Date: Fri, 3 Jul 2009 12:36:38 -0700 (PDT)
From: Sticky Fingers <sticky.fingers@ymail.com>
Subject: Obsidian Initiate - Chapter 2

This is an original story and it possesses sexually explicit homo-erotic
content.  Should there be any similarity to other works of fiction or real
life it is completely coincidental.  If it is unlawful for you to view this
then close your browser or navigate away from the story immediately.  If
you are somehow offended by the content after reading this disclaimer, well
DUH!


Chapter 2


	Three weeks ago, the world I thought I knew became a much larger
and terrifying place.  The cloaked figures were my frat brothers.  I
survived hell week, and then the most sexually intense initiation
imaginable.  My being gay used to worry me.  I feared that if they found
out I would either be removed from the fraternity, or at the very least
denied admittance.  Thankfully my fears were unfounded, and sex with my new
brothers was not only encouraged, but required.

	Jaden passed into the ether the evening of my initiation.  His
partner, Calob, was killed during a recent attack, and he chose to leave
this world and be with his lover.  My new brothers were Elementals.
History labeled them Druids, witches, and other creatures of legend.  Their
ability to wield the forces of nature had earned them many names over the
centuries, and now I was one of them.

      We drove to Panama City Beach, FL, for spring break.  What would have
been a great vacation became a learning session instead of the escape I had
originally planned from the grind of classes, homework, and studying.  I
was taught that Elementals are comprised of several different facets;
Earth, Fire, Water, Storm, Spirit and Balance.  By birth, bloodline, and
necessity, I was Balance.  Each had its own abilities, and my brothers were
adept, if not cruel, in their use as they attempted to teach me.

	Derek and his partner Troy were Earth Elementals.  They were
initiated so long ago it boggled my mind.  With my new abilities I
discovered I was able to sense their ages and the age of nearly any
creature, human or otherwise, that I encountered.  I couldn't guess their
exact time on this earth, but could gauge it like someone might decide if
the milk in their refrigerator had entered the chunky stage.  It was their
scent more than anything.  I don't mean to say that they smelled of bad
cheese.  The aroma of rich damp earth and fresh cut grass on a sultry
mid-summer day drifted about them like an expensive cologne.  Somewhere in
my mind that equated them to being close to 1500 years old.

	"If you don't start concentrating I'm going to let you drown."
Derek ran his fingers through his chocolate shoulder length hair.

	He seemed to be doing that a lot lately, and I knew I was the
cause.  I just couldn't keep my thoughts together and it was driving him to
madness.  Elementals, once initiated, don't change in appearance, and it
seemed to me, that they lost whatever patience they may have had as well.

	"You're going to pull out all that beautiful hair, and you know how
I love the feel of it against my skin."  Troy's voice went from a soothing
amber tone to something wretched and primal.

	Even though it was late evening, the ambient light from the city
let me see enough that I knew I was in trouble.  Troy's body seemed to
shift and writhe within the shadows and I heard the subtle pad of feet meet
the earth.  He had transformed into something I was going to regret.

      By this time I was already up to my neck in the pool of quick sand
Derek had conjured.  My arms were buried and I was struggling like a
butterfly trying to escape its cocoon.  As Troy approached, it was his eyes
that sent terror burrowing through my chest and into my heart.  He had
changed to a massive wolf and in one powerful stride now stood only inches
from my face.  Like his natural hair color, the fur covering his body was
jet black and his jagged fangs dripped with saliva.

      "Let me motivate him..."  Troy's wild canine eyes glistened in the
night as he glanced down at me.  "Perhaps I should give you a good scar for
upsetting my lover."  The growled inhuman words were choked out and tainted
with an almost metallic blood- soaked stench.

	"SHIT SHIT SHIT!  Rise goddamnit!"  I screamed the commands in my
mind, but my body didn't respond.

	I couldn't be sure, but what I heard next sounded like a laugh
drowning deep within his throat.  Troy's wolf form turned.  He lifted his
leg and I was doused in a rancid warm shower of piss.

	As my heart threatened to explode within my chest, and my face
burned with embarrassment, my body began to lift out of the dense
swamp-like soup.  Still emerged to the waist, my arms were now free and
able to fend off last of the awful torrent.

	The only thing I could hear was a howl of laughter mixed with the
ocean waves crashing against the beach.  Derek lay on the sand gripping his
stomach laughing hysterically.

	"It's not funny you fucking dick!"  I spat out the words and piss
as I flailed around and struggled to grab anything that might help free me.

	A husky chuckle, that sounded more like someone clearing his
throat, erupted from Troy's wolf-form as he lowered his leg and trotted
proudly back toward Derek.

	A sudden cold chill centered in the middle of my back and made me
shiver.  Something else was here, and it was as ancient as my tormentors.
The foreign odor that choked the air reminded me of fire-scorched stone
that had been eaten and reborn in the bowels of a volcano.  Troy's hair
bristled and a low growl grew somewhere deep within him.  It was cut short
as a massive shape exploded out of the sand from beneath and sent him
flying through the air.

	My mind screamed 'DEMON' before the words could cross my lips.  The
creature was as dark as pitch and the smell of decay swept past me as a
massive hand tore through my arm and I felt razor-like claws scraped
against bone.  White heat surged through me and faded to a dull pressure as
I glanced down at the gaping meat of my arm.  It looked as though someone
had flayed open my flesh like you might gut a fish.  Four finely cut slits
pooled with blood and flowed like a fountain as I cradled the wound in my
hand and stared at the meaty destruction.

	A mammoth form of fiery light crashed into the demon and a
thunderous roar seemed to shake the earth with the impact.  My stomach
surged and I threw up the remnants of my dinner onto the sand.

	"It serves you right.  How could you be so foolish!?"  The angry
words belonged to Etock.

	"The poison is strong."  Whispered words slipped past my ears.

	I could tell I was in bed as my head swam and a blaze of pain
threatened to empty my already depleted stomach once again.  The world
seemed to be a mix of burning consciousness and blissful sleep as I faded
in and out.

	"We can't lose him, too.  There won't be another for a hundred
years."

	My arm screamed in protest as I shifted position and opened my eyes
to glimpse the hotel room around me.  The light from the lamp on the
bedside table seemed to sear its way into my brain as several fearful faces
stared back.  I struggled to focus, but the room faded into darkness.

	"Fuck him."  Again it was Etock's angry words that woke me.

	I felt my legs being lifted and a surge of pain raced through my
arm and earned an involuntary groan.

	"Do it quickly!  We need him ready to leave as soon as possible."
Etock barked out the order and then I felt Ashel shove violently into my
ass.

	It had to have been Ashel.  I tried to focus on the person between
my legs, but the world seemed to tilt and my vision blurred.  The almost
white-blond-headed assailant verified my suspicions.  Of all the others,
Ashel's cock was the thickest though not exactly the longest and it was
always difficult to take its girth.  There was no foreplay, and it felt as
though he were using sandpaper for lube as he rammed my ass.

	My arm seared white-hot anguish and spasms of misery seemed to
travel from my wrist to my neck and back again.  With each intrusion into
my ass, my body shook, sending another violent surge along its course.  My
eyes were starting to focus and I discovered that my arm was wrapped in
bandages.  Blood had stained them a rusty hue.

      My attention was pulled back to the blond driving deeper and deeper
into my already punished asshole.  Each plunge of his massive cock seemed
to ease the devastating sensations from my arm.  I was nearing the
crossroads where the pain of sex becomes pleasure when Ashel arched his
back and slammed into me one final time as if to split me in two, and our
heated grunts and groans filled the room

      He rolled out and off of me in a heaving mass of flesh.  His breath
was strained and there was very little ceremony in his exit from my ass.
Somehow during our violent sexual exchange I had cum and I could feel my
juices cooling where they pooled on my abdomen.

      "That's all I can do.  He should be healed enough for travel in a
couple of hours."  The words were panted out as Ashel used the last of his
strength to pull the covers over us.

      "Derek, Jaden, get out of my sight."  Etock's words were edged in an
unfamiliar accent I had never heard from him before, and his
midnight-colored eyes dared them to protest.

      Etock's shadow seemed to swell behind him and threatened to swallow
the light of the room as he watched them fumble with the door handle and
hurry out into the hallway.  A deep breath of darkness devoured the light
and then seemed to fade like a sigh as the door closed behind them.  The
menace in his gaze shifted to something I hadn't seen in him before.  Had I
not known better I would have sworn it was concern or maybe even
compassion.

      Of all of us, Etock, a Spirit Elemental, was the oldest.  His eyes
lingered on his lover, Ashel, who had already slipped into the oblivious
depths of sleep.  Etock's features were delicate in proportion, and yet
seemed almost carved from a mold older than time.  The set of his mouth,
nose, and eyes reminded me of the ancient tribes often highlighted in the
jungles of South America.  High cheek bones gave his face an angular shape
and seemed to weaken the line of his jaw making his chin seem almost too
small and foreign.

      His honey-brown skin seemed to radiate heat from the sun's touch.
Though he was naturally tanned, his time on the beach had given him a
deeper bronze hue like an old found penny.  Even if he had hidden in a cave
for decades he had what I called a 'jealous tan'.  It was a result of his
heritage, and a color only a few aspired to, from hard-earned dollars and
hours of tanning sessions.  Now the sun had given his flesh an almost
impossible rich hue that could only bring envy.

      Etock was initiated in his late teens.  His body had lost the fat
that rounds the curves of youth and was replaced by muscle a hard life
builds.  He was also the shortest of all of us, but the power he exuded
always gave me the impression of looking up at him, even when we stood side
by side.

      As I studied him, my gaze seemed to crawl along his skin and startle
him.  What might have been the beginnings of a frown were hidden as he
turned and walked to the bed.  Moments later we were cloaked in darkness as
he switched off the bedside lamp.

      I was exhausted and even though my arm felt better it was still a
drain on my already worn out body.  The comfort of Ashel's warmth beside me
threatened to lull me back to sleep until I felt Etock's hot flesh press
against mine as he crawled into bed.  I was nearly asleep when I felt his
fingers trail through my hair and his heated breath against my neck.

      Normally I would have considered the intimate contact sexual.  My
body responded instinctively and I felt my cock begin to swell, but it
wasn't sex he was offering.  It was comfort, and I didn't know whether to
be afraid or glad, but sadness began to swell within my chest and my eyes
began to burn with sorrow.

      "Rest now, Kristof."  Etock whispered the words and I felt the dance
of his breath tickle my ear.

      Something was wrong.  I remembered his words but couldn't seem to
wrap my mind around them.  "There won't be another for a hundred years."
There was anger in Etock's voice when he spoke them, but was there also
sadness?  I didn't really know him well enough to be certain.  It would
have to wait.

      Surrounded by warmth and flesh, the weights of exhaustion pulled at
my eyelids and I drifted off to the familiar horrors of childhood memory.

      It was always the same nightmare, though I usually hoped for some
other distraction to wake me as my head hit my pillow at night.  Almost any
other horror would have been welcomed to start my day.

      I was six years old when it happened.  I was playing in the front
yard with my Tonka trucks and my sister's doll was half crammed into the
driver seat.  Someone had to be driving, after all.  The roar of a familiar
drew my attention as my father's old green rusted Chevy pulled in front of
our house.  My parents had split up and he had come to visit.

      He stepped out of the truck and slammed the door.  He looked angry,
reached in through the window, and began honking the horn.  I turned at the
sound of the screen door shutting and watched as my mother marched past me
toward my father.

      "What the hell are you... "  My mother stopped as my father ran
around the front of the truck.

      There was a gun in his hand.  It looked like one of the toys I had in
my bedroom, but I knew his was real.  My sister jumped up and ran toward
them.

      "Daddy!"  It was a happy yell.

      My father charged toward her and lifted his arm.  The gun was only
inches from my mother's face.  An explosion filled my ears and my mother
fell back as a spray of wet dusted my face.

      My sister's scream was cut short by another explosion as he fired
again and another spray of crimson seemed to race her to the ground as she
flew backward.

      I was frozen in place as I stared at him.  I couldn't move.  If evil
had a mask, he wore it well.  Absolute menace had twisted his expression as
he walked to his truck and sat in the front seat.

      "Fucking BITCHES!"  He yelled over and over again and slammed his
fist into the dashboard with every syllable.

	I awoke to the sounds of my own screams and sat up in bed.  The
nightmare didn't come to me as often as it once had, but it was as real as
the day it happened.  The world around me felt as though it was riding a
violent wave and the sounds of cracking plaster filled my ears.

	As I looked around both Etock and Ashel were nowhere to be found.
The glass in the window that offered a view of the beach had blown out onto
the balcony, and dust rolled down like heavy brown clouds from the floors
above.

	Groans from either side of me made me sigh with relief.  Ashel was
thrown out of bed and was climbing up from between the confines of the
second double bed and the wall as Etock did the same on my right.

	Ashel finally stood and stared at me until the pounding from
outside our hotel door made him turn and answer.  As soon as he turned the
handle the other frat brothers burst into our room.

	"What in the blue fuck was that!?"  Derek blurted out the question,
but I knew they all wanted an answer.

	"Yes, Kristof, what have you done."  This time it was Etock who
spoke, but I was afraid to look in his direction.  His hidden accent of
ages ago threatened to edge his words and I knew he was not at all happy.

	"It was just a nightmare.  I'm sorry."  I could barely speak above
a whisper and felt like a child who had been caught stealing, and feared
the impending punishment to come.

	"Go back to your room and pack.  We must return home as soon as
possible."  Etock gave the command and stepped from around the corner of
the bed.

	"I'll expect an explanation."

	He could expect whatever he wanted.  Everything with Etock seemed a
command.  A request seldom, if ever, passed his lips.  He didn't 'want' an
explanation, he 'expected' one, and it was really starting to get on my
nerves.  Well... I wasn't about to explain anything, let alone divulge my
past.  I knew defiance showed on my face and his expression didn't comfort
me as I stared back at him.  There was intrigue in his eyes and beyond that
a hint of surprise, but as usual, it was muted with anger and disdain.  My
lack of control and ability was a constant disappointment to all of them,
but mostly myself.  Almost a month had passed and still I didn't consider
them my friends.  I wasn't fitting in, and with each failure a growing
distance seemed to separate us.

      The ride home was a quiet one, save for the usual banter between Cain
and Jessup, whom we all called Jess.  They were fire Elementals and lovers.
Cain was older than me of course, by a couple of thousand years, but the
more mature of the two if such a thing were possible.  They were forever
horsing around and acting like the teenage rowdy college guys most everyone
believed them to be.

      Both were red heads, but Cain's hair possessed the coveted auburn
color of an autumn maple leaf that has fallen to the ground and is left to
become part of the Earth.  His features were Asian in appearance save for
his nose.  It seemed to escape from his face like a foreign object and was
on the verge of corrupting the rest of his features.  His hair was shoulder
length and thick enough that it seemed almost unreal.  It flowed around his
face and square jaw like a lazy smoldering flame.  His eyes were kind and
yet suspicious at the same time.  Heavy clandestine eyelids only appeared
when he blinked gave him a combination of expressions that never let you
know exactly what he was thinking.  His small mouth was rounded by thick
full lips that promised a delicacy of delight.

      Of the two, Cain's body was also the most developed.  On the beach I
caught myself staring at the cleft between his massive pecks.  I watched
mesmerized as they seemed to wage war with each other.  His abdomen was
taut and cut without the slightest hint of fat or dusting of hair and
tapered to one of the smallest waists I had ever seen.  His body then
erupted out again into muscular thighs and calves.  It was a swimmer's
build intensified, and his flesh held the color of dried bamboo.

      In a sense he and Jess were a contrast of each other, but still
seemed to fit so naturally together.  Jess had what I called the bad hair.
An orange the color of a newborn flame and he kept it as wild as his
personality.  Cut short, it topped his head and stood nearly straight up in
a chaos that reminded me of mine when I woke in the morning.

      Though fair, his skin still held the honey-brown color of harvested
wheat, and like his lover, he was almost completely hairless.  His features
were Asian, but appeared more Mongolian by descent.  His eyes were shaped
like half-moons and while his cheeks bones were prominent, they were set
lower in his face giving it a rounder, more child-like appearance.  Like
Cain, his mouth was small, but surrounded by pouting lips that invited
entrance or a passionate kiss.

      Jess' body was slender with flesh that seemed stretched over muscle,
again without a hint of fat.  He appeared on the verge of being
malnourished save for the powerful flex of strength that proved otherwise.
He was far from bulky, almost wraith- like, but beautiful all the same.  It
seemed they all were in their own way.

      Between my brief naps and staring blindly out the window watching the
endless Morse Code of painted dashes blaze past on the asphalt, the trip
home finally ended.  We unloaded the vehicles and were barely inside the
door when Etock spoke.

      "Come to the library after you have put your things in your room,
Kristof."  As usual it was a command and not a request and it instantly
pissed me off.

      After climbing the stairs and entering my room I threw my duffle bag
into the corner and slammed the door behind me.  The sound of it startled
me and suddenly I was aware of just how quiet the house had become.  We had
traveled all day and well into the evening, and usually there was the
murmur of a radio or television that crept through the walls.  Tonight
there was nothing but the tick of my wind-up alarm clock on the bedside
dresser.

      The frat house was spacious in design.  It reminded me of an old
plantation that a person might pay to tour in the historic district of my
hometown.  Four columns decorated the exterior front stretching from the
ground to the roof.  I was reminded of just how big the place was as I
stood and turned the doorknob.  The sound of the latch echoed into the dark
corridor like the acoustics you find in an amphitheatre.  The subtle click
and creak of the hinges seemed to play off every hidden surface as I
stepped outside my door and closed it behind me.

      I had the urge to tiptoe down the hallway, but knew the aged wooden
floorboards would betray my movement.  Instead, I bolstered myself enough
to walk as though I had not a care in the world and practically stomped
down the winding staircase to the foyer.  Everyone would know where I was,
where I was going, and that I meant to get there without the slightest
fear... but I was afraid.

      The truth seemed easiest.  I'd tell him I had a nightmare, and that
it was about the attack.  Well it was partially the truth, and true enough
that I felt I could get away with a minor sin of omission.  I had some
questions of my own I 'expected' to be answered as well, and that helped to
fuel my steps as I approached and opened the heavy door to the library.

	"Please have a seat."  Etock sipped on some brown liquor I
suspected to be bourbon and motioned to a leather Victorian chair across
from him.

      A fire was lit making the room a bit too warm for my comfort and I
felt betrayed by my body as sweat begin to seep from my pores.  The last
thing I wanted was to appear guilty or nervous.  I only hoped that since
that was the only source of light, that my body's betrayal might go
unnoticed in the dance of amber light.

      "I'll stand, thank you."  I walked toward him and leaned against the
chair he had 'instructed' me to use.

      My nerves were starting to get the best of me as I struggled to
remain completely still.  The fire began to surge and hiss bursting out of
the fireplace like stuttered exhales.

      "Calm yourself, Kristoff.  We can't have a repeat of this morning,
and it would be a shame to burn down such a historic building.  It's been
our home for a very, very long time.  Please... have a seat."  Etock smiled
and gestured again to the chair across from him.

      Were my eyes not attached, his use of the word 'please' probably
would have sent them bursting from my skull and flying.

      "I'm sorry we did not prepare you better for what happened at the
beach.  It is my fault we were caught by surprise, and I take full
responsibility."  His apology was heartfelt, and the weight of his words
pulled me into the chair.  It was the most emotion I had ever sensed or
seen from the man.

	"What happened this morning?"  Etock sat his drink on the coffee
table beside him, careful to rest the fluted snifter on a coaster to avoid
damaging the delicate finish of the antique.

      "It was a nightmare."  So far I hadn't lied and the words were easy
enough to speak.

      "What about?"  Etock leaned forward as if being closer might make it
easier to hear whatever I had to say.

      "What do you think?!"  I felt as though the truth were about to
escape me.  Like some force was pushing me to speak my secret.

      Instead, a question entered my mind like a trapped animal desperate
to escape.  "You said there won't be another for a hundred years.  Another
what?"

      The expression of shock on Etock's face was immediate and he diverted
his eyes to focus somewhere deep within the fireplace.  He was holding
something back.

      "Another what?"  My voice sounded cold, even to me, as though the
sound of it were that of a viper waiting to strike, but I wasn't sure why.

       I was angry and in my chest was the familiar sense of emptiness from
the night before when he crawled into the bed beside me.  It was a strange
mix of sorrow and something else I couldn't place.

      "Another Balance Elemental."  His voice was almost strangled as if
bound by anguish as he looked back at me.

      Tears began to well in his eyes but he blinked them away and took a
deep breath to settle himself.  "The other was killed two days after his
initiation."

      "I don't understand."  I wasn't getting it.  There was something more
to what he was not telling me, or I was just simply too ignorant to grasp
the situation.

      "He was to be your lover."  Etock's voice was without emotion as
though he were dictating a simple fact.

      "Are you saying I can't love someone because he died?  That he's the
only other person in the world I could love?  What if he was a dick!?"
Anger was taking hold and half of me wanted to jump across the small area
that separated us and beat the shit out of him.

      "No.  You can still love, take a lover, and be loved.  The next
Balance Elemental, however, will not be of age for another century."  Etock
picked at the small brass buttons that framed the arm of the chair.  It
seemed he was looking for any distraction to avoid what was to come.

      "Then what the hell is the problem?  What are you hiding from me?"  I
felt a rage taking hold as I gripped the arms of my chair and fought the
urge to stand.

      "You will never age."  He spoke as though that was the answer to
everything.

      That was the crux of it though.  Finally, what he was telling me
settled into my mind.  If I loved, or took a lover, I would also be forced
to watch them deteriorate, grow old, and die.

      "How did the other Balance die?"  It was a cruel question, but I
wanted to know.  More so, I wanted someone to blame.

      "Enough!  What is done, cannot be undone."  Etock had met the end of
his patience and I wasn't going to get my answer.

      "Damn you."  I wanted to hurt him.

      "You must gain control.  We cannot allow this to happen again."
Etock changed the topic as though the subject of my life was now closed and
that enraged me all the more.

      The conversation was over.  I stood and walked to the door leaving
him in the shadows.

      "Fuck you, Etock.  I'll take care of that myself."  Those were the
final words of our chat that night.  I would finally end the nightmares,
though not the ones I led him to believe I was having.

      My father was paroled a year ago and I knew where he was.  He lived
in the same town I had grown up in, and now stayed in a cramped apartment
above Ken's Hardware Store on Main Street.  I would end my nightmares once
and for all.  Tomorrow, I would kill my father.

      ***

Many thanks to my wonderful editor, Chris.  Many thanks also to those who
were kind enough to drop me a note and express their interest in the story.
I hope you like where this is going and also hope that future chapters
don't disappoint.  It is the feedback that motivates me and keeps me on
track, so here's hoping you'll all take a moment to write a quick note and
let me know what you think.  Any and all suggestions or criticisms are
always welcome.

Hope to hear from you soon.

sticky.fingers@ymail.com