What did it accomplish? He was outnumbered, outweighed, outfought, outthought.... What would be left of him when this was all finished?

Nothing.

Then they were hauling him up off the table, flinging him to the floor where Blair lay gasping for breath, hating the feel of the still warm metal around his neck. He pushed up to his knees and reached up his fingers to the collar in futile hysteria, yanking hard. Blair gave a strangled cry in defeated frustration.

"What is the problem in here?" Blair heard that voice say, the voice that had insinuated authority over him, turning him to its will even as he fought in dwindling desperation to fight till he had no will to fight any longer.

Blair stopped pulling on the collar and let his hands fall to his sides, his body collapsing back onto his heels to sit as Baker walked towards him, a slow, measured walk that made Blair's skin crawl with the agonizing anticipation of punishment. He had just endured a long terrible beating, but that wouldn't stop Baker from punishing him again for his defiance. Blair waited with his gaze cast down and his heart full of dread.

Baker's hand reached out to Blair's face, tilting his head back by his chin. He stared up into those brown eyes, empty of mercy, empty of anything akin to sanity, but it was a calculated craziness that far too many people got away with these days. The kind that meant they didn't have to follow the rules. They didn't have to obey the laws that man imposed to keep chaos from overthrowing the world.

"What's going on, sweetheart? Look's like you haven't been a good little baby. Looks like you've been giving Ron here a hard time."

Blair swallowed hard and closed his eyes very slowly then opened them again hoping against hope that the scenario would change in the blink of an eye. But nothing had changed.

"He fought the collar. I had to beat him to settle him down and he still fought." Ron had come to stand next to Baker, both men looking down on him as if he were a recalcitrant puppy who had purposefully forgotten where the training paper was.

"That's very bad, Blair. You've been a very bad slave." Blair felt his body begin to shake with the fear of punishment. Tears pushed at his eyes and he fought to keep them from falling. He felt Baker's hand move up his face and the fingers press in. And he knew even before it happened that it would hurt.

Pain shot across his face, down his neck and up into his temple, skewering his brain with a red hot poker of agony.

Automatically he pulled back, trying to remove himself from the source of the pain.

"Don't move, Blair or it will be worse. Take your punishment and it won't be nearly as bad as if you fight it."

Blair stayed on his knees, enduring the fire of Baker's determined touch, knowing the man was telling him the truth. Fight now and suffer tenfold later.

The hand moved to his shoulder and again the pain blossomed out. Blair almost collapsed, but somehow he endured again, praying the punishment wouldn't last long. Then Baker released him and Blair curled up, a tight ball hunched over and wrapped tight within himself.

"So I take it the branding hasn't been done yet?" "'Fraid not."

Branding? Branding. What did that mean?, Blair wondered in terrified fascination.

"That's okay. I wanted to do it myself anyway. Bring him into the other room."

The same two men grabbed Blair by the arms and dragged him into another room, windowless just like the other one and still looking like the inside of a dungeon designed by inquisitors.

A fire glowed in a circular pit and a foreboding dug nails into Blair's heart and began to rip the pulsing organ out of his chest.

"No," he gasped. "Oh...oh...god."

"I can see you aren't going to cooperate, Blair sweetheart, but I suppose I can't expect miracles."

Blair watched Baker put on a glove then reached down and pull out a glowing iron from the heated coals. His captors twisted him down onto the floor, his arms pulled up hard behind him, a knee planted firmly in his back. He struggled. He had to or go mad and he was too close to that fine line of madness not to fight even this futile battle.

Baker was going to brand him like cattle...like a horse...property...slave....

And he saw Alverez standing nearby watching all this as if this was a rodeo and the cowboy had just taken down a calf, hog tied it and was marking it as his own.

He felt the heat of the iron come close, hands grabbing at his kicking legs, holding him down. The pain was a searing of flesh, his left hip and ass cheek an exploding volcano of fire.

Blair heard his own scream echo through the chamber, bouncing off the walls like something out of an old horror movie.

The branding seemed to last forever, the hot iron pressed into his flesh, becoming a pained part of himself like everything else in this house of terror.

When they released him, Blair just lay there on the floor unmoving except for the shivering. The pain pounded in his hip, throbbing and burning and he sucked in breath through his gritted teeth, wishing someone would just hit him in the head with a baseball bat and put him out of his misery.

But what fun would that be? How would he entertain everyone with his pain if he was unconscious? How would he keep these perverts amused if he wasn't here to humiliate and debase with their tortures and games?

Blair sensed Baker near him, the man squatting down beside him, hand running under the loincloth to pat his bare buttocks on the right side. Blair flinched, cringing away from the touch.

"It's over, baby. Fernando is going to give you something to make you feel better. It's about time for your injection anyway."

Blair turned his head then and stared at Baker, trying to fathom what made this man tick, why the man had picked him out of everyone in this world to latch onto and obsess over. This had gone far beyond revenge, far beyond Baker wanting to hurt Jim Ellison.

Baker rose and dragged Blair up with him and Blair almost collapsed back to the floor with the pain in his hip and back. But he managed to gain his balance while Matt Baker put hands on his chest, fingering the gold rings in his nipples. Blair flinched from that too, but the fingering became a grip and Blair gasped at the sudden pain and stopped moving.

"Don't pull away from me, sweetheart. I don't like you pulling away from me. You just make yourself available to me anytime I want you." Baker pulled the rings and Blair stumbled forward till he was in Baker's embrace, the man's hands moving up his neck to run through his hair and catch hold of his face. "Now you just remember what you are...my slave. You are my property, Blair. You think about that and remember that when I reach for you or call you, you come. Now, I'm going to kiss you and you are going to kiss me back. You got that?"

Blair stared and said nothing.

"Blair?" Baker's voice held an ominous tone. "Did you enjoy your punishments today?"

Blair shook his head, anguish filling him up once again till he overflowed with the agony of it.

Then the mouth came down on his, demanding entrance and after a moment's resistance Blair succumbed to Baker's persistence, allowing a mechanical response to fulfill the man's desire.

Behind him, Blair felt someone rubbing ointment on the brand and the sharp prick of the needle in his thigh. Baker slowly loosened his hold and pressed Blair down on his knees and for a brief mortifying moment, he thought Baker was going to make him go down on him right then and there. But instead Baker pulled something out of his pocket, something with a chain and a leather loop and to Blair's horror it was a leash.

He whimpered and a sob came out of him.

"Oh baby," Baker crooned to him. "It's not so bad, really. You're my pet and I like to keep my pets on a tight rein. This will just ensure you stay close to me when I want you to. Come on, it's nothing to cry about. Here we go."

Baker pushed Blair's hair back and attached the leash to a loop in the collar.

The debasement's complete, he thought. Oh god, don't let anyone find out about this. I'd rather die and never be found than have my mother know that this was done to me. Oh Naomi, you don't want to know what your son has become.

With a jerk of the leash, Baker pulled Blair to his feet again then yanked, pulling Blair along by the neck. Blair followed without choice, his hands going up to the chain to hold on, trying to control a little of the jerking movements.

Up the stairs they went, up out of the dungeon and out into the bright sunlight cascading through tall windows in the wide open foyer. They left the others behind, Baker pulling Blair up the stairs and into what was obviously the man's personal suite of rooms.

"You'll be staying here with me from now on, Blair. Unless, of course, I give you to someone for the night." Baker said it with a mean grin, obviously knowing the effect the words would have on him.

"I'm not...a whore," Blair choked out, surprised by his own audacity.

Baker gripped the leash tighter and drew Blair close, the grip cutting off his breath for a moment till the man shifted and nearly lifted him off his feet.

"Not a whore, baby...a slut. Whores are paid for getting fucked. You get nothing, but the satisfaction of pleasing me."

"You make me sick," Blair spat in Baker's face and knew he'd pay for that insult, but when the defiance came, he had to go with it or he would lose himself forever to this monster. "You are nothing but a coward. You couldn't stand up to Jim Ellison for even a moment. He's more of a man than you can ever hope to be. He'll find me and he'll kill you when he does."

Blair watched the rage come over Matt Baker, watched the man's eyes turn ice cold and mouth go even harder.

"I think you like pain, sweetheart. I think you enjoy it." Every word was emphasized by a jerk on the leash and a hissing through clenched teeth.

"No. I just hate you that much."

"Oooh Blair...baby doll." Baker's tone suddenly changed. "You got a second wind there, didn't you? That really turns me on, cause it means I have a reason to hurt you real bad."

Blair swallowed hard and wondered why he had goaded Baker to pure violence. Perhaps it was a way to still have control and the pain helped him remember who he was before humiliation had become a way of life for him. And he knew the momentary defiance would soon wash away, that the effects of the drug would crash over him like a tidal wave very soon and he'd cower and cringe like the slave that Baker was trying to make him. Soon, he wouldn't be able to think and his will would seep out of him. He felt it beginning and grasped at his escaping defiance like it was the only escape from this hell.

He pulled away from Baker, catching the man off guard. With a surge of adrenalin Blair ran for the door, knowing it was futile, but needing to try anyway. Baker was on him just as he reached the door. A hand whirled him around, a backhanded blow sending him sprawling to the floor.

Baker reached down and dragged Blair up by his hair, another blow across the face sending pain shooting through his head.

"You stupid little brat. You knew you couldn't win. You knew you couldn't possibly escape, yet you tried anyway, knowing I'm going to beat the crap out of you for doing it."

Baker struck again, bashing his cheekbone. A kick in the side threatened to crack ribs and Blair gasped from the pain and rolled to his side.

With a quick flick of the hand, Baker grabbed up the leash again and dragged Blair across the floor towards the bedroom.

"Come on, baby. You want to do this the hard way, once again, that's fine with me. I like to do it rough. I like to hear you cry out in pain. And it's going to hurt, I promise you that."

The room began to whirl, that dizziness of the drug slipping over Blair. He tried to get to his feet, but Baker just kept dragging him and all he could do was hold on, unable to get a grip on anything to stop the progress to the bedroom. He felt the room whirl again when Baker picked him up and dropped him on the bed. Blair lay there gasping for breath passed his bruised ribs and the drug dragging at his will.

Baker stripped off clothing and was on him in no time, holding him down with little effort by sheer body weight and brute force of muscle.

"Go ahead, baby. Fight me. This could be lots of fun. Yeah, let's play rough, sweetness."

That hard mouth came down on Blair's, hands gripping his hair, holding him still while he pushed futilely at Baker's body pinning him to the bed. Baker's mouth moved down his neck, sucking hard and biting, leaving bruises, but not quite breaking skin. The man shifted his body and pinned one of Blair's arms to the bed with a knee. Catching the other wrist, Baker pulled the young man's arm up and slipped a leather loop around Blair's already mangled wrist that was just beginning to heal. The loop tightened when Blair pulled and held him fast to the bed post. He cried out in pain, giving Baker time to do the same to his left wrist.

Blair's beaten back throbbed and the brand burned as if he was still on fire. And there was Baker grinning down at him, moving back down his body to straddle him across the hips.

"There's the way I like my baby," Baker crooned and leaned down to lick Blair's nipples, first one then the other. The man's fingers moved over the tender little nubs, stroking till they were hard and ripe for sucking. Baker licked and sucked, tugging on the ring with his teeth while the man's hands roamed over Blair's skin.

Blair tried to buck Baker off, getting a purchase on the bed with his feet, but Baker would have none of that. With a deft grip on one of Blair's legs, the man moved down to loop a leather strip around an ankle, pulling the loop tight. Soon, Blair was bound spread eagle on the bed, totally at Matt Baker's non- existent mercy.

"You just don't know when to give up, do you boy?" Blair felt his defiance slipping away, felt Baker's control grabbing hold of him again, like claws digging into his soul. He felt the terror pounding into his heart, sliding through his veins and weakness enfolded his muscles till he lay there in his bondage staring up at the man who would hurt him for his insolence. He closed his eyes and waited for the punishment to begin.

Blair felt Baker move off the bed and slit his eyes open to watch his master go to a drawer in a desk and rummage around in it. The man's muscles twitched in the big biceps, saw the strong legs squat down and the broad back bend over another drawer. The man turned and Baker's cock was hard and thick, already aroused by the rough foreplay. A thin leather strap, a belt with a buckle hung from a big fist and Blair closed his eyes again, knowing what was to come next. It was to be another beating, but this time his back would be spared at the expense of his front side.

For some reason Blair felt more vulnerable this way, probably because his genitals were exposed and he knew that was why Baker intended to punish him this way. Nothing was sacred to this man, nothing was off limits.

Blair felt Baker come to stand over him, felt the man's heat and the evil that exuded from him.

"Blair, look at me."

Blair's eyes opened, unable to resist the command. Baker stood there over him slapping the strap lightly against a naked thigh.

"Do you know why you are about to be punished?" Blair found himself nodding.

"Tell me."

Anguish took Blair's voice, stole it from him and the agony closed off his throat with dread.

"Tell me, Blair. Why are you about to be whipped?" "I...I...dis...obeyed," he whispered.

"You were a bad slave. Say it."

"I...was...I...was a bad...slave."

Baker smiled down at him.

"Who is your master, Blair?"

Blair stared up, unable to continue this insanity. He wasn't ready to say that. He hadn't wanted to say the last, but hoped that would get him less punishment. But this was too much. He would not give Baker that satisfaction just yet. He would endure the beating and then the rape afterwards. But he would not call Baker master just yet.

"Blair, who is your master?"

"No one."

Baker's mouth went tight and the grip tightened on the strap.

"Wrong answer, babe."

The strap came up then down with a swift strike, a whoosh of air all the warning of the impending blow across his upper thigh. Blair gasped for breath and cried out, but the next blow was already coming before he could even ready himself for it. The blows of the narrow strap left a reddened welt with every strike, stripes lining Blair's thighs then moved up to slap at his cock and balls. He screamed with the agony of each blow, his body working furiously to get away from the hated belt, the pain in his wrists and ankles all the more intense by the damage already done to them. Yet, Blair ignored it, too intent on trying to escape the ravaging of his genitals to care that the newly healed wounds had opened up again and bled.

When the strap moved up to his stomach and chest, relief swelled over him, the pain still terrible, but nothing to match that of his most private parts being punished so completely.

The bed dipped suddenly and Baker was on top of him, forcing a hard mouth down on his, fingering probing along the jawline till pressure points were found and Blair's mouth opened to Baker's insistent demands.

Baker's mouth and tongue ran over his neck and ears, bit and sucked while Blair lay in complete misery, his mind wanting to shut down, but his body keeping him aware of every touch of Baker's hands, of every time Baker's tongue and mouth touched the reddened tender welts. Blair felt as though he was being eaten alive, no part of his front side left untouched.

"Kiss me, Blair. When I kiss you, you kiss me back," Baker said close to his mouth, the man's breath filling his with the demand. "Obey me now or we'll do this all over again. I'll beat you again till you obey me."

"No...please...." Blair gasped, unable to get a deep breath with Baker's weight on his chest.

"Yeah and I'll concentrate on you balls and cock when I do," Baker added with a mean grin.

"Please don't...." Blair sobbed. "Oh god...." "Then kiss me, baby doll."

Baker's mouth came down on his again and he complied, terrified of another beating. He couldn't take anymore right now, not the pain in his already throbbing balls. They felt swollen and bruised, hot and heavy between his legs.

Baker's tongue slipped into his mouth, moved against his own tongue, demanding response. He almost gagged, but obeyed and let his tongue slide against Baker's. A hand came up and twisted one of the rings in his nipples, tugging and rubbing the bud till it felt raw with the man's fingers on it. Baker's hard cock pressed against his soft penis and his belly, rubbing down against his thigh.

"Oh baby, you are so sweet. You taste so good, sweetheart," Baker breathed into Blair's ear, licking the earring laced lobe. "God, I'm so glad you're mine now. I've wanted you since the first time I saw you. I knew you were too hot for Ellison. You were meant to be mine."

Blair gasped for breath then the mouth was on his again, sucking on his lower lip.

"And you've got the most kissable lips. I bet you've been told that a lot, but now those beautiful lips and that gorgeous hair and that tight little ass are all mine."

Baker kissed him again, hard and bruising, the man's cock getting harder and Blair endured, trying not to fight any longer, his wrists and ankles so raw the leather loops felt as though they would cut through tendon and bone soon.

He felt Baker slide down his body, releasing the leather straps from his ankles. Then the man leaned up over him and grabbed a tube off the bedside table.

"Now you listen to me, baby. Listen good. I'm going to fuck you now and I don't want you putting up any more of a fight. I just want a good, hard fuck."

Blair watched Baker squeeze some of the lubricant out on long thick fingers and toss the tube aside. Baker lifted one of Blair's thighs, exposing his hole. He felt the probing begin, the fingers sliding into him, stretching him and he bit his lip hard to drive away the horrid feeling of helplessness clutching at his stomach and chest.

"If you give me any trouble over this, I'll use that stunner on you. Remember that, sweetheart? Yeah, I can see that you do."

Blair began to shiver, his teeth chattering together whenever he forgot to bite his lip.

Not that. Not the gun...oh god, please.

Baker moved, positioning himself up close to Blair, pushing the young man's legs up and holding them while the cock probed between his ass cheeks, seeking entrance.

"Hold your legs up, boy, while I get inside. Do it." Blair obeyed and felt Baker shove inside of him, deep into him and he gasped and groaned in pain. Baker's hands moved to support him, pushing his hips up higher then finally forced his legs up over the man's shoulders.

"Oh yeah, baby. That's it. That feels so good. You're always tight. Man, do I like that."

Baker started off with long slow strokes, pulling almost completely out then pushing in with a hard thud. Slowly the rhythm picked up, the pounding growing harder. Blair gritted his teeth and kept his eyes closed, not wanting to see Baker above him, driving into him with that grunting pace. The tears pricked at his eyes, tears of humiliation and despair and the drug that stole his senses, but played havoc with his emotions.

His tormentor finally came in a rush of hard thrusts, then collapsed onto him, pushing his legs down to either side. Baker's mouth sought Blair's and latched on.

"That was a good little boy, Blair. You were real fine, baby. You did good that time."

The man reached up and untangled Blair's battered wrists from the leather bindings and held them up for Blair to see.

"That's what happens when you disobey me. You be good and these will heal right up. I don't want to have to restrain you, darlin'. I want you to crawl into my bed and do your duty...do right by me. Then I'll be real good to you. Maybe even start giving back some pleasure. Yeah, wouldn't that be nice, sweetness, me going down on you and giving you a blow job to beat all blow jobs?"

Blair stared in horrified disbelief.

Wasn't it bad enough that he had to let this man use him, this monster abuse him? What would make Baker think that he wanted any kind of pleasure from him? He wanted nothing from Matthew Baker...nothing but for the man to die a horrible death.

"I...don't want...anything from you. Nothing." Baker smiled down at him, pulled one of Blair's wrists up and licked the blood from the wound. Blair grimaced with nausea, his stomach doing a long queasy roll and pitch.

"Well, that will be a part of your training too...later. Now, you just need to learn to seeing to my pleasure."

Baker leaned down again and the man's lips pushed at his and he didn't fight it. Blair tasted his own blood on the man's tongue and the nausea grew tenfold. At that moment Blair knew this wasn't over. No, this was just the beginning, just one rape out of a hundred, a thousand...maybe more. His mind worked at shutting down, trying to protect what little sanity he still held onto so that he might yet find some way to end all this and perhaps even take Matt Baker down with him.

Fernando Alverez stood in the foyer of his handsome home, bought with tainted money and more lives than he could count. But the lives weren't important. No, each man or woman had died for a reason, every tormented soul had served a purpose, his purpose. He admired the expensive Spanish mosaic floor inspired by the Moorish influences on his ancestral lineage. He admired the high ceilings and the exquisite furnishings that blood money had afforded him.

He glanced up at a movement at the top of the stairway, knowing that soon Matthew would be coming down for dinner and with him he'd bring that beautiful creature, the boy-man whom both had fallen for in those hot nights of torturing the boy's body and mind and soul.

Fernando quietly waited for his time with Blair. Soon, very soon, when he was certain the drug was working properly, had truly begun to mold the young man to their will, he would have his time with Blair and it would be extraordinary.

Leaning back against the doorframe, Fernando watched Baker come down the steps, their little pet on a leash walking quietly behind. Before they reached the bottom, he could see that the boy had struggled, had put up a fight.

"I see we need to increase the dosage of the drug, Matthew. I take it Blair was not a good little slave today."

Baker stopped before him and yanked Blair forward to stand close to Alverez.

"Yeah, he was a bad slave all right. Tried to run away, struggled, insulted me." With a possessive hand, Baker stroked Blair's hair. "But he's calmed down quite a bit. His punishment was severe."

"I see," said Fernando. "Let's go into the drawing room. I'll give him his injection now. I'm going to increase the number of injections rather than the actual dosage per injection. He'll react better to it that way."

Fernando watched for any response from Blair, but saw only a momentary grimace replace the vacant stare then that disappeared all together lost in soft, sad eyes and a slight tugging of the lower lip with fine white teeth.

He reached out a hand to the young man's face, caressing the bruised cheekbone with a light touch, fingers tracing the slight swelling on one side of the mouth.

"Come. We'll have some wine before dinner. And, of course, that injection."

Fernando let Baker precede him, Blair pulled along by the leash and collar around his neck. He gazed at Blair's naked back and barely hidden buttock, the brand, raw and red peaking out from one corner of the loincloth. He watched the strong legs, weakened now by the drug and lack of food, keep the boy on his feet, stumbling a little with Baker's careless yanking.

He poured wine then reached into his evening jacket pocket and pull out the little case. With a steady hand, Fernando readied the syringe and looked up expectantly at Blair.

"Come to me, little one."

Baker let go of the leash and gave Blair a shove towards Alverez.

"Go on and get your injection. The stun gun is still upstairs waiting for you if you disobey."

Fernando watched Blair turn a frightened gaze to Baker then back to him and move forward to stand before him, eyes cast down and waiting for instructions.

Fernando seated himself and patted his leg. He was able to get a good look at the multitude of red welts marring Blair's body from chest to knees, imagining what the boy's genitals looked like after Matthew finished with him.

"Lay over my lap, bambino."

He watched Blair struggle with the command, balancing what little will was left with the fear of punishment and the drug demanding he obey. Finally, the boy came to him and slowly lay over Fernando's lap.

"Very good, my little one. You are learning quickly. There is no escape from this so you should simply acquiesce to our desires." Fernando let one hand run up and down Blair's thigh, caressing the curve of the ass with a gentle touch, avoiding the tender skin of the brand. "Put your hands up behind your back so I know you are giving me full command over your body." Blair obeyed after a moment's hesitation. "Very good."

The injection went easily enough, but Fernando wasn't ready to give up possession of such beauty just yet. And this was a test of Blair's obedience as well.

"Just lay there, Blair. I'll tell you when you can rise." Fernando felt Blair tense, a sharp intake of breath and a near sob enough to alert him that Blair was not far off from rebelling.

"Relax, my little flower. You must learn to let go of yourself. There is only the will of your masters. You make no decisions...have no say in what you can or will do. That is up to us, Matthew and myself and those we give power over you."

As he spoke, Fernando's caresses became a fondling, hands working the muscles of Blair's buttocks and upper thighs, slowly pushing the legs apart to gain full access to the boy's hole and balls. He heard Blair's breath become more ragged, labored with the fear of not knowing what would happen next and he felt Matthew watching with fascination this exercise in dominance.

"You are doing so very well, Blair. You are being such a good little slave. Keep it up and you will be rewarded for your behavior instead of being punished."

Fernando stroked the back of Blair's balls with the tip of his fingers, working around the hole, stroking it also and the satin skin of the ass cheeks. He wetted his fingers and slid one in, pushing it all the way in till Blair groaned.

"Oh that can feel good, can't it?" Fernando crooned as he slid his finger against the prostate, deliberate in his administrations. He pushed two fingers in and stroked in and out, feeling Blair tighten around him. "You will grow to like this, my little one. It can be done for your enjoyment if only you learn your lessons and obey your masters. It need not be pain all the time. There are rewards for obeying." He pushed in a third finger and Blair gasped out a wordless exclaim.

"Ah, yes, there we are. That's almost too much, isn't it, Blair? Yes, you are sore, aren't you? There, there."

Fernando slipped his fingers out and stroked the hole and balls again, tenderly soothing Blair's shivering gasps.

"Relax, you did well. You may rise and give me a kiss." Blair slowly moved his arms and pushed up to stand. Fernando smiled at the flush of red on the young man's face. After everything they had done to him, the boy could still blush and prettily at that. The boy bent to kiss him and Fernando opened his mouth. Blair followed suit and the kiss was remarkably satisfying.

"I have a pretty I'd like you to wear, little one," Fernando said, rising from his chair. "Here, I'll put it on you." He pulled out a braided band and tied it around Blair's head, a small amethyst dangling, laying against the boy's forehead. "Now isn't that a lovely vision, Matthew."

"Yeah, real pretty."

Blair left his gaze on the floor only making him appear more beautiful with those downcast eyes and full lips rather red from kissing.

"Dinner should be ready anytime. I'll just wash my hands and we'll go in."

On his return, Fernando ushered Baker into the dining room. They settled at the table and Baker yanked Blair over between them.

"Kneel down between us, Blair and be a good little pet while we eat," Baker told the boy.

Fernando pretended to not notice Blair, knowing too much attention would not put the young man in the proper state of mind. The boy must learn that his needs were secondary to his masters' and that they controlled Blair's life now. But ever so often he would cut off a piece of meat or pick out a suitable vegetable and put the food to Blair's mouth. And the boy ate as he was expected. Fernando smiled when he saw Baker doing the same. If they weren't careful this beauty would have them wrapped around his finger instead of the other way around.

And in spite of the enjoyment of hand feeding a favorite pet, Fernando had noticed that Blair had lost weight, something the boy could ill afford to lose. They must maintain a certain diet or this experiment could go terribly wrong. They couldn't have Blair wasting away.

After a while Fernando and Baker retired to the balcony to watch the sunset and Baker pulled Blair along, forcing the boy to kneel down again between them. After dinner drinks were brought, a decanter of brandy and three glasses.

"I thought since Blair has been such a good little slave this evening, he should have a small reward. Do you agree, Matthew? A drink for our little one?"

"Sure, if you think it won't interact with his drug." "That should not be a problem. Take the glass, my sweet," Fernando said, handing down the goblet to Blair. The boy looked up at him with large eyes, wide with something Fernando couldn't quite read. But Blair obeyed and waited for permission to drink.

Baker reached down, grabbing a handful of Blair's hair and jerked his head back. The boy gasped in pain and shock.

"What do you say, boy? You'd better be grateful for what little favors you get. Don't take anything for granted."

"I'm...I'm sorry," Blair stammered, looking genuinely aghast.

Fernando watched the brutality, not certain it was necessary, but letting it pass for now. Matthew Baker had a lot to learn about finesse.

"Then what do you say, boy?"

Blair looked up at him and Fernando felt his loins light with the fire of desire for this young man, so beautiful, so exotic in a way that was almost indescribable.

"Thank you," Blair said just above a whisper. "Thank you, what?" Baker asked with another jerk of Blair's hair.

The boy looked bewildered, as if he was being forced to take a test he hadn't studied for.

"Thank you, master. That's what you say." Fernando smiled when he saw Blair's mouth go tight, a bit of defiance breaking through the influence of the drug.

"Enough, Matthew. Please don't ruin the evening by pushing Blair too quickly towards complete obedience. It won't happen all at once. It is something we work towards. Please leave it for now."

Baker looked as if he would protest, then gave Blair a little shove and let the boy go.

"See that you don't spill any of that brandy, brat or break that glass. Don't think I've forgotten the last one you broke."

Fernando watched Blair nod and with shaking hands sip the drink.

Soon, my little one, I will have my time with you...very soon indeed.

Fernando Alverez sat back in his chair and admired the setting sun.

Simon pulled off his glasses and rubbed his eyes wearily. He'd been studying maps of a two hundred mile radius of Buenos Aires for more than an hour, trying to narrow down the possibilities of where this elusive Alverez person might live.

They had checked with the government offices for land ownership and census statistics, they had tried so many angles that he and Jim were starting to doubt Johnny Payton's story that Blair was anywhere near this area and that they had been deliberately led on a wild goose chase for the amusement of Payton and Matt Baker. This person simply wasn't listed on the records. And why would he be? If he was somehow connected with Baker, doing some kind of illegal business with him or the CIA or some other covert US operation, the man would have free reign to do as he wished and was probably well protected from searching eyes such as theirs.

Jim had left the hotel room with that enraged look, one of three that James Ellison wore now, some three weeks after arriving in Argentina. Yeah, those were all the expressions Jim had these days, enraged, intent and despairing. Simon had begun to fear for Jim's mental state, a fear too real to be ignored. They had to get a handle on this. They had to find some real clue to where Baker had taken Blair.

He rose and paced to the window then back to glance at the map and the lines they had drawn. Too often, Simon had flashes of the day at the hospital, that first morning he had ran into that emergency room and had seen Blair in a state of complete hysteria, beaten and bleeding, pitiful looking and pleading for Jim to help him, to keep Them away from him, to not let Them touch him again.

Simon fought back the tears of grief and anger that rose, the lines on the map blurring into a field of lumpy meaningless shapes.

"Oh Blair, I'm so sorry, kid," Simon murmured. "We're trying to find you. God, I swear we are."

But Simon couldn't get the image out of his head, of Blair suffering at those hands, suffering by the whim of insane men who thought they had the right to take and destroy an innocent life and in such a hideous way. He wished now that he had told Blair how much he thought of him, that in spite of all the banter and the sarcasm he flung at the kid, he had a great deal of respect for Blair Sandburg, probably the most brilliant young man he'd ever known.

Simon took a deep sighing breath and wiped at his eyes. Replacing his glasses, he tried again to eliminate some of the properties owned by others, areas they knew to be legitimate farming and ranching communities. There was an area near the coast that had potential and he circled it, then pulled out from under the map the information of property owners that Carlos Jones had gotten for them.

The door key rattled and Simon glanced up to see Jim come through the door, the despairing expression back, despondent and distant, an emptiness around the eyes showing in the glazed, near zone out of a man on the verge of a breakdown.

"Anything?" he asked knowing the answer from Jim's expression.

Jim shook his head and rubbed his face. "The lead was a bust. Just a regular family, nothing to speak of. Carlos was right, Alverez is a common name around here."

Simon watched as Jim sat on the bed, lying back in lethargic despair.

"There's a possibility here, along the coast. There's a piece of land with one owner. The name is Alverez. We may have to start driving out to each piece of property and checking it out that way."

"I know about that one, Simon. Carlos says he's a doctor...beyond repute."

"What kind of doctor?"

"Does research. Works for the government. There's nothing there." Jim's voice was monotone, empty of hope just then."

"Hey, Jim. I know it's hard keeping a positive attitude, but try for Blair's sake. It's late, why don't we get some sleep?"

"Yeah, didn't accomplish much of anything else today," Jim offered. "Might as well get some sleep. I'm sure Blair is getting a good night's sleep right now."

Simon stared at Jim's prone form, wanting to berate the man and not finding the energy to do so or the conviction that Jim wasn't right about that observation. They had to get a break or soon it would be too late for all of them.

Blair sat on his knees next to Baker's chair, the place he had become accustom to sitting when he wasn't servicing Baker in bed. His world was a thick gray cloud that hung around him now, always there obscuring his thoughts, keeping him from...well, whatever he might think about if he just could. He felt disconnected, floating just above the earth. He wished the feeling was more pleasant, but it only made him anxious, fearing a long fall if he ever figured out the illusion. Perhaps it was some kind of magic, levitation, yet he felt the floor beneath his knees, felt Baker's hand on his bare shoulder, caressing just beneath his hair, rubbing his neck above the gold collar he wore.

They sat out on the balcony, Alverez and Baker sipping cold drinks in the early afternoon. Ever so often one of the men would bend down to him or draw him up to kiss him on the lips, pushing their tequila laced tongues into his mouth and Blair felt nothing but numbness sweep over him in those long moments he endured their demanding mouths.

Baker had dressed him in another loincloth that morning, one of deep blue with embroidery along the edges. And new rings had been placed in his nipples, ones with blue beads and a chain that ran from one nipple to the other, dangling down to brush against his chest. Another headband had been put around his head to hold his hair out of his face. A sapphire of deepest blue lay against his forehead or so Alverez had told him when the thing had been put on him.

Alverez put a glass to his lips and Blair drank of the marguarita, tasting the bite of the alcohol and the sour lime and the salt that rimmed the glass.

"You look particularly beautiful today, Blair. I think I'd like to have you this evening if Matthew agrees. I've been waiting for just the right moment and this night is that moment."

Blair closed his eyes and swallowed. He had nothing to say to that, but somewhere in his drugged mind he had been dreading the moment that Alverez would take him. He feared it and thought that once he'd had a reason that now he couldn't remember.

"He's yours, Fernando. I'll be curious to know how your experiment goes. Do you think the two drugs will interfere with one another?"

Two drugs? Blair wondered.

"Actually, I don't. They don't effect the same parts of the brain. I'll let you know how it goes in the morning. But now, I do believe we have company. I've been expecting these gentlemen. They have a proposition for me, I think."

Blair watched as two men were escorted onto the spacious veranda. One was older, mid fifties or early sixties, bespeckled and graying. The man wore a khaki colored jacket and trousers. The other seemed vaguely familiar, a man in his thirties, blond and mustached, wearing jeans, a buttondown shirt and vest. That one carried a satchel that was overflowing with what appeared to be maps.

Blair let his gaze fall to the floor when he saw their eyes on him, shock taking their attention from their host. He felt Baker's fingers dig into his shoulder to remind him to be a good slave and keep his mouth shut.

"Come gentlemen. Marguerites are already made. Sit with us and enjoy the afternoon. Lunch will be ready shortly."

"Thank you for seeing us, Senor Alverez," the older man said, hesitantly. "And for your gracious hospitality. We have much to show you and hope you will be willing to allow the dig we propose. We are most anxious to prove our theory that the Incas had made their way this far southeast and had an outpost in this area. We have found some meager evidence along the coast, but your land seems most promising if only you will allow us access to that remote region of your property."

Blair felt the younger man look at him again, their gazes meeting for a moment as Blair ventured a pleading glance. Then the fingers drilled into a shoulder muscle and he grunted in pain. He dropped his gaze again and expected to be punished later for that single glance.

Baker leaned down to his ear and a rush of warm breath stirred his hair.

"I'd punish you for that little stunt, brat," Baker whispered. "But, I think what Fernando has in mind for you tonight might just be enough to teach you a lesson. Now, behave yourself or I'll send you to the dungeon with Ron. He'd get a kick outta reminding you what you are."

Baker smoothed over his little pep talk by putting the glass to Blair's mouth and making him drink from it. Blair felt suddenly very sick, food and drink nauseating him far more than satisfying any hunger he might feel most of the time. He had little desire for either, yet Alverez insisted he eat.

Blair knew the two men's gazes fell on him off and on throughout the long conversation. He listened as if some time in some other life he might have known something of what these people were talking about. Incas and ruins. Archeological dig. Research. Study the population in the area for signs of Incan ancestry. The word anthropologist kept clamoring for his attention, sending his mind whirling deep within itself.

Ever since Alverez increased the number of his injections Blair could hardly put two complete sentences together coherently without a great deal of concentration. He was an anthropologist. He was working on his doctorate, his PhD. What did that stand for? What did an anthropologist do? Jim could tell him. Jim...Jim...Jim? He had to remember that name. But he had to try to remember why. Jim was someone important to him.

He shook his head involuntarily and was brought back to his limited range of reality with Alverez playing gently with his hair, stilling his action with a touch.

"Sit still, bambino," Alverez crooned to him.

"I'm sorry," he whispered in return.

"No need, little one."

Blair worked at ignoring the two men, concentrating on keeping his gaze down, but the blond was watching him almost constantly now and he had the strangest feeling that he had met this person in another time and place.

Lunch came and went like some surreal dream. He sat on the ground again between Baker and Alverez, his knees sore, but that didn't seem to make any difference to his masters. Blair concentrated on each bite he was hand fed while the conversation whirled around him and finally landed on him.

"I don't want to seem too forward," the blond man said tentatively, but what's the story with...."

Alverez leaned forward in a conspiratorial manner. "He likes to play these games, our little one. He and Senor Baker are...lovers. Please do not be offended by this display. We are not used to having company. They live in their own world they share with very few."

With that cue, Baker pulled Blair up to him by the leash, leaning in for a long kiss that left Blair breathless.

"You see?" Alverez said. "They are most affectionate." The two men nodded and smiled, but the blond one gave Blair one last searching look before being escorted out the door.

Blair followed Alverez down the hall, the leash tugging him forward when he hesitated. He closed his eyes, trying to block out the corridor that seemed to elongate, stretch out before him and Alverez also stretching like something out of a super hero comic book...the bad guy who could use his mental powers to control others...control him....wrap around him and smother him...his will....his thoughts.

Alverez stopped him outside the man's bedroom suite, an arm going around his waist, fingers caressing the skin of his abdomen.

"Here we are, bambino. We have the entire evening ahead of us. And it will be a very interesting evening, that I promise."

Alverez turned Blair and pressed him against the door, hands running up his body to tug on the nipple rings, work their way up into his hair and the mouth came down on his, possessing him, weakening his will to fight.

Why should he fight this, his lot in life? What could he possibly do to stop this from happening?

With a lingering kiss, Alverez pulled back and opened the door, ushering Blair into the expansive room. On into the bedroom he was lead and Blair stood at the foot of the bed and waited for his master's command.

He watched without wanting to, Alverez move around the room, turning down the lights to what might have been called romantic to someone who was there willingly. Blair just tried to remain standing and found one point to stare at, a glass globe that reminded him of something he should have been able to remember and waited for the ordeal to truly begin.

Alverez finally came to him, pulling him around to the side of the bed. The man reached up and removed the leash from his collar then moved up into Blair's hair to release the flowing tresses from the headband. With a lingering touch the hands moved down his body and quickly untied the lacings holding the loincloth around his hips.

Blair sucked in a sharp breath of pain as the fingers touched the healing wound of the brand on his hip and butt cheek.

Alverez smiled knowingly and touched it again just to let Blair know he could.

"It's healing, little one. Soon it will be nothing more than a scar. One that will reminded you of what you are. A Slave. A beautiful...sensuous...exotic...slave. Now, my beauty, undress me."

Blair swallowed what little defiance pushed at his thoughts and obeyed, each button of the man's shirt a chore for his coordination. He concentrated, unable to not look at the strong chest revealed. The skin was dark and creamy, a dusting of hair on the chest and down the firm stomach.

He felt a little queasy, but continued, going to his knees to pull off Alverez's shoes and socks, reaching up to the belt and hoping he wouldn't feel the slap of that leather against his ass or his cock and balls tonight.

He unzipped the man's trousers and slid them down long, strong thighs, Alverez stepping out of them. Last came the briefs, silky and so like the man standing before him.

It occurred to Blair that although Matt Baker and Fernando Alverez seemed like such different kinds of men, that down deep inside, these two were completely alike. All the difference was in the style. Where Baker was abrupt and brutal, Alverez was patience and slick, waiting...gaging...teasing and terrifying without raising his voice. But ultimately these two were cut from the same mold, merciless and mercenary and totally devoid of compassion.

"Continue, little one. You know what to do." Blair looked up from his meandering thoughts and saw this tall broad man, darkly handsome and menacing with that dark mustache and coal black hair. The man's cock stood out, already erect and glistening with moisture, awaiting his attention.

Blair leaned forward and slowly took the hard rod into his mouth, letting it slide back against his throat and across his tongue. He tried not to gag, tried not to think of what he was being forced to do once again like some whore...or as Baker had said...a slut. Whores got paid for what they did.

Alverez's fingers wound into Blair's hair and pulled him even closer, making Blair suck rather than just let the cock slide in and out of his mouth.

"Oh, sweet little bambino. You do that so very well. Ah, but not too much. Do not finish it just yet."

Alverez moved away and got into bed, pushing up pillows and making himself comfortable sitting against the headboard.

"Come here, Blair."

Blair climbed onto the bed and moved up to straddle Alverez as he was directed. The man's hard cock slid up to lay against his ass reminding him of what was yet to come. Alverez pulled him forward, kissing his chin and nose and all around his face then landed gently on his lips, caressing rather than demanding and Blair found himself opening his mouth at the lightest insistence.

The hands drifted over his bare flesh like wisps of smoke, tingling and lulling the dread he'd carried with him to this room. He began to relax just a little, muscles massaged with expert fingers.

The mouth moved down his neck, bending his head back till his hair fell against his shoulder blade. Moving down, Alverez's tongue licked at his ringed nipples, sucking each in, teeth playing playfully. Blair gasped with something close to pleasure and instantly came alert. He wanted nothing like that from Alverez or Baker, nothing from them that gave them any more power over him than what they had already taken. This they would not have, not by his consent would they have his pleasure.

Jim! Oh Jim! Help me! I love only you. I want pleasure from only you. Please help me.

With a jerk that caused him pain, Blair pulled away from Alverez's teasing tongue and teeth. With a tilt of head and dark eyebrow raised, the man gave him a questioning look, but then the smile came and Blair saw that Alverez knew what he had nearly done.

"So, you were giving in to the pleasure, were you not, my little Blair? Would you not rather enjoy? Would you rather suffer so just to hold so dearly to your non-existent dignity?"

Blair swallowed and licked his lips.

"I want...no pleasure from you."

"But that is what I wish to give just now and that is as much a slave's duty as suffering."

"I will not...have pleasure for your...pleasure's sake." "My little flower. You are quite articulate this night. It seems we can not completely suppress such intellect as yours."

Blair glanced away, hearing the mocking in Alverez's voice. His life...his sanity was a game to these men, an experiment as they had told him more than once. He was nothing but a human lab rat with pretty hair and a pretty face.

Alverez's fingers lifted his chin and forced him to meet the man's gaze.

"It is your lot in life, Blair to give us pleasure in what ever manner that pleasure comes. Now kiss me. In a short while we shall see if pleasure or pain is your reward for this evening."

The kisses began again against his throat, hands possessing him once more. Alverez pushed him down between strong thighs and again he sucked the long hard cock, trying to block the action from his mind, hoping the drug would dim the memory of all this soon.

By the chain dangling between his nipples, Alverez pulled Blair back up, the man's fingers lubed and ready to fill his hole, stretch him for a long hard ride.

Slowly, Blair slid onto Alverez's cock, the first time this man had filled him. The man's hands ran over his body, forced him to ride hard, to slam down onto the erection with bone jolting impacts. He felt the man's cock harden, filling him to almost impossible proportions then explode into him. The kiss after was gentle, surprising after the abandonment of intercourse.

"You must have been quite a prize to this man, James Ellison that Matthew hates so very much. Did you love him?"

Blair was still gasping for breath and feeling the nausea sweeping over him. This question caught him completely off guard and appalled him.

Did? Past tense? As though torture and rape and drugs could make him stop loving the only man he had ever loved? What he and Jim had was far more than mortal love, far more than simple human lusts. Not even the drugs and all the horrors he had faced could kill his love for Jim Ellison. Even when, at times, it took all his effort to remember that part of his life.

Jim where are you? I know you are looking for me. I know you are with all my heart. I'll be brave. I'll not let them kill my love for you. I will not let them make me forget we are destined for one another for all of eternity.

"Do," he said, trying to disengage himself from Alverez. "Do?" the man repeated. "And no one gave you permission to move," Alverez added, dragging Blair back.

"I do love him," Blair said through clenched teeth, the defiance surfacing like a shark after a meal. "I will not stop loving him because of what you or Baker do to me. I will always love Jim Ellison. I will die loving Jim Ellison."

Alverez's face went smooth, calculating and cold. "I do not like your tone of voice, little one. I think it is time for my next experiment to begin."

Alverez shoved him off and Blair rolled, half sitting and watched Alverez move to retrieve something from a desk drawer. The dread came over him again and he remembered why Alverez frightened him so much. No empathy...no warmth beneath the smooth, cooing words of a mad scientist.

Alverez came to stand over him and Blair looked up into a face full of hidden sadism that was about to be unleashed on him. The man held a hypodermic in his hand, the needle glistening with moisture, reminding Blair of Alverez's moist cock.

"Lay back and spread your legs, boy. Do not defy me in this or I'll simply use harsher methods of gaining your cooperation."

"What is it? What are you going to do?"

Alverez's face turned dark and Blair feared he was about to see the extent of this man's rage and sadism.

"Lay back and you will soon see. Hold your legs up." Blair closed his eyes and obeyed, his breathing so shallow he couldn't manage a deep breath. He felt the needle slide into his flesh between his penis and balls, no real pain, but the humiliation almost made him jerk away. Before he could even decide to fight, it was over and Alverez was pressing his legs down and putting away the syringe.

"Now we shall see what happens and if all goes well you may enjoy our time together much more than you would have hoped. Or you may beg for unconsciousness. You are the first human to be injected with it."

Alverez lay on top of Blair, pressing him into the bed. The man's hand moved to massage his genitals, a stirring of feeling Blair didn't want circling around the movement.

He tried to block the sensation, throwing up mental walls against the intrusion of some foreign substance that would try to artificially arouse his sexual desire. But his mental walls were tenuous now with all the abuse of his psyche, a thin crumbling mass of bad architecture that tumble down with Alverez's deliberate handling. He felt his cock hardening and his balls throb.

"Ah, my little one," Alverez said between kisses and nipple sucking. "I feel you getting hard. My formula is working."

"I...don't want...this. Make it stop!" Blair said pushing at Alverez's body. But the man maneuvered for better access, holding Blair down with a leg across his and body pinning one arm. One of Alverez's hands gripped a wrist while the other stroked him, kneading his balls and running up to pinch rock hard nipples.

The arousal was quickly becoming an insistent pressure, bordering on pain, pushing at becoming pain far too quickly.

"Oh god, make it stop! Please. It hurts!" Alverez reached and stroked him hard from root to tip and Blair cried out at the roaring pressure that arousal had become. He came in long hard spurts. No joy and little relief accompanied the orgasm and it went on for what seemed an eternity. Afterwards, he lay gasping for breath and sobbing out his horror.

"There, there, my little bambino. That was not so terrible," Alverez said still stroking him.

Blair ignored him, too exhausted to fight or argue the point.

Oh god, oh god, oh god. Don't make me do that again. Please, who ever is out there controlling this, make it stop.

But as usual, his prayer went unanswered. The pressure began again and he did fight, struggling against Alverez's administrations.

"Stop it, Blair or you will be punished. We will let this experiment run it's course and you will cooperate. Now stop struggling."

"It hurts," he sobbed. "Please stop."

Alverez looked down on him with an amused smile. "If it hurts then I will be certain to put that in my notes, little one, but you are my guinea pig and if it hurts, so be it. That is what you are for. That is your lot. You must learn to live with that. A good slave is obedient even while suffering for the master's desires."

A roaring filled Blair's ears, slowly blocking Alverez's words. The pain saturated his loins, pressure building, pushing him to orgasm again. He writhed in Alverez's grasp, wanting to come to end it, yet not wanting to give Alverez any satisfaction.

Alverez's mouth came down hard on his, tongue pushing down his throat, while the man's hand drove him to release. He was sobbing continually now, unable to stop the emotional overload from taking it's toll. He could barely move, his body aching, pounding with agony that generated in his loins.

Alverez leaned over him, releasing him long enough for the man to climb on top of him, straddle his legs to stroke his cock again to full erection.

"My, my, sweet one. Three erections in such a short while. Interesting reaction. Now let's try something new."

Blair hadn't noticed what Alverez was doing, too caught up in his own pain, too full of horror to care. But suddenly, Alverez moved up to straddle his stomach and leaned back, impaling himself on Blair's cock.

"No! You bastard!! Get off of me! I hate you!!" He felt his cock inside Alverez's hot passage, felt the man's rectum squeeze him hard, the pressure driving him insane and nearly into oblivion.

Blair swung his fists, trying to pound them into Alverez's chest or stomach, anything to make this man get off of him. But Alverez caught his wrists and held him down on the bed, the man's face red with rage.

"What will your punishment be for this defiance, little one? Think about it and how terrible it will be. You will suffer for my enjoyment this time, not just for my experiment. Now you will stroke my cock while I ride you and we will take our time and make it last. No quick release from this one, slave."

Alverez was true to his word, making the orgasm slow in coming. Blair stroked Alverez's cock, concentrating on that to take his mind from the pressure building agonizingly slow. Alverez played him, stopping movement when Blair was about to come, taunting him with sadistic smiles and mockingly sweet caresses.

Blair felt his heart pounding so hard, he thought it could be heard a hundred miles away, his breath so tight and shallow, he would die of lack of oxygen. He felt Alverez come all over his stomach then the man slowly brought him to release.

Sickness took hold of him and Blair began to retch, all else an obscure whirl of color and light, darkness and distorted sound. Alverez had him by the hair, forcing him over the side of the bed to throw up into a trash can. His heart would not stop it's erratic pounding, or his pulse's rapid, fluttery beating. He thought he was about to die and didn't know whether to laugh or cry. And that thought went with him into darkness.

Jim stared off, nearly on the verge of zoning out. Twenty six days had passed since Blair had been taken from him...twenty six eternal days that Blair had suffered the tortures and terrors that came from Matt Baker's incredibly sadistic mind. The leads had thinned to threadbare and they were snatching at any tiny thing.

"I think we should go out to that Doctor's place and check it out, Jim. I don't give a flying pig's ass whether this guy is suppose to be on the up and up. The more I think about it the more a possibility he becomes. Your friend Carlos said this doctor worked for the government. He didn't say which government. What if he's working for ours with Baker as his liaison? What if his research is for the CIA or some other covert operation?"

Jim heard his friends words, even agreed with him, but a snatch of a conversation had caught his attention and he held a hand up to still Simon's questions.

"I'm telling you, Gordon, I know that guy. I'm telling you that the whole thing was wrong. Very wrong. He didn't want to be there. He was pleading with me with those eyes. I know those eyes. You don't forget someone like him and that was him."

"Alex calm down," an older voice soothed. "Senor Alverez said they were lovers. Why would they make such a display of that sort if they weren't? They were playing a game. They wanted to see if we would be embarrassed by it. We held our ground well enough. We gained Alverez's respect by doing so. He's going to give us access to his property. I know we'll find what we are looking for there. Don't involve yourself with other people's business."

"I'm going to call Rainier University. I met Blair at a conference in Cascade Washington three years ago. He was working on his doctorate and was a teaching fellow."

"You must be mistaken then. It simply was someone else. The boy could be from anywhere. He was most exotic looking."

Jim glanced around, searching for the source of this conversation. Blair...Cascade...Rainier.

"Simon, I just got a lead. Those men over there know where Blair is."

Simon gave him a startled look. "Then what are we waiting for?"

The captain followed Jim over to a table where two men sat, leaning together talking. Both men slowly looked up when the two tall strangers came to stand over them.

"Can I help you gentlemen?" the older man said. "Captain Simon Banks of the Cascade Washington Police Department. This is Detective Jim Ellison."

Jim leaned down, his face stone hard, hands grabbing the man's shirt and drawing him up a little.

The man turn a lily shade of white, while the younger man's eyes flashed with fear.

"Where is Blair Sandburg?" Jim growled.

"I...I...please. I don't know what you are talking about." "Jim. Let go of the man...now."

Slowly and with great care, Jim opened his fingers, controlling his irrational urge to hurt someone.

"I told you, Gordon. It was Blair. I told you. Please sit down, gentlemen. I'm Alex Chadwin, an archeologist with UCLA. This is my colleague Gordon Stanfeld. We have seen Blair...yes. I believe he is being held prisoner at the estate of one Fernando Alverez."

"We don't know that for certain, Alex," Gordon Stanfeld said stilling eyeing Jim dubiously and straightening his shirt with a certain indignation. "He could be there of his own accord."

"He was drugged, Gordon. If you had bothered looking in his eyes instead of gawking at his body you would have noticed he was drugged."

The older man went from white to red and looked away, clearing his throat.

Jim felt his heart skip a beat and his pulse quicken. They were almost there. They had found a link to Blair. But he had taken an instant dislike to this man Stanfeld.

"Blair Sandburg was kidnapped from his office at Rainier University almost a month ago," Simon offered. "We've followed a trail to Argentina. And to a man named Alverez."

"This is incredible," Chadwin said. "At first I wasn't certain it was him, but he looked at me and I think he knew me. The more I looked the more I realized it had to be Blair. No one has eyes like that. But then he wasn't acting like the Blair Sandburg I'd met. He was so subdued...so...." The man looked momentarily embarrassed. "Well actually, I've never seen anyone act quite like that before."

"What do you mean?" Jim asked the stone coldness returning to his features and voice. He felt like his face was about to break with the rigidity in his jaw.

Alex glanced at Jim and Jim felt as if the man was judging what he would except from a stranger.

"How well do you know Blair Sandburg?" The archeologist ask. "As well as anyone in this world, Mr Chadwin. Blair is my roommate and my partner."

"That's Doctor Chadwin, but call me Alex. Your partner?" "Blair is a special consultant to the police department in Cascade," Simon injected, going along with Jim's reticence at telling these men exactly what Blair meant to him. "He works with Jim as a partner."

"Unusual arrangement. But I can see how useful an anthropologist could be in police work."

"You haven't answered my question, Alex." Jim's jaw popped with tension, his fingers curling to become an involuntary fist.

"Blair looked like a slave, Detective," Gordon Stanfeld offered when Alex hesitated. "He was dressed in a loincloth and little else. Quite a fetching sight I might add."

Jim watched Alex turned a dark glare at Stanfeld, his own anger rising with the insensitivity of this man. He felt Simon's grip on his arm and took comfort from his friend's support.

"Don't be such a bastard, Gordon."

Stanfeld's mouth went tight, possibly not liking to be chastised by a younger colleague, Jim thought.

A gleam of a mean streak sparked in Stanfeld's eyes. "Why Senor Alverez and Senor Baker were most affectionate with Mr. Sandburg, in my opinion. Perhaps the boy is enjoying this game, just as Alverez said."

"Let's get something straight right now, Gordon," Jim said through gritted teeth, leaning into Stanfeld's space. "Blair Sandburg was taken by force, kidnapped. Matt Baker is a murderer and a rapist. He's a cold, sick, merciless son-of-a-bitch and if this Alverez guy is a friend of his, then Alverez is just like him. Be very careful doing business with men like that, gentlemen. Men like that extract a very high price for any favors done."

Simon's hand gripped his shoulder, trying to pull him back. "Come on, Jim. We're on a hot trail here. Relax a little. These fine gentlemen are our allies. I'm certain they'll want to help."

Jim took a deep breath and sat back. He closed his eyes, but all he saw in that dark empty place was Blair being humiliated so completely, being treated like something less than human, kept like a pet.

Jim was starting to zone out. Images of Blair being forced into sexual slavery for Matt Baker's entertainment and amusement sickened him. Just as Baker had said it would happen, it had. Blair being drugged and beaten and raped whirled through his mind, ugly images and he could feel Blair's pain, feel his lover's humiliation and the degradation of being treated this way of being forced....

"Jim...Jim! Come on, Ellison, snap out of it." Jim came back to his senses to find the two men staring at him and Simon's hand on his shoulder once again.

"And you did nothing to help Blair," Jim said in a cold voice startling all three.

"What was there to do?" Stanfeld said incredulously. "We were guests. We were told they were lovers and the boy didn't say differently."

"And what was Blair suppose to say, Gordon?" Alex finally said, finding his voice. "I'm being held prisoner? They would have laughed it off and said it was the game they were playing." Alex turned back to Jim and Simon. "I was very uncomfortable with the whole thing and I was going to call the University to find out if it really could be Blair. But then you came over. I suppose you over heard our conversation. I wouldn't leave Blair in such a horrible situation, please believe me, Detective. The man I met three years ago in Cascade was one of the most brilliant young men rising in the field of anthropology. The last I heard he was working on his dissertation. I don't know Blair well, but I do know that this is not a situation he would be in voluntarily. He would never have chosen to be owned in such a way...to wear a collar and be lead around on a leash like someone's pet. But I couldn't forget those eyes and I knew it was him. I just knew it. He was begging me for help silently."

"You are overly emotional, Alex. Don't make a fool of yourself," Stanfeld said with a roll of his eyes. The man crossed his arms against his chest and looked unconvinced.

"This is a man's life, Gordon. Which is more important than us finding some link to the Incas."

"Nothing is more important than that, Chadwin. And if you wish to continue in this line of work, you'd best get your priorities straight. Good evening, gentlemen."

They watched Stanfeld push up from his chair and stalk off with indignant irritation.

Alex turned back and leaned his elbows on the table. His gaze rose after a moment and sheepishly glanced at Simon then Jim.

"He's really not so bad once you get to know him. He's from the old school and a bit bitter about never quite hitting that big find that would have put his name at the top. He'll think about it and realize how selfish he sounded. Really."

Jim rubbed his face and sighed. "You're right about the drugs, Alex. They are drugging Blair and knowing Baker, Blair has suffered greatly, beatings, torture and rape."

Alex lowered his gaze and swallowed hard. "Considering the way he was being treated, that doesn't surprise me in the least. It was as if they were flaunting their power over him. Or maybe proving to him how much power they had. It's appalling now when I think back about the whole thing. Absolutely incredible. I'll help in any way I can."

"Thanks Doctor," Simon said. "We've got the break we've been looking for. Now we need to start making plans." Simon turned a gleaming gaze on Alex and Jim could tell the man was a little leery. "Doctor Chadwin...Alex, we are about to embark on a little covert operation. We are going to rescue one Blair Sandburg from the clutches of two men who are going to be very sorry they ever messed with Cascade PD's finest."

"Listen to me, Matthew," Alverez said with a hand out almost imploringly. "The drug needs adjustments."

"You said it worked." Baker rounded on the other man, a look of controlled irrationality playing on that hard face.

Blair felt tears sting his eyes and his heart hurt nearly as much as it had the night before when the drug raged through him and forced him to bow to unwanted orgasm. He couldn't go through that again. He just couldn't.

"Yes, Matthew, it worked, but he reacted badly to it. His heartbeat became erratic and his blood pressure rose and fell dramatically in only a few moments."

"But he survived it and I don't care if it hurt him." Baker stalked over to where Blair sat on his knees, head bowed and tears slipping down his face. He felt Baker reach for him, grab him by the hair and jerk his head up. Those cold eyes laced with heat pierced his fragile soul, inflicting damage to his psyche. Blair flinched.

"I don't care how much it hurts. I just want what he gave so willingly to Jim Ellison. I want his passion, even if I have to take it from him by force." Baker leaned down, dragging Blair up for a long kiss. "Ya know, baby, if you would just give it to me, I wouldn't have to take it."

Blair closed his eyes, trying to block out Baker's leering grin.

"Hey, sweetheart, you got nothing to say?" Baker said with a jerk on his hair.

What was there to say to that?

"Please...." he whispered.

"Please what?"

"Please don't use that on me again. Please!" Blair turned enough to fix Alverez with a pleading gaze. "Please...don't...."

But Alverez just shrugged, hands going out, acquiescing to Baker's desires.

"No!" Blair screamed and pulled out of Baker's grasp. He scrambled away, getting to his feet.

"Don't you run from me, boy."

Baker came after him and Blair gathered all his remaining defiance to him, holding onto it like his last dying breath.

On the far wall, a display of ancient ceremonial blades decorated the wall. Blair's sight latched on. Desperation drove him, overcoming momentarily, the drug dragging at his will. He launched himself across the room and ripped a foot long dagger from it's place.

Blair whirled, brandishing the blade. Baker stopped abruptly, a few feet away, obviously seething with anger. And Alverez was slowly walking towards him from the side, tightening the noose around him.

Blair wanted nothing more than to kill Baker, stab the long piece of obsidian straight into that black heart, if there was a heart there at all and not just some lump of stone, as hard and as black as the volcanic rock. Then he wanted to turn that knife to Alverez, cut out the man's pulsing heart and offer it to some blood thirsty god so to cleanse himself of this curse that had been laid on him.

But Blair knew it couldn't happen that way. He muscles already quivered with strain and the drug threatened to cloud up his mind, taking with it what little thoughts of his own he still had. He knew the way...the only way to escape this horror, escape forever from Baker's grasp. Let the demon follow him into hell, but it would end now.

Oh Naomi...Mom, I'm sorry. Jim, please forgive me. I love you. I'll die loving you.

Slowly, Blair turned the blade in his shaking hands, the tip coming to rest against his abdomen.

"Put the knife down now, brat," Baker snarled. "Or I'll beat you till every inch of your skin is covered in stripes and bruises."

Blair ignored Baker's threats, concentrating on how to angle the blade so it would go up under the ribs and pierce his heart.

A low growl caught at Blair's attention and a vision of the panther slipped before his inner sight. It turned and stared deep into his eyes, capturing his full awareness. The animal moved with silent grace towards him and a certain peace saturated his soul, soothing his spiritual wounds.

'Shaman...do not take this too final step,' the ethereal voice, a timber somewhere between Incacha's and Jim's came from within the growing mist. 'You have much yet to give and you are needed in this world. You have had so little time to reach you full potential, to become the spiritual guide you are destined to become. This ordeal will soon be over, before this night is done. Endure these last few hours with the assurance that he is near...very near. Wait for him, for he is coming for you. And you shall not be parted again in this lifetime or the many lifetimes yet to come.'

Blair shook himself and felt the blade piercing the skin, a trickle of blood sliding down his belly.

"Blair, give me the knife. You do not wish to die, little one. You are so young, so beautiful."

Alverez was almost within reach of the knife, hand going out slowly to take the blade from Blair's relaxed grip.

"There, there, little one," Alverez cooed. "You were frightened. But you will have to be punished for your actions, you know."

Blair just stared at nothing, still seeing the panther. But the image faded and he felt his breath heaving in his chest, heard his pulse pounding in his ears.

Go ahead...punish me. Jim is coming and he is going to kill all of you for me.

He looked up just in time to see Baker's fist before the knuckles smashed into his cheekbone. Blair went crashing backwards into the wall, sliding down onto the floor.

"You goddamned little brat. I'll teach you to obey me. You'll die when I say you can die and not one minute sooner." Baker pulled off his belt and wrapped one end around his hand. "You are going to pay for that little performance for a long time, boy."

Blair curled up, trying to protect himself, but Baker drew back a booted foot and kicked him hard in the side. He felt ribs creak and groan, breath knocked out of him, making him lower his guard when the strap began to fall. The leather slapped his shoulder and back, came down across his upraised arm. Blair turned his face to the wall and bore the beating with gasping cries.

This would be the last beating, the last time Baker would raise a hand in violence to him. Blair believed that...believed the panther's words of assurance that when this night was done this horror would be over.

Baker's fingers dug into his shoulder, pushing him back and the backhanded blow sent Blair sprawling onto the floor. The beating began again. Baker intended to keep his word, trying to cover Blair's body in welts and bruises. Again Blair curled up, trying to endure, yet writhing with the pain.

Somewhere far away, he heard the telephone ring, the slapping of leather against his skin, taking up a rhythm with the ringing. Then Alverez was grabbing Baker, stopping the upraised arm in mid-motion.

"Matthew, enough. This is an important call. It is the archeologist. He has some interesting information for us. Now, be quiet for a moment."

Blair caught one last seething glare from Baker before the man put his belt back on and went to listen in on the conversation from another phone. Blair lay unmoving, waiting for something new and horrible to happen.

"Yes, Senor Stanfeld. Thank you for calling. Complete funding for your project and access to my property is a fair payment for the valuable information you've provided. Yes, consider it done. Good day to you too, Senor Stanfeld."

Baker came to stand next to Blair's prone body, an evil aura surrounding him with it's nearness. Without a word, Baker hauled him up to his knees, Blair flinching in the man's grasp. But instead of hitting him again, Baker stared down at him, smiling with a triumph that made Blair's stomach lurch.

"Seems we're going to have company sometime in the near future, Blair baby. Ol' Jimmy boy put his nose to the trail and followed us down to Argentina. You're going to get to see him real soon. Tonight even, according to one Dr. Gordon Stanfeld who thinks his archeological dig is more important than you. But that's okay. I've been looking for Ellison to find us. I've been hoping he would."

Baker pulled Blair up to his feet, fingers going out to pinch a welt and Baker watched Blair gasp in pain. The fingers trailed across his stomach, through the blood that trickled from the dagger's cut. Blair felt a sickness roll through his belly as Baker brought reddened fingers to his mouth and licked them.

"Ellison will be impressed, don't you think, baby? He'll see how I've made you mine, turned you to my will. I was going to take you upstairs and use that drug on you right now, but I think I'll wait on that. I want Jimmy boy to watch you get hard for me. I'm going to make him watch it all. Let him see how I've made his little Blair into my personal sex slave."

With a brutal, tightening grip, Baker pulled Blair even closer, the man's face only inches from his. The man's tongue snaked out to lick hard lips that reached for his, forcing that tongue into his mouth. Blair gave in to the demands and Baker's hands moved over his body, rubbing against the slowly healing brand. The man's fingers wound into his hair and Baker's lips possessed his. Another hand slid between his ass cheeks to finger his hole and caress the back of his balls.

"Oh baby, I need you now. I can't wait for Ellison to show up to fuck you. Come on upstairs now."

"Wait, Matthew," Alverez said. "His injection." "Oh yeah, can't forget that. Hurry up, will you, Fernando? I'm really aching to get inside of him."

The needle kissed Blair's thigh and he felt the tug on the leash, felt the tug on his will, the insistence that he obey his masters' commands.

Last time, he told himself. This would be the last time Baker would rape him, would force him to suck the man's cock or bend over the bed and let Baker shove inside of him. He could endure this one more time.

But the thought came suddenly, like a flash of clear blue sky and sunshine during a long cold rain. They knew Jim was coming. Baker intended to trap Jim, catch him unaware, force him to watch again the raping of his lover.

The drug slowly worked at clouding Blair's mind, entrapping his thoughts in a web of lethargy. He had to warn Jim, had to....

Baker pushed him into the bedroom, Blair not even remembering how they had gotten this far. Then the man was naked and on top of him, kissing him and pushing him into the mattress. The bed spun like an out of control merry-go-round. The drug and Baker's body pressed in on him, the heat and moisture surrounding him nauseating, making his stomach quiver.

'Jim!' Blair reached out with his mind, reached out with one last small reserve of strength and will. 'Jim!! They know...Baker and Alverez know you are coming.'

Blair thought for a moment that he had touched Jim's mind, felt a gentle caress of comfort. Or had he imagined it? Had he imagined the panther? Or the promise that his ordeal would be over by this night's end? Had his drug-warped mind created a way for him to live with what was happening to him...making promises, creating ideas...fantasies to ease his ravaged thoughts and body?

With a brutal shove, Baker turned Blair over, the rough hands caressing his tortured back and thighs where the belt had left bruises and welts, slapped the brand and the rest of his ass till it stung with the blows.

Blair clung to the bedsheets, clung to what the animal spirit had told him, promised him and he had to believe. He was a shaman now and above all else he must believe in the visions. And Baker had said Jim was coming. That was real...wasn't it?

Baker's lubed fingers worked their way into his rectum, probed and pushed and stretched him. Then Baker's weight settled on top of him and the man's cock shoved in hard, sliding to the hilt into him. Blair gasped and bit his lip.

"Yeah, baby." Baker's harsh whisper rasped in Blair's ear, the man's tongue licking and teeth sinking into his neck. "Oh yeah, baby. I can't wait for Jimmy boy to get here. It'll be a hell of a surprise when he finds us waiting for him. Then I'm going to make him watch me fuck you over and over again. I'll make him watch you become more and more my sweet little slave, obedient to only me. Oh baby, what a tight ass you've got....ohhhhh yeah."

Blair felt the familiar sickness sweep through his bowels and up into his stomach and chest. He wanted to throw up. But he laid there and took the rape, quiet...obedient. He had to save his energy to help Jim, to save Jim from Matthew Baker's continued revenge.

Baker pumped into him hard and fast, grunting in his ear now, fingers digging into his hips and holding him till the man came in long driving strokes. With another grunt of satisfaction, Baker rolled to one side and lay there, sweat drenched and panting. After a while the man rolled to one side and pulled Blair over onto his back.

The caressing began again, Blair's face and hair, fingers tracing the new ugly bruise forming on his cheekbone and around his eye from the earlier beating. His body ached and throbbed from abuse, yet he floated just above it with the drug tugging him upward just a little, just enough to keep him from focusing on any one plan of action that might actually help Jim.

Baker's fingers trailed down to his nipples, pinching and tugging on the rings and the chain laying delicately across his furred chest.

He heard Baker chuckle, felt the man's thumb rubbing over one nub, trying to get a rise out of him. It didn't work.

"What made you stop, Blair?"

Blair's eyes opened to stare at Matt Baker with cautious questioning.

"Why didn't you commit hara-kiri when you had the chance? And don't tell me the drug made you stop. I don't believe it. You're not that witless. You let Fernando take that blade away from you and I want to know why."

Baker's hand moved down over his stomach, touching the narrow cut from the blade in question. The hand moved down, pushed up the loin cloth. A knee forced Blair's legs apart and Baker began to roughly massage his cock and balls.

"Tell me Blair. Why didn't you do it?"

Blair closed his eyes, trying to block out Baker's hand movement. He shouldn't answer that question. Shouldn't....

"Why, boy?" Baker's face hovered inches from his and the hand squeezed till his balls hurt.

"I...I knew Jim was coming," he replied in a gasping whisper. "And he's going to...kill you," Blair finished with a hiss.

"Is he now? That's funny, cause I hold all the cards, sweetheart. You're just deluding yourself. It's sad, but true, little darlin'. And just how did you know Jimmy boy was coming before we did?" Baker's smile turned indulgent, probably imagining that Blair's brains were completely muddled by now and couldn't even keep up with a simple timeline.

Blair turned away, hoping he appeared despondent or confused. It wasn't too hard for his expression to look either way. After all, he'd had lots of practice lately.

Baker's hand became caressing again. "Don't worry about it, baby. You'll be there to watch the show play out according to my plans. I want you to watch me take down Ellison and put him in his place, to make him grovel and beg and watch helplessly what I do to you."

Alex Chadwin stole a glance at Jim Ellison, trying to figure out this very intense man. There had to be something here that he hadn't been told, some relationship between Blair and this man, cousin...brother...hmmmm. No, it wasn't that. What had Ellison said? Roommate? Partner? They worked together...but something else nagged unsaid....

He watched Simon Banks going over the quick map he had provided of the layout of Alverez's property. That was something Alex was good at, remembering at quick glances layout and positions of buildings and landmarks, unusual land formations and such. But he hadn't known when he went to Senor Alverez's home with Gordon that he would be helping two Cascade, Washington policemen break into the house to rescue a kidnap victim.

Man, life had gotten very weird lately.

And if he had any doubts...any qualms about helping these men, all he had to do was remember Blair's pleading glance, the bandaged wrists, nipple rings and chain and loin cloth, the collar and leash. Blair was not a guest in Alverez's home playing out some kinking fantasy. Blair was a prisoner that had been made into a sex slave. Those beautiful blue eyes haunted him now when he closed his own eyes.

Alex's gaze moved back to Ellison who was holding up a gun, checking it for who knew what. A very cop thing to do. Alex never liked guns and wanted nothing to do with them. Leave that to the cops and Indiana Jones. He'd just drive.

So what was it about this man and Blair Sandburg? Talk about two totally different people. But sometimes opposites attract and Alex was starting to understand. They were lovers. There lay the intensity, the rage, the obsession. Yes, a good friend would do the same, rescue you from crazed villains. Maybe he was overreacting.

Alex watched as Ellison suddenly looked blank, like he wasn't there in the hotel room any longer. He touched Bank's arm and pointed.

"What's going on with him?"

Banks rose from his chair and crossed the room to Ellison's side. Alex followed at a safe distance.

Ellison was, by far, the most dangerous man Alex had ever met. Power of a primal sort exuded from this man, a power both of protection and deadly force depending on which side of good and evil a man stood.

"Jim? Hey, Jim, what is it? You zoning out on me?" Alex watched Banks lay a hand on Ellison's shoulder and shake hard. Ellison rounded on the big black man and Alex almost flinched away at the pure unbridled fury reflected in the detective's blue eyes.

"They know we're coming, Simon."

"What?!"

"How can you know that?" Alex asked. "How would they find out?"

"I don't know, but they know."

"Jim," Simon said with a serious tone. "How do you know that?"

Alex watched Ellison meet Banks' gaze as if the man knew they might not believe him.

"Blair told me."

"Pardon?" Alex said.

Simon Banks put on what appeared to be a patient expression. "Jim. Don't lose it now. Sandburg needs you in your right mind."

"I'm telling you, Simon. I saw Blair...mostly heard him, telling me that Baker and Alverez know I'm coming. Then I felt his pain. Baker was hurting him...hurting...."

Alex nodded to himself when James Ellison sat abruptly on the nearby bed, a look of despair overwhelming the man's resolve and rage. Lovers it is.

"Hurting him, Simon. Raping him."

"Jim...buddy, come on. This doesn't help. Regardless of them knowing we have to try."

Slowly, Ellison glanced up with a hard, cold glare. "Where is Stanfeld?"

Alex realized the question had been directed at him. "Gordon? Oh, no, Detective. Gordon is self-serving and egotistic, but he wouldn't endanger a man's life." Would he?, Alex asked himself. Oh god, please, Gordon. Please.

"Oh wouldn't he? Stanfeld didn't seem to care much about Blair's health. He only seemed to care that his precious dig went on without interruption."

Ellison was on his feet now, backing Alex across the room till his back met the door. Alex wasn't a short man, by any means, but Ellison's sudden renewed rage made the man appear huge, towering over him like a grizzly bear ready to attack.

"Just let me go check his room, Detective Ellison. Just let me reassure you Gordon wouldn't do such a thing. He wouldn't...rat on us."

"You do that, Chadwin. You check on your weasel of a friend and if he has any ideas about helping Alverez he'd best lose them quick, cause I'll hunt him down if he ruins my chance of getting Blair back."

Alex nodded and slipped out the door, half running, heart pounding until he reached Gordon's room.

"Oh Gordon, you'd better be there or I'll hunt you down myself," Alex muttered under his breath.

But instead, the door stood open. A young dark-haired girl in the midst of changing sheets, looked up at him questioningly.

"Where is the man that had this room?" Alex asked, stunned. Not a trace of Gordon's possessions lay anywhere. He ran to the bathroom. Nothing. He threw open the closet door. Nothing, again. Gordon was gone.

"He checked out, Senor? This morning."

No. Oh Gordon, you asshole. I'll kill you for this. No, James Ellison is going to kill you for this and it will be an ugly slow death. One you deserve.

"Are you all right, Senor? You look pale. Should I get a doctor?"

"No. Thank you."

Alex wandered back down the corridor, his fear of telling Ellison lodged like a boulder in his throat. Banks would protect him. He hadn't betrayed Blair. It was Gordon. Oh man, Gordon, you stupid, selfish bastard.

Back at Ellison's room, the detective stood in the doorway, staring hard at him. Alex almost shrank away from that angry gaze. No one would ever have to remind him not to cross this man. Alverez and this Baker guy must be insane to have done so. And in such a horrible way.

Ellison just nodded at him when he reached the door and let him pass. Banks gave a huge sigh.

"This changes everything."

"We're still going."

"I know, Jim."

"I won't let that son-of-a-bitch hurt Blair for one more day. We do this tonight."

"I know," Simon said in a gentle tone. "At least we know what will be waiting for us."

"Yeah, and they won't know we know," Alex offered brightly. "Big help that will be." The captain shook his head in futility. "They're going to be ready."

"So we have to be more ready." Ellison's cold, hard rational was back again and again Alex vowed never to cross this man. He'd be a fool to do so.

"All right, Chadwin, you wait for us right here. Don't move unless your position is being threatened." Jim hoisted a rifle over his shoulder and tucked his hand gun into his holster. He wore camouflage pants and boots, a tank top and a kerchief on his head. Black streaks of greasepaint helped him blend into the night and the dark silhouette of the trees.

They had pulled the jeep into a well hidden spot off the road about a mile from Alverez's property line. The house was another half mile from there.

"And if we're not back by dawn, get back to town and call the number we gave you," Simon said. "Carlos Jones will know what to do. I hope." Simon added the last under his breath.

"Me too," Alex echoed with more than a hint of fear. Jim turned to Simon and put a hand on the black man's shoulder.

"Simon, this is your last chance to sit this part out. It's going to be dangerous. I won't think any less of you if you wait here with Alex."

Simon shook his head. "Sandburg risked his life more than once to save my butt, Jim. Damn, he got shot because of me. How can I sit out his rescue and live with myself? I'm going and I'm going to help you get Blair out of this. I owe him more times over than I'd ever admit to him. Let's stop wasting time and get this over with."

Jim smiled and squeezed his captain's shoulder. "Thanks, Simon."

They slipped into the night and Jim turned his hearing up, following a path of his own making, eyes picking out the best way to go without benefit of light. He made certain Simon stayed with him, rifle close at hand. They made quiet progress and soon through the trees Jim caught the sparkle of outdoor lights driving away the darkness near the large stone house.

He had to forcibly block out thoughts of Blair, push away the images of Blair being raped or the pain he knew Blair had suffered these last weeks. If he let his emotions lead him now, they would all be doomed to whatever Matt Baker and Fernando Alverez had in store for them if they failed. This was a mission and that's how he had to think of it. Later, he wouldn't be able to stop thinking of what Baker had done to Blair. That would be his punishment for letting Baker take Blair again.

Jim cast out his hearing and spotted a half dozen heartbeats along this side of the perimeter, slowly moving, paroling the grounds. He stopped Simon in midstep and with a hand, steadied the big man.

"What is it?" Simon whispered.

"Six men scattered along this side of the grounds. We've got to take them out quietly."

"Just point me in the right direction."

They moved closer. As they did, two men became silhouetted against the light, making perfect targets. The night and the soft grassy earth muffled the thumps and grunts. Jim and Simon moved forward like stalking panthers to search for their next victims.

Gordon Stanfeld was decidedly uncomfortable. He hadn't expected to get caught in the middle of some gun fight between Alverez's people and Ellison. All he had wanted was to become famous, to be the first to make a discovery just once in his life, before he was too old to enjoy fame and fortune.

But here he sat in this great parlor room, Alverez looking as though nothing unusual was about to happen, no maniacal, half- crazed detective from Cascade, Washington and his superior were about to come beating down the doors with automatic weapons ready to blast them all to kingdom come.

And there sat Baker, Alverez's companion in what must be something illegal, holding Blair Sandburg's leash as if the poor creature was a favorite pet. But Gordon found it hard not to stare, not to be slightly aroused by the sight of that exquisite boy in nothing but a loincloth, dark hair shining like a halo around an exotic face. Bruised, yet still exotic in a way he couldn't quite describe. Was it the shape of the blue eyes or the full sensual mouth that gave the boy a look of a greek youth, a slave for his master's dark whims? Gordon found it hard to believe this one had been a college instructor, on the verge of his doctorate. He seemed so young and vulnerable.

He watched Baker run a hand through Sandburg's hair, playing with the curls, and those beautiful eyes closed and a dazed expression of anguish passed over the young man's features then smoothed into what appeared to Gordon as stoic courage.

A pang of guilt tugged at the muscles in the archeologist's chest. What had he done for the sake of this dig? Had he condemned this man to a life of depravation? Had he figuratively signed a death warrant for Ellison and Banks? All this had gotten out of hand. But what had he expected? He didn't know anymore, but suddenly regretted his actions. He couldn't sit here and wait to see who won this battle. Baker and Alverez obviously thought they would or they wouldn't be sitting here so nonchalant, so unconcerned about Ellison's and Banks' imminent arrival.

"Senor Alverez, I really do not wish to be here when the two detectives arrive. I wish to retire to my room if you don't mind."

"As you wish, Dr. Stanfeld," Alverez said. "But you will miss the festivities."

Gordon heard Baker chuckle and he turned to see the man pull Sandburg closer, leash wrapped around a big hand, tugging the boy between his legs and up to caress the shaved cheeks and chin.

"Chickening out on us, Stanfeld? Don't want Ellison to see you? You know he'd kill you for what you've done."

Gordon felt a rush of fear lodge in his throat, yet at the same time he watched with that same fascination Baker lean down and kiss Blair, fingers tangled in that flow of curls.

Baker looked up from his pleasure to gaze at Gordon with a smirk. "Don't worry, Doctor." Baker's tone was mocking, a derisive inflection. "Ellison won't be able to come after you. He'll be our prisoner in a little while. He hasn't a clue we're waiting for him."

Gordon's chin came up in a proud stance. "I simply do not wish to be involved in this game. I was only trading information for patronage. I have no interest---"

"I think," Baker interrupted. "That if I gave Blair to you for the night, you'd love fucking him just as much as we do."

Gordon's breath caught at the thought of having the boy. "I...I...wouldn't...."

"Yeah, you would. In a New York minute, you would." The man bent down again, kissing his captive's neck, hands roaming over the boy's body.

Gordon turned away with a heated glance and hurried out of the room and away from Matthew Baker's knowing laughter.

Blair closed his eyes trying to ignore Gordon Stanfeld's hungry stare. He'd become too well versed in that look not to know it when he saw it. The man wanted him and it took all his reserve of strength not to spit obscenities at Dr. Gordon Stanfeld.

Baker drew his attention away, pulling him up to kiss and fondle. He wanted to fight and wondered why the drug hadn't sapped him of this desire as it usually did. He'd been given an injection not long ago and he kept waiting for the drug to drag him down into that lethargic flow. Blair kept his breath even and he reached out, searching for a calm place to wait for Jim to arrive.

He felt Baker's mouth on his, the tongue pushing against his lips and he allowed entrance. Baker's hands in his hair, held him tight against his captor's body and he could feel Baker's erection harding against his chest.

With effort Blair maintained a mental distance. He could see the drug flowing like a river out across the landscape of his mind. He found himself standing above the raging flood on a ledge of rock and the panther's breathing echoed down the canyon. Jim was near. Blair felt his mate's presence like the wind against his skin, like the breeze blowing through his hair.

'Take care, love,' Blair sent out across the void of space and time, not knowing if the message would reach Jim's mind or not. But he had to try. They had connected before. They could again. And in this place, high above the river, Blair's mind found a place of peace and waited there for his beloved while Baker's hands and mouth took pleasure from his body.

'Take care, love.'

Jim heard the words in his mind, clear and resonating with Blair's rich voice.

'I'm coming, Blair...beloved. Hold on.'

Jim turned and cocked his head, a voice speaking low catching his attention.

"I can not raise Renaldo or Juan, Senor," Jim heard someone say in heavily accented English. "I think the perimeter has been compromised. You had better tell Senor Alverez."

"There's more of you than them, Victor. Hunt them down and bring them in, goddamnit!"

Jim recognized the voice coming through a radio, one of Baker's men, the one named Ron. A flash of the man raping Blair surged through his mind and his breath hissed through his teeth. Simon's hand on his arm brought him back and Jim motioned his captain towards the one named Victor.

Out of the darkness Jim loomed and with the butt end of his gun bashed Victor in the temple. The man dropped like lead, the radio landing on the ground. Ron's voice demanded some explanation. With a booted heel, Jim crushed the radio and Ron's voice disappeared instantly.

"I'll be seeing you real soon, buddy boy," Jim muttered and moved forward towards the house.

"Dammit, Victor!" Ron hissed. "What the hell is going on?" Then the radio went dead and Ron stared at the useless thing in his hand, imagining that Ellison had just taken down another one of his men.

This plan was going wrong, was turning on them. They should have already had Ellison and Banks contained, already in chains awaiting the pleasure of their interrogation and sheer delight of torturing them.

Instead, those two were methodically taking out the perimeter guard and working on those closest to the house. How were they doing it? It was as if Ellison or Banks had some kind of unknown advantage. Like they knew that Alverez and Baker had known they were coming and had reversed the odds on them.

He had to inform Baker, had to let Alverez know what a bunch of useless morons he had working for him. He'd check the perimeter guard himself then he'd go back up Baker in that parlor room the man liked so much.

Sometimes Ron thought Baker had delusions of grandeur, but Baker had always paid well and he'd enjoyed the work. After this fiasco of a night, he'd better get to fuck Sandburg again. He deserved a reward for putting up with this shit.

With another curse under his breath, Ron went, imagining Blair helpless beneath him and at his non-existent mercy. That thought soothed his anger and pacified him for the moment.

Simon followed closely behind Jim, his automatic weapon held close to his chest. The night sounds had ceased around them and the darkness held it's breath waiting for something to happen.

He could see the lights in the house windows now, burning bright and he wondered which room Blair was in and whether something terrible was happening to him even as they moved inevitably closer to some sort of confrontation with Sandburg's captors.

Throughout this search for Blair, Simon had tried not to think of what was being done to Sandburg, but now, when he ought to be thinking only of the mission, his thoughts gravitated to Blair's suffering, to the horror Blair would have to live with if they succeeded in rescuing him and of the consequences if they failed.

He thought of the first time Jim had brought Blair into his office claiming he was a cousin's kid and that Thin Blue Line story Sandburg had tried on him. Simon wanted to smile, remembering the long-haired little neohippy he had thought never could be one of them. And Blair had made a few mistakes along the way, but the young man had overcome every mistake, had made each a learning experience as Blair made everything in life, to become the best partner Jim could have ever needed or wanted....

Simon came alert, pulling out of his revery to see Jim motioning to him then out of the darkness came the sound of gunfire. Simon hit the ground and fired back, screams echoing in the night air.

"Cover me, Simon. I'm going for that door." Simon turned over. "What door?"

But Jim was already running and Simon sent a spray of bullets into the trees as a distraction from Jim's action.

"Well, they know we're here, anyway," he murmured to no one and moved to follow in Jim's tracks.

Blair felt the leash pull at the collar around his neck, the length of leather and chain twisted relentlessly in Baker's tight grip. The man's impatience had become tangible and inevitably that impatience would be taken out on Blair.

Baker was on his feet, waiting with a gun in his other hand. Alverez paced back and forth across the tiled floor, looking out the window occasionally. Blair watched the tall, dark-haired man glance nonchalantly at his watch and yawn as if all this bored him.

Blair closed his eyes and imagined Jim coming through the big double-doorway, sighting Baker's heart and firing then aiming at Alverez. His mind conjured scenarios laced with his hopes and dreams of ending this nightmare as the panther had promised. No more after tonight. It had to be so. Blair couldn't face what Baker had in store for both him and Jim.

Blair's eyes went wide as the doors burst open and there stood James Ellison, looking like a wild animal, an unconscious man held by the shirt in each fist. Jim dropped them to the floor and in one catlike movement had his gun, a large black automatic rifle, swung around and aimed just as Blair had imagined, straight at Matthew Baker's black heart.

"Nice of you to join us, Jimmy boy," Baker said and Blair felt the gun barrel lay against his temple, kissing with its cold touch the tender skin there. "We've been waiting for you, me and Fernando and sweet little Blair baby."

Jim's eyes slid down to meet Blair's gaze then flicked up to fix on Baker, eyes darting to keep Alverez just within peripheral view.

"I've come to take Blair back and to kill you, Baker. It's the least of what you deserve," Jim said in a voice cold with contempt and that tone he always got when justice lay in the balance.

"Well, you see Jimmy it's not going to happen that way. I've got this loaded gun ready to blow Blair's head off and I know you don't want me to do that to him."

Blair saw Jim struggle not to react, yet he had seen his lover's resolve yield just a bit, saw Jim's gaze light on him and soften, the pain radiating out of his lover like a flowing river of guilt. With a growing fear, Blair saw Jim's weakness and that weakness had his name.

No Jim, don't give in. He'll destroy both of us. "Drop the gun, Ellison or I'll put a bullet into his brain." He heard Baker cock the gun, felt the angle change against his temple. With horror, Blair watched Jim lower the rifle, lay it down. He heard Alverez chuckle with amusement and move towards Jim with a pair of handcuffs in hand.

No! He couldn't let this happen. He couldn't face this all over again just when he had been promised it was over.

"Kick it away," Baker said and Jim obeyed, but with eyes more like the panther's than a human being's. "Now the other gun, the one in your back holster." Jim obeyed that too and kicked it far out of reach.

"No!" Blair screamed.

With a surge of strength and defiance born of complete desperation, Blair jerked away, pulling Baker off balance. He struck out at Baker's hand and the gun went flying, sliding across the slick floor away from all of them.

"You little bastard," Baker snarled at him. A backhanded fist caught Blair in his already bruised cheek and his head went sideways with a cry of pain. A jerk on the leash sent him sprawling to the floor.

Another snarl, one of outrage echoed in the high-ceilinged room and in that moment the snarl became an enraged roar. Blair turned over just in time to see Jim launch himself across the room, hands going around Baker's throat. The two men struggled, each sneering their hatred and the separate obsessions that had taken a hold of each of them.

Blair lay there a moment trying to gather his wits. The room seemed to whirl around him and he clung to the floor until the feeling subsided. Alverez moved to retrieve Jim's weapons and Blair knew he had to keep that from happening. He scrambled to his knees and practically slid across the floor, trembling fingers going around Baker's gun. He whirled around on his knees and aimed the weapon at Alverez and in that moment felt his adrenalin slipping away from him, the drug seeping in to confiscate his thoughts.

"No! Don't...touch...the gun!" he yelled, voice shaking. Blair's breath came in ragged gasps and he shook with the effort all this was costing him. Alverez gave Blair a startled glance then an indulgent smile pulled at those thin lips and the dark eyes twinkled with amusement. As if forgotten, Alverez relinquished the weapons retrieval and slowly walked towards Blair.

They both ignored the fight that was taking place not far from them, James Ellison and Matthew Baker going at it like two wild animals fighting for dominance and this time it would be to the death.

"Ah my little one, my sweet Blair, put down the gun," Alverez crooned to him. "You can not win. The drug is working on you even now. I can see how it tugs on you to obey. Give me the gun, bambino and I will not be too cruel with your punishment."

Blair shook all over, his hands trembling and his mind screaming at him to just lay down the gun, just lay down on the floor and let whatever happen, happen.

Oh god, no. That's just what Alverez expected, the kind of power the man assumed he had over him. How dare Alverez believe that he was so witless, so completely subdued.

"Your detective can not win, little one. I have the grounds surrounded. You can not escape and neither can he. Why make it worse on yourself and him. He will suffer terribly if you do not obey me now. Give me the gun, Blair."

Alverez moved towards him, hand outstretched and the gun weighed heavy in Blair's hands. He had to end this now or he and Jim would never be together again, so close and yet Baker and Alverez would torture them with this nearness, torture each of them with the other's pain, endlessly. His world had narrowed to this one moment in time and now he had to end it.

With a calm from deep inside, Blair steadied his hands and slowly raised his gaze to meet Alverez's. The man was only a few feet away, reaching for him, smiling that confident smile that Blair would do as he was told.

"Give me the gun, Blair. Obey me now. You must obey." Memories of what this man had done to him washed through his mind like a flash flood, the torture and that hideous drug, the humiliation he had suffered by this man's hands and consent.

With a half smile pulling up one corner of his mouth, Blair mouthed the word 'no' and squeezed the trigger.

Alverez staggered back with a shocked expression and Blair pulled the trigger again. Alverez fell backwards, but Blair didn't have time to relish the moment. He heard a yell and a body slammed into him, knocking him to the floor. His fingers clutched the gun and held on. Ron was nearly on him again. Blair scrambled away and aimed, firing again and then again.

Everything had gone quiet in the room, Blair's own heavy breathing all he could hear through the roaring in his ears. Blood splattered the floor and Ron lay dead right before him.

A sick feeling chewed at Blair's insides, the desire to retch almost overwhelming, but it wasn't yet finished and he pushed the need away till all was over and done.

Jim roared his outrage and made a dive for Baker. His hands went around the man's throat and he snarled his hatred, his obsession that this man die now. Matt Baker had other ideas.

"You can't...win, Ellison. This place is...crawling with our men."

Jim squeezed harder while Baker tried to break the stranglehold. "I've done pretty good so far, Baker, you fucking bastard. So just do me a favor and die, goddamn you."

Jim felt his face contort with his rage. He felt his lips draw back to bare his teeth and he felt the power of the panther flow into him, through his veins, rushing like a river to merge with his blood.

Baker's own face was a mask of contemptuous enmity and the man's big hands turned to fists, pummeling Jim in the sides and the head, trying to make Jim loosen his hold. But Jim wouldn't relent, couldn't relent...not now when he had Baker in his grip.

The blood pounded in his ears. His vision darkened to a red frenzied haze. Then the sound of gunshots sent a wave of terror through his body like a jolt of electricty then two more made him nearly lose his grip. Images of Blair dead shot through his mind and he roared again like the panther pouncing in for the kill and all else retreated from his single-minded focus. Jim's world narrowed to that one moment, to that one task of destroying the evil that was Matthew Baker and avenging his beloved's death.

Jim knelt beside Baker's body, the red haze of revenge and hatred slowly seeping away. Feeling crept back into him, muscles beginning to scream, sides throbbing from Baker's pounding. His fingers tingled with a numbness from squeezing Baker's throat. Blood slipped from a cut on his mouth and he tasted the metallic flavor on his tongue. His breath heaved in his chest as he gazed at his handiwork.

Baker's cold dead eyes stared at nothing, the head at an odd angle. Jim realized then that he had snapped Baker's neck and he didn't really remember doing it. That red glaze like a bloody mary, darkened the inner vision of his memory. He remembered struggling with the man, remembered hearing the thunder of gunfire and in his mind's eye he had imagined that Blair had been shot, that Alverez had killed the reason he had come...to rescue Blair and that he had failed. He remembered his own roar of rage and despair and how his hands had clenched Baker's neck. Then the haze rolled over him and the deed had been done.

Now Jim worked at calming down, trying to find the courage to look up, to prepare himself to see Blair dead or be shot by Alverez himself. His gaze rose with reluctance and instead of Blair dead he saw his lover crawling towards him, beautiful face bruised and eyes locked on the prone figure of Baker. Blair still grasped a gun in one clenched fist, knuckles almost white from the grip.

Jim watched with a strange fascination, his gaze and hearing flicking out to note Alverez and that Ron creep were quite dead and Jim knew Blair had pulled the trigger on both men.

Blair stopped across from him, Baker's body still between them. Jim watched Blair raise the gun, aiming it at Baker's heart. At that moment, Jim knew Blair didn't know if Baker was alive or dead.

Carefully, Jim moved around Baker's feet, crawling around till he was behind Blair. Slowly, he wrapped his arms around Blair's trembling shoulders, hands running down his partner's arms so that his large hands covered Blair's.

How small Blair seemed just then, so slender and pale except for the lines of bruises and welts across the young man's bare shoulders and back, the thighs and arms. Jim wanted to cry for his lover's lost innocence and for what Blair had been forced to do...kill these people so that they could go on and now Blair needed to kill Matthew Baker far more than Jim had needed to. But the deed was done and now they would together kill Baker again as a cathartic measure for Blair's sanity.

Jim felt Blair's finger squeezing the trigger and he held on, holding Blair up when the young man nearly collapsed. The gunshot screamed in Jim's ears then another emptied the gun. Blair's body stiffened then softened in Jim's grip, relaxing against him and the gun slipped from their fingers onto the floor.

With a gentle grip, Jim turned Blair in his arms, moving to sit rather than kneel. Blair's arms went around him almost instinctively. He pulled Blair to him, holding on so that nothing could separate them again.

Blair pulled back just a little, eyes gazing up at Jim adoringly and Jim could see the dilation, the drugged edge of Blair's attention pulling at the muscles around those beautiful eyes.

How had Blair accomplished all that he had in such a drugged state? Then Jim remembered that Blair was a shaman now and that the spirits gave strength when strength was needed most.

"I knew...you'd come," Blair said just above a whisper, voice on the verge of such emotion Jim wonder how his partner contained it. "I knew you were coming."

"There was never any doubt, my beloved. Oh god, Blair. Oh god, I'm so sorry, baby."

He pulled Blair close again, running his fingers up through that mass of dark hair, feeling the texture and drinking in the aroma of Blair's scent. But other scents caught his attention, that of sex and blood and fear. His hand ran down Blair's bare back, feeling every welt his fingers traced, felt Blair flinch ever so slightly in pain.

"Take me away...from this place, Jim. Please. Take me...." Blair fell heavily against him, slipping into an exhausted swoon. Jim wondered if it wasn't simple shock. He glanced up to find Simon standing in the doorway staring at the dead men lying about the room, wide eyes finally lighting on him and Blair.

"Is he...?"

"He's fainted," Jim said standing up and lifting Blair up in his arms. Let's get out of here, Simon. Before anyone else tries to stop us."

Simon nodded and led the way out.

Alex was getting nervous. Hours had passed and no Banks or Ellison. He had thought this would be difficult at best, waiting and watching, but Alex hadn't expected the gutwrenching fear of being found out or the fear that dawn would come and he'd had to return to Buenos Aires alone to call this guy, Carlos Jones.

The sky had lightened a bit in the east and Alex glanced at his watch.

4:10am. Damn. Come on Ellison...Banks. Come on. He got out and took a leak, his nerves making his bladder edgy. The hood of the jeep made a good seat for a while and Alex watched the stars slowly fade and hope slowly faded away as well.

Just as he was about to give up and get back into the vehicle Alex heard a faint russeling of branches and leaves. He whirled towards the sound and watched Simon Banks emerge like a black ghost out of the dense woods, Ellison was right behind him carrying someone unconscious by the looks of the limp form.

Blair! Yes!

"I was starting to get worried," Alex offered as he helped Ellison get into the back of the jeep and arrange himself and his burden. He caught a quick glimpse of Sandburg, but all he could tell was that the man still wasn't wearing much of anything. Alex quickly rummaged around under the seat and found a blanket. He draped it over Blair and got a nod of appreciation from Ellison.

"It was a rough go, but we succeeded," Simon offered. "Let's not take any chances though and get as far away from here as possible."

"You don't have to tell me twice," Alex agreed and turned the jeep around, heading back to Buenos Aires.

"I've got the door, Jim. Go on in," Simon said. Jim held Blair close to him, the blanket wrapped around the young man's form hiding the fact that Blair wore almost nothing beneath the covering. No one had stopped them in the lobby, the hour still early. Perhaps the front desk clerk had thought they had been out partying all night and one of them had just passed out from too much drink. Or maybe in a hotel like this nobody cared enough to ask.

Whatever works, Jim thought, glad he had wiped off most of the greasepaint and had pulled on another shirt.

Now he moved into the room and gently laid Blair's unconscious form on one of the beds and began a cursory examination.

"Goddamnit!" Jim snarled. He unsnapped the leash from Blair's collar and flung the disgusting thing across the room. "They were treating him like a goddamned animal...like a pet." Examining the collar, Jim gave a low growl and Chadwin backed up against the door, looking warily at Simon. "It's soldered on. If I hadn't already killed the son-of-a-bitch, I'd hunt him down and kill him right now."

"Jim, calm down. It's over."

Jim's head snapped up and he stared at Simon. "Do you think this is going to be over for Blair just because we've gotten him out of there? Was it over the last time?"

"Jim...come on. We have to take this one thing at a time." "I know," Jim said and ran his hands over his face. "I'm sorry, Simon. I'm...I'm just having some trouble here. I'm still hyped up and ready to kill."

"Relax, buddy." Simon's hand came to rest on his shoulder and gave a little squeeze. "Sandburg still needs you sane and in control. He's going to need that."

Jim nodded and turned to continue his examination of Blair's condition.

He heard Chadwin clear his throat and knew he should thank the man for his help, should be grateful, but he couldn't divide his attention just now, between niceties and Blair.

"I'll go try to find Blair some clothing," Alex offered. "Anyone need anything else?"

Jim just shook his head, his gaze sweeping over Blair's bruised face. His fingers moved to caress the dark mass of hair, trail lingeringly over his lover's cheek and chin. He didn't know whether to cry or scream when he saw the nipple rings and the chain hanging between them. With a gentle touch he removed the rings and pitched them across the room as well.

What Blair had chosen as ornamentation, Baker had corrupted with perverted desire...had forced submission and destroyed the notion of choice completely. Jim's gaze moved down Blair's body, seeing the bruises and welts left behind by Baker's domination over his partner. And Jim knew this was the only way Baker could make Blair obey, through drugs and torture, through pain and despair.

"I'm so sorry, sweetheart," Jim whispered and bent to gently kiss Blair's lips.

Jim heard Simon talking and turned to see his captain with telephone to ear and Chadwin gone.

"Yeah, Jones, sorry for getting you up so early, but could you get a doctor over here quietly? Yes, we got him, but he may need medical attention. And would you know someone who can cut through metal? Well, do what you can. We're grateful. Thanks."

Simon glanced up. "I thought we'd better...." "Yeah, good idea."

"Does he look seriously hurt?" Simon moved to stand beside Jim, looking down on Blair.

"I haven't found anything that wouldn't heal if it got a chance, but Baker did a number on him, Simon. Beat him nearly from head to foot and all he was wearing was this loincloth I'd bet. Jim's fingers ran over Blair's skin, searching for serious injury. He felt every welt, the angry raised skin and the heat each exuded. With deliberate care, Jim pulled back the blanket, exposing Blair's hips and thighs, the injuries continuing down the length of both legs and across the hips and groin.

A shadow of something caught Jim's eye and he turned Blair a little to one side, exposing the left hip and buttocks.

Jim heard Simon's gasp even as a roaring seemed to pound in his own ears. The brand lay ugly and red against the pale of Blair's skin, an M and a B that symbolized just what Baker had made of Blair...property...slave...an animal to be owned and used, to abuse in any way the master wished. And if Matt Baker were still alive, Jim would have one more reason to kill him.

"My god, Blair. Oh dear god."

Jim pulled the blanket around Blair again, unable to continue. He wanted nothing more now than to climb into bed with Blair and curl around his lover, hold Blair until he woke and comfort him with love and soothing words of devotion.

He bent his head with a sigh of exhaustion, the night's work taking a toll on him. He had killed a man with his bare hands, taken a life with his own brute strength and his own inflamed rage and hatred. But Jim couldn't find it in himself to regret the act when he glanced up again to see what Matt Baker had done to the one great love of his life, Blair Sandburg.

"You look exhausted, buddy. Why don't you go get a shower and I'll watch over him."

"Thanks Simon, but I'm going to wait until he wakes up. I know he will soon. He just shut down after everything was over. He'll wake up."

"Jim, we don't know what kind of drugs they've been giving him. We don't know what's been done to him."

"I know, Simon. Don't think I haven't been thinking about that. What if he goes into some kind of withdrawal? What if he has internal injuries we don't know about? He's been beaten pretty bad."

"The doctor should be able to tell us something---" Blair's gasp cut off Simon's reply and Jim bent over his partner. Blair latched onto him, grasping at him.

"Shhh, sweetheart. Calm down, Blair. You're safe."

"Jim...oh...oh...Jim."

"I'm here, baby. I'm with you."

Jim's arms went around Blair, holding on and making gentle cooing sounds of comfort.

A knock on the door drew Simon away from them and Jim listened while Blair clutched at him, holding on as if he'd disappear.

"I'm not going anywhere, love. I promise. But the doctor's here and he needs to take a look at you."

"I'm all right." But Jim could hear the drugs in Blair's voice, heard the strain and the pain hiding just beneath the surface.

"No, Blair, you're not. You've been drugged and you've been beaten recently."

Blair looked up and locked gazes with him. "I've had worse than this, Jim. This is nothing...really." Jim glanced at Blair's bandaged wrists and felt his face freeze with that matter-of-fact statement. Blair had suffered far worse than this multitude of bruises. Yes, he had, hadn't he? God, he could have killed Baker a hundred times over.

"Do it for me, sweetheart. Let the doctor check you over." Blair lay back, acquiescing to his request without any argument.

A man in his late fifties, dark and greying in the mustache took Jim's seat and brought out a stethoscope. Jim moved away just a bit to give the man room.

Carlos stood nearby and Jim reached out to shake his hand. "My friend, you've done us a great service." "I did what I could, Ellison and I'm glad to see you got Blair out of Baker's clutches."

"Yeah, but the damage has been done."

"I can see. Looks like he's taken quite a beating." Carlos glanced over then back at Jim. "He doesn't look like your type, Jim."

"I didn't know what my type was until I met Blair, Jones. He's my life. He's made my life full and rich and everything life should be. And I almost lost him forever."

Carlos nodded. "Yeah, I guess that's the way I felt about my Maria when I met her. Each to their own," Carlos said with a quirk of a smile.

With a motion back at Blair, Jim left Carlos with Simon.

The doctor had just done the basics, temperature and heartbeat and pulse. Blair lay with his eyes closed as the doctor probed along his ribs and stomach.

"How did you get this cut along your abdomen?" the doctor asked in heavily accented English.

The memory of Alverez shivered under Blair's skin, that smooth thick voice echoing still in his head. Blair opened his eyes and met the doctor's gaze then moved up to Jim who had returned to the bedside to watch over him.

"I tried to kill myself."

"Oh Blair."

"Jim, I'm sorry. I thought I...couldn't go on anymore. I thought...I thought...there was no way out. I'm sorry."

"No, I'm the one that's sorry, baby."

Blair shook his head and lay still while the doctor poked and prodded him.

The ordeal was over. Baker was dead...Alverez was dead. They couldn't touch him again, couldn't force him to obey their commands or torture him ever again.

"You were sexually assaulted?"

Blair's eyes popped open and he stared at the physician. "Yes," he whispered and his gaze fell to the blanket wrapped around him.

The man reached to look in his eyes and Blair flinched a little.

"Careful, young man. I will not hurt you. You have been drugged. I see it in your eyes. Do you know what you have been given?"

Blair shook his head.

"Do you know how long you've been taking it or how often?" "Four...or five times a day...maybe, but...I don't know for how long."

"He's been missing for twenty six days. He's probably been drugged for that long," Jim offered.

"Twenty six....?" Blair slowly looked up at Jim who gazed down on him with a mixture of guilt and love. Blair wondered if that was the shortest eternity on record or the longest twenty six days in existence."

"How was it given...directly into the vein?" "No, in my thigh mostly." How had he said that so matter- of-factly? Where were his emotions? Why did he feel so distant, like this was happening to someone else who simply occupied his body? He still hurt. He still felt the dizziness of the drug running through his veins. Maybe it was simple relief.

The doctor continued his exam and Blair knew what was coming, a rectal exam, but he didn't fight it, just let it be done and over with while Simon and Carlos went outside to smoke cigars and Jim held his hand until it was over.

"I would say that physically, Mr. Sandburg you have suffered greatly, but you will live," the doctor said. "I see no signs of internal bleeding. But I'd guess you have a couple of cracked ribs. I would suggest a blood test to determine what you were being drugged with and to test for disease."

"We'll take care of that back in the states, Doc. What about withdrawal, any chance of that?"

"Perhaps some discomfort, but probably nothing more." Jim saw the man to the door and Blair waited for Jim to return, struggling to sit up.

"Blair, lie down, you've been through hell." Blair lowered his gaze and slid back down on the bed, knowing somewhere in the back of his mind he obeyed because he had been programmed to do so, not because of any wish on his part to lie down.

And it was as though Jim suddenly realized what was happening and a panicked look crossed his face.

"Oh baby, I'm sorry. That wasn't an order. You've had enough of that."

Blair closed his eyes and a trembling slid over his body, setting his nerves on edge. He shook violently, teeth chattering. Jim's arms went around him, holding him close and the warmth of that large body surrounded Blair with comfort and love, something he had know little of the last eternal weeks of his life.

Jim slid down to lie beside him, still holding on and he clung like a child, so very fearful this dream would end and he would wake up chained in Alverez's dungeon waiting for the torture to start again or wake tied to the end of Baker's bed after a long night of being beaten and fucked.

The sobs finally shook loose from the place deep inside of him, the place where he had hidden his soul, the only part of himself that Baker and Alverez hadn't been able to take from him, to steal and abuse and use for their perverted desires and experiments. And they hadn't been able to destroy his love for Jim, the strongest part of himself.

But the tears swept over him and he felt Jim crying also in relief and the residue of anger left from the battle and the killing lust. They cried together to cleanse themselves of some of the pain and terror still dwelling in their hearts and guts and minds.

Finally, the tears slipped away as they had come, slowly easing into a trickle after a flood. Jim tilted Blair's face up, the man's big hand so gentle on his cheek, caressing and it was the sweetest touch. Blair leaned in and their lips met in a kiss of devotion and eternal commitment to one another.

"Would you want to get a shower, sweetheart?" Jim asked in a tender voice. "Chadwin is out finding you some clothes."

Blair found a smile and nodded.

"Do you need help?"

"I...I don't know. I'll call if I do."

"Okay."

They untangled themselves from each other and Blair wrapped the blanket around himself and headed for the bathroom.

I can do this, he thought, although he hadn't bathed on his own in twenty-six days. He hadn't been allowed to do much of anything in that time, not care for himself or feed himself or make a decision for himself unless it was to defy Baker and that had always gotten him punished. He sat on the edge of the tub and stared at the fixtures as if they were some unknown alien devices yet to be mastered by the human race.

I can do this. If I can kill two men with a gun in less than thirty seconds, I can turn on the shower.

The memory of blood and Ron's staring dead eyes flashed through his mind and there had been Alverez's body sprawled like a broken puppet. Blair's stomach did a lurch sideways and he got to the toilet just in time to heave what little he had eaten recently.

"Blair, are you okay?"

Jim's voice had that protective quality to it and a tone of controlled panic.

"I'll be okay. Just feeling sick. I'm okay." Blair rubbed his face and felt the tears trying to come again.

"Sweetheart." Jim was right behind him and Blair leaned into the man's big frame. "Let me start the shower for you. Are you sure you can do this?"

Jim's hands came to rest on Blair's bare shoulders, expertly massaging the muscles. Blair felt Jim's fingers touch the metal collar still around his neck then move away and he shivered.

"If I can kill two men, I can manage a shower," Blair said without conviction.

"You were forced to do it, Blair. You had no choice."

"I did it because I wanted to kill them."

"I think you'll see it differently later."

"I don't know. I did have to, didn't I?" Jim turned Blair to face him, hand going out hesitantly as if afraid to crush a fragile flower petal. The hand was warm and gentle on Blair's face and so welcome, not like before when he hadn't wanted to be touched. Now all he wanted was for Jim to never leave him, never stop touching him. Blair needed to stay connected to be certain it wouldn't all disappear in the blink of an eye.

"You had no choice, Chief. It was us or them. They deserved to die. I'm not going to lose sleep over Matt Baker's death. Not after I've seen what he's done to you. Not when I know what he did to you before. And you, of all people, shouldn't feel guilty over killing Alverez or that other creep. It was self defense."

Blair nodded distractedly and let Jim turn the water on for him.

"Call me if you need me, baby. Don't hesitate."

"I will, Jim."

"Chadwin isn't back yet so here's a sweatshirt and a pair of boxers till he gets back with something that will fit."

"Jim...."

"I know they're too big, but I put some safety pins in that will hold until we have some real clothes for you."

Blair offered Jim a ghost of a smile. "You think of everything."

Jim wandered back into the room, leaving Blair to take a shower on his own. He had to fight the urge to stand in the bathroom and wait, but wondered how much privacy, how much dignity Blair had been allowed during his captivity and that was enough to make Jim leave, make him give back what Baker had taken away from Blair.

Simon and Carlos glanced in and Jim waved them inside. "He's taking a shower."

"That's a good sign," Simon said. "Carlos says he can have a plane waiting for us tomorrow morning at the same airstrip. I think we ought to blow this town as soon as possible, don't you, Jim? Before someone comes asking questions we don't have any good answers to?"

Jim nodded and rubbed his face. Exhaustion had quickly settled over him, a heavy sense of relief washing through his veins and nerves. He wanted to sleep for days, but knew that wasn't on the agenda just now.

"What about getting that damned collar off of him, Carlos? Did you find someone?"

Carlos gave a little shrug. "Well, obviously it's going to be a delicate job. I think I've got someone who can help."

"Okay, that's good."

"How about I get us some breakfast. I don't think anyone's in the mood to go out and I doubt they have room service here."

"Not likely. We're lucky to have running water," Simon chuckled.

Carlos grinned. "You said you wanted obscure. You got obscure. I know it's not the Ritz, but at least, it's clean. Be back in a while."

Alex met him at the door and exchanged greetings. "This place is beginning to look like Grand Central Station," Simon muttered. "Traffic's heavier than downtown Cascade at rush hour."

"I had to guess at the sizes, but I think I came close." Alex laid a bag on the bed and pulled out a pair of jeans, a tee shirt and another long sleeve shirt as well as underwear, socks and a pair of running shoes. "I hope these will do the trick."

"This is great, Chadwin. Thank you." Jim knew he should say more and floundered. "Chadwin...Alex. I owe you a big thank you. If it wasn't for your help....I....I...."

"It's okay, Detective Ellison...Jim. I understand. You've been under a tremendous strain."

"That doesn't give me the right to act like an ungrateful pig."

"It's okay. Really. I'm just glad Blair is safe." Jim smiled and gave a nodded. "Okay."

The door to the bathroom opened and Blair came out, hair still wet and Jim's clothing hanging on his slender frame. A shadow of stubble was just beginning to show on the chin and around the mouth.

He's lost so much weight, Jim thought. He looks so fragile, so breakable.

Blair visibly shrank away from the attention he was getting. Jim wondered if Blair had felt as if he was on display just as Baker and Alverez had made him.

"Feeling any better?" Jim asked, trying to break the uncomfortable silence.

Blair nodded and moved towards Jim, seeking comfort and familiarity perhaps.

"Glad to see you up and moving, Sandburg," Simon added. Blair gave Simon a wane smile, but kept his gaze diverted. He slid up close to Jim and Jim put an arm around Blair, holding him close, maybe holding him up for Blair's weight sagged against him.

"You need to sit down or lay down, sweetheart?" Blair nodded again and Jim led Blair to the bed and moved the clothing aside.

Alex fidgeted as if the temperature in the room had become too hot to stand still.

"I brought you some clothes, Blair. I hope they fit okay. I had to guess."

Jim watched Blair look up, knowing that alone was an act of profound will.

"Thank you, Alex. I'm sure they'll be fine. Thank you for everything...for realizing...I wasn't willingly...."

Jim felt Blair begin to shake beneath his hand. He felt the emotional turmoil deep inside of himself locking with Blair's and he sat down beside his partner and pulled him close.

"It's okay, baby. It's over."

Jim felt Blair nodding frantically against his shoulder, face turned in now and arms going around his waist, holding on in return.

"Ummm, maybe it's time for me to get out of here. All of you need to get some rest and so do I." Alex moved towards the door. "If I can help in any way just let me know. I'm not sure what I'm doing now, considering the situation. I may be heading back to LA shortly. I'll call in a month or so and see how everything is going. You guys just take care of each other and I'll keep in contact."

"Thanks, Alex," Jim said. "We'll keep in touch. And if you see that slime Stanfeld. Tell him he got off lucky."

Alex started to say something, then obviously thought better of it. He nodded and was out the door.

"Chadwin," a voice hissed. "Alex."

Alex whirled away from his door, the key almost slipping from his fingers.

"Gordon! What the hell are you doing back here? If Ellison sees you, he'll wring your neck and I'm not talking figuratively."

Gordon Stanfeld slid towards him, disheveled and wild-eyed, eyes darting furtively.

"They killed Alverez, Alex. They killed Baker. My god!" "And why are you so surprised? I got a real close look at what those two did to Blair Sandburg. They beat him and raped him and drugged him nearly into oblivion."

"I should go to the authorities. They should be arrested." Alex's eyes narrowed. "You'll do nothing at all, Gordon. You will leave those men in peace. They have suffered enough. And as far as Alverez and Baker are concerned, they got what they deserved." Alex moved closer, backing Stanfeld up against the wall. "You listen to me, Stanfeld, you whisper one word about this to anyone and I'll ruin you for life. I'll scream so loud about your part in all this, you'll never find work in this field again. And I'll drag you to Ellison and feed you to him personally. Do you understand me?"

Stanfeld stared at him, stared with a new found respect and fear.

"You wouldn't...."

"I would. I will."

The older man looked as though he was trying to swallow a lump in his throat the size of a watermelon.

"Alex...Please. They ruined our chance at fame...our chance to make names for ourselves."

"You only thought of yourself. You were willing to sacrifice an innocent life for your fame. No career, no fame, no discovery is ever worth that, Stanfeld. Ever. Now go lose yourself in Buenos Aires before I tell Ellison and Banks where you are."

The man stared at him, half fearful, half unbelieving. What did Stanfeld expect? Did the man have so little conscience? Had he really completely overlooked Stanfeld's self- serving, egomaniacal tendencies? God, the man didn't even care what had been happening to Blair, the degradation, the complete subjugation.

"Alex...please, listen to me----"

Alex slammed Gordon against the wall, fist wrapped in Stanfeld's shirt, up under the man's chin.

"You disgust me, Stanfeld. I mean it. Get lost or I'll sic Ellison on you."

Stanfeld threw up his hands in surrender, ready to retreat to lick his wounds, Alex imagined.

"I never want to see your face again and if I do, I swear I'll ruin you."

Alex released his hold with a shove sending Gordon a few shuffling steps away. The man looked back once with an expression Alex couldn't quite read, then Stanfeld pulled together his shredded dignity and stalked away.

Blair had almost fallen asleep when Carlos Jones returned with breakfast, another man tagging along behind him carrying a small bag. He pushed up to a sitting position, still wearing Jim's clothes. They made him feel warm and safe, a silly notion he knew, but comforting all the same. The others he would put on before they left the city. Blair ran his fingers through his hair and thought he must look quite the mess, wild-haired and black and blue, gold collar around his neck and wearing clothing twice his size.

Blair heard greetings being exchanged and looked up to find everyone looking at him. He almost shrank away from the attention.

"Hi, I'm Carlos Jones, an old buddy of Jim's. Coffee?" The man reached to shake Blair's hand and Blair tentatively shook it, noting the man's eyes flashing down to the half-healed cuts and bruises around his wrist that were now exposed after his shower. Carlos gave him a warm smile and put a cup of coffee into his hand."

"Blair...Sandburg."

"I brought Juan here to get that collar off of you. I'm guessing you'd probably like to get rid of that thing."

Blair nodded to the other man who smiled at him with an appraising smile. "Yeah."

"How about some breakfast and then Juan can get to work." "Okay."

Jim came out of the bathroom, still drying his hair with a towel.

"Carlos, great. You're back. Who's this guy?" "This is Juan. He's a jeweler's apprentice. He thinks he can get that collar off of Blair."

"Good. The sooner the better," he muttered. "How you doing, Chief?" Jim reached out to touch Blair's shoulder, give it a gentle squeeze.

"Coffee's good." He nibbled on a piece of pastry to make Jim happy, though he had no appetite. Yet he couldn't remember the last time he had eaten or what it had been. For one brief moment, Blair wondered what this day would have been like if Jim hadn't come to save him or if they had failed to escape and Baker had won. More beatings? Another rape or two or three? That hideous drug Alverez had used on him and Baker would have if the man had been given a chance? Blair shook his head involuntarily, trying to shake off those dark thoughts. They had escaped and Baker was dead...dead...dead forever.

"Hey, babe. What is it, sweetheart?"

Blair glanced up at Jim and shook his head again. "Nothing. Nothing I want to think about anymore." He set down his coffee, hands going to the collar in sudden agitation.

"Please get this thing off of me. I can't stand it another minute. Please!"

"Certainly, senor," Juan said, stuffing the last of his pastry into his mouth and taking a swig of coffee. "It's a pretty piece of metal work."

Blair grimaced. "You can have it if you want. Just please get it off of me."

They moved to the small table near the window and Blair laid his head down while Jim held his hair up out of the way. The process took better than an hour with the fine tools of the jeweler, but no other solution seemed feasible without doing damage to Blair.

When the collar came off, Blair felt as if he were finally free from his enslavement. He sat up and Jim rubbed his neck with strong gentle fingers. He leaned back into Jim's tall frame and exhaustion settled over him like a spider's web, tightening it's hold on him until he felt he couldn't keep from falling asleep.

"Why don't I put you to bed, Blair? You look exhausted." Blair turned and gazed up at Jim and knew the look he gave his lover melted the man right on the spot.

"You come with me? You're exhausted too." Jim smiled down at him, hand going to caress Blair's hair, trying to smooth the wild curls.

"Yeah, I am. Let me throw Carlos out and pay Juan for his trouble. Then we're taking a long nap."

"Sounds like a great idea to me," Simon offered with a yawn and stretch. "That was one damn long night."

"All right, I can take a hint," Carlos said. "Pay the man and we're out of here. I'll pick you all up in the morning around five."

Blair watched the men go, glad to almost be alone with Jim. They couldn't very well throw Simon out of the room and Blair really didn't care. He just wanted to sleep for a very long time and not dream of Matthew Baker or Fernando Alverez.

Jim lay awake, propped up on one elbow, unable to sleep just yet. He played the scenario of last night through his mind and wondered what today would have been like if they hadn't succeeded. Then thought he'd best leave such thoughts as that alone.

Blair lay beside him, already asleep and Jim gazed down on his lover, hand going out to caress the dark curls and lightly touch the bruised cheek. He needed the assurance that Blair was real, was here with him and not some vision he had conjured to sooth his aching heart.

Simon murmured in the background, making calls to Cascade and was kind enough to call Naomi also. He didn't think he could face talking to Blair's mother just now. He loved her, but she would ask all the wrong questions and want answers he just couldn't provide right now. He didn't know how Blair was going to be. He didn't know how long it would take for Blair to recover from this newest horror. He didn't know when their lives would be normal again or if they ever would.

No. They had to believe they could overcome this ordeal. He had to believe it. If he didn't, how could Blair ever believe it was possible?

Blair moaned, drawing Jim's attention back to his partner snuggled beside him, back a curve against his chest.

"Shhh, sweetheart," Jim whispered close to Blair's ear. "You're safe, love. I'll take care of you. I love you so much, Chief."

Blair seemed to hear him somewhere in those dark dreams, snuggling closer and quieting. Jim bent down and lay a kiss, ever so gently against his lover's temple and laid down to sleep.

Jim woke with a start. Darkness had fallen and Blair was gone.

"Blair!"

Simon's snoring stopped abruptly and the man sat up bleary eyed, squinting in the darkness.

"What is it, Jim?"

"Where's Blair?"

"Don't panic. The bathroom light's on. He's in there. Use those senses you two are always carrying on about," Simon grumbled and lay back down. "Man can't get any sleep...Christ."

Jim rose from the bed and crossed the room to the bathroom. Without trying, he heard Blair throwing up and sobbing, the mixture of sounds enough to shatter his heart into pieces. He opened the door just a little.

"Blair. You okay, baby?"

"Do I sound...okay?"

"No, not really," Jim replied and slipped through the door, shutting it behind him.

Blair splashed water on his face and flushed the toilet. "It's just dry heaves really."

"You haven't had anything worth talking about to eat. How long has it been except for that little piece of pastry you ate this morning?"

Blair shrugged. The young man's face was pale and dark circles rested under his eyes.

"Come here, sweetheart."

Without hesitation, Blair came to him and Jim wrapped his arms around his partner and held on.

"We're going to get you back to Cascade tomorrow and have you checked out at a hospital. We've got to see what kind of crap they were pumping into you."

"Jim." Blair looked up at him, eyes cloudy blue and still full of pain and sadness. "I don't want to go back to Cascade right away."

"What? We need to go back to Cascade. We'll get you the best medical care, the best counseling--"

"I don't want that right now...please, Jim." Jim felt how hard this was for Blair, to assert himself when he had nearly a month of being punished for doing so, of being programmed to submit, not assert.

"Okay, where do you want to go, Chief?"

Blair glanced away then back up at him, seeming to be trying to find the right way to say whatever it was Blair had to say.

"I want to go to Peru. I need to go. I need to go to the Chopec. They can help me."

"How, Blair? I'm not certain what you think they can do for you?"

"For us, Jim. For both of us. Look inside yourself and you'll see what I am saying is true. I know I'm in lousy shape right now and you might think I'm in some drugged delirium. I wouldn't blame you if you did. But please believe me. What I need and you need is there in that jungle, the solitude, the safety away from civilization. I need the simplicity that the Chopec can offer...to both of us. The spirits are calling me to come, Jim and I want to go. Please go with me. Please take me there when I'm too weak and tired and hurting to go on my own."

How could he resist this earnest plea? How could he deny Blair anything after what the man had been put through? Jim needed some quiet time to search his soul, but wasn't Blair his very soul...his spiritual guide needing some guidance of his own now? Jim had grown to trust his partner and trusted Incacha's instincts that Blair was indeed his spiritual guide now, Shaman to his Sentinel, passed from shaman to shaman in that moment of Incacha's death.

Jim nodded and instantly saw the relief on Blair's face. "I'll take you to the Chopec, beloved. I'll trust your instincts that this is what we should do right now."

Blair smiled up at him and Jim knew he was doing the right thing.

Jim hadn't seen Blair for fourteen days. He had spent the better part of that time in the jungle alone, searching his soul, listening to his animal spirit guide him, help him understand, accept what he'd had to do...to kill a man with his bare hands and now cleanse himself of that taint.

Yes, he'd had reason. Yes, the act had been in the defense of his mate, his guide, his soul. But the consequences of meting out death as personal justice had a high toll even for the taking of the life of a man like Matthew Wayne Baker.

When Jim and Blair had arrived in the Chopec village they had been greeted like family. It was almost as if these people had known what they had suffered and the Chopec had opened their homes and their hearts to Blair and him.

The shaman of the tribe had come to them and had taken Blair in hand, leading him away after only the briefest of kisses. Jim had been loath to let Blair out of his sight, yet here they were safe. Blair was safe and his partner had been right. The jungle called to Jim and he had followed while the shaman and his helpers cared for Blair's physical needs and Jim hope Blair's spiritual needs as well. Blair had killed two men and needed the same cleansing as Jim had found with his animal spirit.

The night came again and Jim sat high on a cliff, looking down upon the canopy of trees. He listened to the jungle noises, each distinct and individual, from the growl of the jaguar to the chirp of the ant. He heard the wind breath through the trees and the russell of leaves a mile away. Jim drowned himself in his senses, opening up to experience the full impact of this dark green world all around him.

When dawn came, Jim rose and took off at a run, blindly following the panther for this was the lesson of the day. Follow the panther's lead. Protect his spiritual guide at all cost for without his guide, his shaman, the sentinel's powers diminish. Without guidance, the sentinel loses perspective, forgets the boundaries, flounders in the darkness of the great void and soon knows nothing, sees nothing, hears nothing and is lost.

Dusk slipped over the jungle, edging out the slanting light. Jim worked his way back towards the village, his mind clear and alert, his body feeling strong, but tired. Yet his soul ached to see Blair, to be near him and know his lover was with him.

He wondered if Blair had found what he needed here among the Chopec, the cleansing and purifying, the simplicity Blair sought to right the wrongs done to him. How was Blair dealing with the taking of two lives? It was one thing for Jim to be forced to kill a man, but Blair wasn't a cop, wasn't a man of violence. Blair sought to appeal to every man's higher natures, looked for the good in people and sought out solutions and compromised when needed. Not that Blair couldn't hold his own when pushed. Blair had proven himself time and time again to be more than adequate backup. The odds, this time, had simply been too overwhelming.

But had these traits that made up a significant part of Blair's very essence been destroyed by Matt Baker and Fernando Alverez, by their brutality and cruelty, their savage perversions and even by their deaths at Blair's and his hands?

Jim took a deep breath, remembering the exercises Blair had taught him to relax. He stood still and reached out with his mind, searching for Blair. A flutter caressed the edges of his mind and Jim felt a smile tug at his mouth. There, with a gentle, loving touch, Blair was with him, reaching out also to meld with him, mind to mind, soul to soul and Jim thought he'd never felt anything so erotic, so completely fulfilling as this embrace of souls.

'I'm coming, Blair. My beloved.'

'I'll be waiting, Jim. My soul.'

Blair stood at the edge of the village, staring off into the jungle. Jim was coming. And he waited for the man, whom he loved more than his own life, to return to him.

These last days had been difficult ones, soul searching and trying to find his center again. The Chopec shaman, Copachuec had been his guide back to himself, helping him through the rough terrain of pain and humiliation, the slowly dissolving taint of the drugs and torturous programming. He had meditated for hours on end. Naomi would be proud of him.

Blair hadn't expected to accomplish so much in such a short time, but with concentrated effort, Copachuec had lead him through an intense, yet gentle regiment of cleansing his body and his essence of Baker's and Alverez's influence on him.

But he had yet to fully accept that he bore no guilt in Alverez's and that Ron guy's deaths. What they had tried to do to him, what they had done to him should have been enough to convince him that he'd been right in killing both men. But saying it was easier than believing it. He still believed that he had wanted to kill them, thus he had. Somewhere deep within him, he knew he'd been given no choice, just as he had been given no choices the entire time he'd been a prisoner. Alverez would have taken the gun away from him and Alverez would have forced Jim away from Baker, maybe even have shot Jim and then they would have had to live a nightmare all over again. That scenario had been unacceptable and Blair had pulled the trigger.

There was still so much yet to deal with, the residue of the first gang rape and a sheen of agony still dwelt deep in wounds that were hard to reach, but he had started and that was the hardest part, the beginning of healing. Now, he needed Jim to continue working towards the completion of finding himself and his equilibrium again.

With a slight smile, Blair glanced down at his attire. He wore the woven-wrap around skirt and sandals of the Chopec and his own tee shirt. The women had taken to braiding strands of his hair with leather thongs and he had let them. The outfit probably looked kind of goofy, but he didn't care. These people didn't judge him. These people had been his salvation when he had wondered if he would go mad.

He listened to the evening sounds of the village, children laughing and playing, women talking and fixing the evening meal. The men gathered around to talk of the days activities while the older boys stood listening and tried to imitate their elders' demeanor. With a good ear for language, Blair was picking up the Chopec dialect rather quickly and almost laughed as he listened to a story one of the men was telling.

The Chopec had given him a name, Incana, but he wasn't quite sure what it meant. He would have to ask Jim...or perhaps he would have to discover the meaning on his own. Perhaps that was another lesson for him to learn and hoped this one would be easier.

With another faint smile, Blair realized he really liked these people, the Chopec, the people who had rescued Jim from the helicopter crash that had killed the rest of Jim's men. They had saved Jim's life, had cared for him and accepted him into the tribe.

Inquiry. Blair liked the name the Chopec had given Jim. And the Chopec had helped awaken Jim's Sentinel powers. If not for the Chopec, Blair and Jim might never have met or fell in love. Destiny...fate. All fell into place.

The only problem was reconciling the horror he had just lived through with these words. Why had he been forced to endure Matthew Baker's sadism and Fernando Alverez's cold calculated experiments? Why would the gods deem it necessary for him to suffer such humiliation and degradation just to teach him some sort of lesson...to fulfill some preconceived destiny?

This lesson he had not yet dealt with and he felt anger rise within him. He pushed the rage back and tried to remember that he had to take the healing one step at a time and he wasn't really ready to deal with the anger yet. He was still dealing with simply being free from the bonds of slavery and gathering the threads of himself back together.

With certainty, Blair looked again to the jungle and knew Jim was coming back to him.

Jim heard Blair's heartbeat even before he saw his lover standing in the twilight at the edge of the village. Cooking fires burned all around, reflecting the fire in his heart as he breathed deep and smelled Blair's scent, heard the soft whispered breath. Then he let his eyesight range out till he saw Blair there, the gentle dusk light bathing the younger man in an ethereal glow that was as much the inner glow of Blair as it was the outer light of the evening.

When he reached the place where Blair stood, Jim found a smile on his lover's lips and the bruises of fourteen days ago faded. Blair's hand came out to take his and Jim pulled his young lover into his arms, holding on with a possessive quality he could not restrain. Blair accepted the embrace and lay his head against Jim's chest.

"Cute outfit," Jim finally said.

He felt Blair's smile widen and arms tighten around his waist.

"I have a habit of going native whenever possible," Blair replied. "And I only had one set of clothes. They were getting kind of...ripe."

Blair pulled back and looked up at Jim with an unreadable expression. Jim lifted a hand to his partner's face, cupping Blair's chin.

"How are you, sweetheart?"

Blair's gaze fell then rose again to meet Jim's. "Better. Not great, but better. I can't expect miracles in two weeks, I suppose."

"Yeah, I know. Neither can I."

"But this was the right thing to do. Both of us know that. I'd still be a basket case if we'd gone back to Cascade."

"The Chopec are wise people. They know things so few people still know."

"That's why I had to come. How are you?" Jim released Blair and swept up his lover's hand and began to walk slowly towards their shelter in the village.

"I learned many lessons in the jungle. Did a lot of soul searching. The panther and I had many long talks about guilt and responsibility and forgiveness."

"Yes," Blair whispered. "Guilt and forgiveness." Blair stopped in the doorway and reached for Jim's other hand. With effort, Blair caught his gaze, held it and did not look away.

"We've each had time to face ourselves, Jim and accept the guilt we each carry with us whether we have a right to it or not. You, the guilt you carry still because of what Baker did to me the first time and now what he and Alverez did to me again. And whether you realize it or not, you have guilt over killing Baker."

Blair hesitated, glanced away then back and Jim waited for Blair to gather the words that needed to be spoken. He had all the time in the world to be patient with his beloved. Blair needed Jim to listen and to understand.

"I have to face the deaths of two men by my hands," Blair continued rather breathlessly. "Whether they deserved to die or not and whether I had the right to take their lives or not. Not everything will be resolved before we leave this place, but we have begun the process, Jim and that's what I needed and what you needed."

Blair reached up, his fingers caressing Jim's rough, unshaven cheeks. Jim shivered at the delicate touch, at the warmth of Blair's hands.

"And now we need to face each other, Jim," Blair continued in a low voice. "We need to cleanse each other and accept each other again as partners, as lifemates, as lovers. There is a ritual for this and I hope you will perform that ritual with me. It's something Copechuec taught me, knowing we needed to do this for each other and for ourselves. Will you, Jim? Will you for me and for you?"

Jim reached up, gathering Blair's hands again into his. He stared into those beautiful blue eyes, so deep with intelligence and love, so full to brimming over with sadness and still some pain left inside. He pulled Blair close, into a firm embrace.

"I'll do anything for you, my beloved. Anything you ask. Haven't I always?"

The night sky sparkled with speckles of light, the new moon little more than a sliver shining delicately above the clearing. In another part of the world, Blair would have called it a fairie circle, a natural grassy opening among the trees that bent over in a gentle canopy of lace. Here in the jungle some otherworldly creatures owned this piece of land as well, but the Chopec insisted it was the place for renewal of body and spirit and the creatures of this world or any other would allow the use of it for this ritual.

Torches had been set and a pallet made. Foods for the ritual were brought as well. Blair had made the paints himself just as he had been taught, the proper words recited as he mixed the colors of earth and sky and fire and water.

When all was ready the Chopec shaman and the others who had helped them left Jim and Blair alone to renew their commitment to one another.

Blair lead Jim into the lighted circle and knelt down upon the pallet. They faced each other and the fire light danced on their newly cleansed skin, each bathing the other in the pool not far away, rinsing in the water fall that cascaded down.

Blair had felt Jim's gaze upon the healing brand on his left hip, seeing surprise in Jim's eyes that the scar was faint, not nearly so vivid as it should have been. Copechuec had put a salve on the burn, applying the ointment several times a day and the healing had increased ten fold.

Now, Blair felt Jim's gaze rise to meet his, eyes so full of love and longing, Blair felt his heart would burst with the love and joy he felt in Jim's presence. How he loved this man, wanted nothing more than Jim to be happy and content, safe and loved forever. And he, Blair Sandburg, was the man to give Jim these things.

They began with the body paints, Blair taking initiative, following the design he had been shown. The colors formed the patterns, swirling along Jim's cheekbones and around the eyes. Then Blair moved down Jim's arms and chest, varying the colors to form the pattern. And he recited the words that bound them together as one for all time.

"With this paint, we form the pattern of our life before, our life during and our life after...together. Each color symbolizes the bonding of each of us to the earth that gave us birth, the sky that gives us the sun each day, to the waters of life and the fire that drives away the darkness in our souls."

Blair felt the muscles under Jim's skin jump with each touch, the Sentinel's sensitivity turned up to experience the full sensation of the ritual. The man's eyes closed and a sigh escaped like the gentle breath of the wind. With head tipped back, Blair had to resist the urge to lean forward and place a kiss on James Ellison's throat.

Not yet, Blair thought. But I've never met a man with a more beautiful body. Or soul for that matter.

"Destiny has brought us together," Blair continued. "Fate has made us one. Our love has bound us to one another for all time."

Then Jim took the paints from him and holding back Blair's hair with one hand, spread the paint along Blair's cheeks and across the bridge of the nose, up around his eyes and down either side of the neck.

"With these paints," Jim recited haltingly, "we draw the symbols of our life and love, of our spiritual guidance and physical protection of one another."

Another color became a streak across Blair's breastbone and continued down each arm. Jim wove a design down Blair's chest and to the hips and thighs.

Blair's breath caught in his chest, constricted his heart with one brief moment of vivid terror, but then the horrid thoughts of his ordeal seeped from his mind and hissed away, devoured by the torches' light and the magic of the new moon.

Next came the ritual foods, fruits and meats and vegetables each cooked with jungle spices and to perfection. Blair had always thought taste was as sensual as touch when it came to the realm of the senses.

"Here is the food of life that sustains our physical beings as our love sustains our emotional nourishment," they recited together.

Blair accepted each piece of smoked meat and gave in return. He allowed Jim to feed him the fruits and vegetables and fed the same to his lover, each licking the dripping spices from the other's fingers.

Then came touch and Blair reached out to Jim, feeling those muscles quiver again, knowing it was his touch that made Jim respond so deliciously. His eyes gazed down the length of Jim's body to see his partner's erection, full and hard, awaiting his touch. Blair licked his lips and watched Jim do the same. A little smile pulled at Jim's mouth and Blair couldn't help letting a grin take a bit of the solemnity out of the moment.

Blair smoothed the smile from his face and tried to remember the words he needed to say.

"As I belong to you, James Ellison...Inquiry, you belong to me. We hold each other's souls, entwined together for eternity. We nurture each other's desires, satisfy each other's needs. Our bodies cherish the touch of each other and all we do together is in love and mutual devotion."

Soon, Jim refused to hold back any longer and reached out to touch Blair as well, exploring with strong fingers, Blair's chest and shoulders, arms and stomach, hands running down his sides to pull him forward so that he sat on Jim's lap. Blair faced his lover, legs and arms wrapped around, two hard cocks pressing against each other.

"Our love, Blair Sandburg...Incana, is the eternity of the stars and moon and sun above us," Jim said huskily, nothing halting in his words now. "Our love will outlast the universe and no one or nothing will ever come between us. Our destiny is together forever."

Oh gods, it's been so long since I've felt this way, Blair thought...since I've wanted to feel this way.

This was what he had refused to give Fernando Alverez, the satisfaction of his pleasure. The man had not understood that only one man could give Blair what he wanted, what he needed and that was James Ellison.

Jim's hands ran up his back and into his hair, gently pulling his head down so that their lips met. Blair opened his mouth to Jim's and it was as if two souls had truly become one, essences merging in that moment of taste. Blair sighed and the tears came unbidden, but he wouldn't let Jim pull away. He held on and his tears slid down his face and into their mouths, the salt mingling on their tongues.

Jim's hands on him drove him to sublime heights and all thoughts of Baker and Alverez and those others whose names he refused to remember fled from the love Blair and Jim had created together and were renewing this night.

They began to move against each other, Blair pushing against Jim, cocks slick with their precum and their sweat. They explored each other's mouths and hands slid over smooth flesh.

Blair let his head fall back and Jim licked the perspiration from his throat, kissed and nibbled and sucked the tender places along his neck and ears. He leaned even further back and Jim's mouth and tongue danced over his nipples, the sensation a shock of pleasure and delight.

With one hand, Blair reached between them and stroked both their cocks. Jim's moan and low primal growl rewarded him for his effort. With another growl, Jim pulled him up to plunder again his mouth.

Together they moved with a building rhythm. Blair's lips caressed the pulse point of Jim's neck. He slid his tongue along the hot line from chin to the hollow of Jim's throat. His fingers worked Jim's nipples till the buds were hard and protruding, until Jim groaned and increased the rhythm of their movement.

All else disappeared in that peaking moment of orgasm, the sky and the moon, the lighted torches and the magic circle...gone in one long flash of ecstasy and united bliss.

Blair fell heavily against Jim, arms still wrapped tight around his lover. They sat there in the circle for a long time just breathing and touching, sucking up the last of the sensation until the night reasserted itself into it's rightful place and the light of the torches flickered again behind their closed eyelids.

With a heave, Jim rose, still holding Blair around the waist and Blair hung on, head on Jim's shoulder. He kept his legs tightly wound around Jim's waist, unable yet to let go. He felt Jim walking down the path and he heard the waterfall dropping into the pool. Gently, Jim walked them into the water and washed them clean.

Both heard the roar of the panther in the near distance, a promise that they would not be parted ever again. Blair lifted his face up and Jim's mouth possessed him, just as it should be, Sentinel and Shaman together, always.

End RAVAGED II