The spring night was astonishingly warm for so early in the season, but Chris would have preferred the bitter cold. He was staked out on the ground, his wrists tied tight above his head and held there by an iron spike. His legs were spread eagle and staked down as well. He was face down, so it was difficult to see his kidnappers. And he was alone. Vin’s head had been caved in back in that tiny, no-name town they’d stopped in.

He should’ve listened to Vin, when his friend had said he could smell trouble on the wind. But no, Chris had decided they really should bunk down in real beds, given the opportunity to do so. It had been another four days back to Four Corners, after all, and he’d been sick of trail cooking.

Next time you say keep moving partner, we keep moving, Chris thought. And then he thought, Who’re you kidding, Larabee? Ain’t going to be a next time.

His despairing thoughts were interrupted by a chorus of harsh laughter, returning his attention to the present. On of the men, the leader, was Fitz Reynolds. Chris had never been sure if Fitz was his first name, or part of his last, not that it mattered. Chris had tossed his murdering, raping ass into prison long before The Seven had gotten together. It had been during one of his rare, sober periods after the fire. He’d had a death wish, no doubt about it, but to everyone’s surprise, he’d lived and put Fitz in jail.

“I think it’s time for some fun, don’t you, boys?” Fitz announced, standing. “I been waiting on this a long time, Larabee. You’re going to be a broken man afore we get done with you.”

And Chris believed him. He’d seen the aftermath of a couple of Fitz’s victims and barely been able to keep his stomach. Maybe he could provoke a quick death. Fitz had been drinking, after all. But what if he hadn’t? Chris hadn’t been able to keep his eyes on the other man, not in this position. What if all he did was piss Fitz off even more?

Not that that seemed possible.

The hands at his pants startled him and he struggled, but being staked out gave no leverage. The fabric was cut off him and the knife nicked him in a couple of places before the pants were removed. He heard every insult and jeer, and every wet sound as Fitz stroked himself to hardness, as if his hearing had been magnified.

“The great Chris Larabee,” Fitz sneered. “You know what? When my boys and I are done with you, we’re going to leave you in that town of yours. You’re gonna be remembered as a helpless, worthless victim, not some hero!”

God, no! Chris thought. Not because of his reputation, he could care less about that. But he knew the pain his friends would go through, especially JD and Buck, when they blamed themselves for something they couldn’t have stopped. And Vin…the guilt would crush him.

Hands on his ass interrupted his thoughts and he drew in a shaky breath to prepare for the coming rape. This was going to hurt bad, and there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about it.

There was a rush of air over him, and a howl of such fury that the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. Craning his neck, Chris tried to see what was going on, but only caught flashes of movement in the dark. He heard the cries of fear and multiple death rattles, though. When silence fell, except for a harsh breathing, Chris demanded, “Who’s there!?”

There was no answer except the panting and footsteps coming closer. Chris struggled violently, positive that he didn’t want to be tied and helpless against a man who’d just killed six others. The booted feet that came into view made him sag in relief and exclaim, “Vin!”

Gentle hands touched his head and roamed over his body.

Uncomfortable with the continued silence and strange, caressing quality of Vin’s hands, he asked, “Vin? You okay?”

His feet were cut loose and Vin helped him turn over. Getting his first good look at Vin caused words to dry up completely. Vin wore only boots and those leather buckskins, his bare chest marked with black patterns and blood. There was a single, black feather braided into his hair and his face held ash lines similar to his chest. The look in his eyes was…feral.

Vin’s hands rested on Chris’ chest and he said clearly, “Mine.”

“Vin, come on now, snap out of it,” Chris urged. It looked like the sight of him about to be raped had sent Vin berserk.

Vin straddled him unexpectedly and bent down to inhale deeply behind Chris’ ear. The hands continued their gentling touches and, in spite of the bizarre situation, Chris started to relax. This was Vin, after all, and no matter what state he was in, he would never hurt Chris.

“Good,” Vin murmured in his ear, as if hearing his thoughts. He nuzzled there for a long moment, then slowly moved down, inhaling deeply as he went.

It took a few minutes for Chris to realize that Vin was scenting him, and a flare of lust ran through him at the thought. Controlling himself, even though he couldn’t stop himself from hardening, Chris said softly, “Vin. I need you to stop and untie me, okay? You’re not in your right head right now, and I don’t want you regrettin’ anything later.”

Vin ignored him, unbuttoning his shirt and sucking on a nipple, causing Chris to moan. His head swam from the constant touches and the warm, wet mouth on his skin. First one, and then the other, nipple was tormented with loving care. Chris’ hands clenched the ropes around his wrists as he struggled to get free again. He wanted both to stop this, and to touch Vin in return.

Either way, I really need my God damned hands, Chris thought as he arched into a gentle bite on his chest.

“Mine,” Vin repeated as he hovered over Chris, his hands digging into Chris’ torso, just shy of being painful. He nuzzled Chris’ chin before kissing him.

Chris held still in surprise, then opened his mouth on a groan, allowing Vin’s tongue all the access it wanted. He should’ve known that things were heading this way. All the time they spent together, all the casual, but not casual, touches he never allowed anyone else, not even Buck. Vin had taken it to mean that Chris was agreeable to being lovers. And now, it seemed, he was.

The messy, deep kiss finally ended and Chris gasped for breath. His hips rolled, rubbing his cock against Vin’s ass from behind, aching for release. There was a brief whirlwind as Vin stood, shucked his pants, and then resettled on Chris in the span of only a minute. He stretched out on top of Chris, rubbing his entire body over Chris’ and the resulting pleasure drove Chris close to the edge, even without a lot of friction on his cock. Sitting upright again, Vin moved so that he rested directly over Chris’ shaft and took it in one hand, lining it up to his hole.

Alarmed that Vin was going to do something he’d really regret later, Chris exclaimed, “No! Vin! Don’t, stop it!”

He was again ignored and Vin slowly sat on his cock, biting his lower lip as he was impaled. Everything in Chris was telling him to get deeper into that incredibly tight heat, but he forced himself to stay absolutely still, letting Vin go at his own pace. The other man’s face was a mix of pain and hunger in equal parts, telling Chris that if Vin had done this before, it was a long time ago.

It seemed an eternity before Vin was fully seated on him, and Chris was shaking with the strain of not moving long before then. He gasped, “Vin, God, are you okay partner?”

Something like tenderness filled Vin’s face at the question, but instead of answering in words, he started rocking back and forth. His hands soothed over Chris’ chest, rubbing his hard nipples and feeling out the solid muscles. The firelight cast his lean body in sharp relief, accentuating the primal designs of ash and blood on Vin’s chest, and giving the blue eyes a gleam that seemed almost unnatural.

All of it together was more than enough to set Chris’ blood even more on fire and he shuddered, unable to stop his hips from pushing up. Vin moaned and rose up a little, starting the real dance in the familiar up and down movements. Chris tried to stay still, letting Vin go as fast or slow as he needed, but it was just about the hardest thing he’d ever done. Vin started riding him, leaning back to rest a hand on Chris’ thigh for leverage.

“God, Vin, I want to touch you, partner, so bad, you’re so perfect like that, so perfect,” Chris groaned, his eyes never leaving the man who gave him such pleasure.

The words sparked a shudder through Vin’s entire body and the clenching of his ass around Chris’ cock nearly ended things right there. Vin moved faster and with more force and Chris had to bite his lip, the sharp pain a counterpoint to keep him grounded. Whatever pleasure Vin could find in this act, Chris wanted him to have. He wasn’t going to come until his lover did, that was for damned sure.

Sensing that the words were important somehow, Chris kept talking. “Always been there for me, Vin, always since that first day. I saw you there, oh God, saw you and knew my, my life was going to be different. That’s it, partner, oh God, that’s it. Ride me, ride me harder! You’re so perfect, Vin, feel so good to me. Oh shit, yeah, more partner, harder, need you so bad, need all of you!”

Vin’s mouth was open, but no sound escaped as he came, spurting his seed over Chris’ chest. The vise-like clenching around his cock and the fire-lit vision of beauty sent Chris over the edge with a shout. His eyes rolled back as Vin rode him until there was no more seed left to spill, his entire body wracked with pleasure and satiation. Shuddering, he gasped for air as Vin collapsed on top of him, a limp weight that he was more than happy to bear.

He must have dozed off, because next he knew, Vin was pulling off of him with a hiss of discomfort. Rousing a bit, he offered a lazy smile at his friend, but it faded fast on the shuttered look he encountered. Chris sighed as he was finally cut loose and Vin rubbed the feeling back into his hands and arms. He’d known that Vin would regret this, but he was still hoping that their friendship wouldn’t be changed too dramatically because of it.

“You okay?” he asked, at last.

Vin shot him a surprised look and answered, “Me? I’m not the one who was, was raped.”

Blinking at him in astonishment, Chris repeated, “Raped? By who? You got here before anything happened.”

“And then just did the deed myself,” Vin said quietly, voice filled with self-hatred as he continued to gently rub Chris’ arm.

“Vin, you didn’t do anything I didn’t want,” Chris stated, just as quiet. “Do you not recall the reason your ass is probably too sore to sit a saddle right now?”

Shaking his head, Vin continued in that low voice, “Doesn’t matter. It amounts to the same thing. God, Chris, I remember you telling me to stop! I remember it now, but, I couldn’t…I couldn’t control myself.”

Wishing he had the strength to pull Vin down into his arms and hold him there, Chris said, “I was telling you to stop because I didn’t want you to regret how this went down. Just like I knew you would. Just like you are. Vin, that wasn’t no kind of rape, not even close. I’ve never felt…you made me whole, partner, like no one else ever has.”

Vin swallowed heavily and replied, “You’re just confused from it all. You don’t know what you’re saying. You couldn’t have wanted that.”

Exasperated, Chris exclaimed, “I damn sure did! Just, you know, somewhere with a few less dead bodies and maybe a nice bed.”

Vin’s jaw tightened and he said, “You’ve got supplies and horses now. I’m gonna head out.”

“Vin, please, don’t leave like this,” Chris asked, his heart in his throat. He was sure that if Vin left, he’d never see the young tracker again. “Please, stay.”

Shaking his head, Vin whispered, “I can’t. I need to, to get away, Chris. Don’t ask me to stay.”

“I am, but if you can’t, you can’t. Just promise you’ll come back to me at Four Corners. Take as long as you need, but swear to me that you’ll come back so we can talk about this,” Chris begged.

Vin was silent for several long moments, but he finally nodded and got to his feet.

Chris winced as he forced himself into a sitting position, his arms and hands still tingling unpleasantly. As Vin faded into the darkness, Chris called, “I’ll be waiting on you, Vin Tanner!”

There was no answer, but then, he hadn’t really expected it.

Chris looked over at the dead men around the campfire and shivered. Fitz had a knife stuck in his throat and another in his gut, which had been ripped open. Two other men had knives in their throats, one had his head twisted nearly all the way around, a fourth had a slit throat and the last had also been gutted. Vin Tanner, the mildest and sweetest of the group save JD, had wreaked carnage to save him, to keep his life and honor intact. Strange to think of honor that way, but it sure applied in this case.

Forcing himself to shaky legs, Chris gathered the knives and cleaned them on the bodies. After making sure there was no way to identify that either he or Vin had ever been there, Chris grabbed a spare pair of pants from one of the saddlebags and pulled them on with a grimace of disgust. He hated having to use anything of theirs, but he couldn’t ride back to town buck naked.

Glad that they’d brought his horse, Chris mounted up and put his spurs to the animal’s sides. There was no way in hell that he was going to stay there any longer than he had to. He’d get back to Four Corners and wait for Vin.

He silently wished the buzzards a good feast and rode into the darkness.

*  *  *  *

When Vin rode into Four Corners a month later, he was surprised to see how thin Chris had gotten. Even before he stepped onto the sidewalk in front of the jail, he saw the other man turn towards him and heard the gasp of recognition. Chris came out of the jail, JD directly behind him, and stared at Vin with shuttered eyes and something inside Vin started to die. No matter what Chris had said at the time, he’d clearly come to the same conclusion that Vin had and now hated him for what had happened.

Sensing that something important was happening, or about to happen, between the two men, JD greeted, subdued, “Welcome back, Vin. Missed you.”

Vin flashed him a brief smile that he knew didn’t reach his eyes and answered, “Good to see you, JD.”

“JD. You want to keep an eye on our guests in there while Vin and me have a talk?” Chris ordered, more than asked.

“Yeah, sure. See ya, Vin.”

Vin nodded to him, but thoughts of the young man faded as soon as he fell into step with Chris. It was almost normal, the two of them striding down the street towards the saloon. Vin wasn’t surprised that he led the way up to Buck’s room, wanting privacy for the break-up of their friendship. He didn’t really want any witnesses, either.

All this last month, he’d held out hope that maybe Chris had meant what he’d said and that there was nothing to forgive. He’d hoped that when he got back, they could be what Vin felt they were meant to be. What he’d been searching for, since his mother’s death. He followed Chris into the room and waited, head down and hat in hand, for the tongue-lashing to come. He knew that Chris wouldn’t strike him, knew that even under these circumstances that Chris wouldn’t hurt someone who couldn’t, or wouldn’t, defend themselves.

And there was no way in hell that Vin would ever raise a hand to Chris, even in self defense.

Chris stood unmoving for a couple of minutes and then, to Vin’s shock, shoved him against the wall and sealed their mouths together. He whimpered in need and wrapped his arms around Chris’ waist, holding tight as his mouth was ravaged with shocking abandon. It was like the world had exploded in sensation, that the grayness he’d inhabited since leaving Chris that night had been banished. Chris’ hands were on his pants, shoving them down, and then gripping his cock, stroking him hard and fast. Sensation and emotion kept him rooted in place and Vin gasped into the continued onslaught.

Chris pulled back long enough to gasp, “Touch me, damnit!” and then returned to plundering Vin’s mouth.

Taking the order to heart, Vin hurriedly undid Chris’ jeans and shoved his hand inside to pull out Chris’ cock. Chris moaned into his mouth and his hips pushed into the tight grip. It was a flurry of motion, stroking and being stroked, kissing and sucking on each other’s tongues, and for several long minutes, those were the only sounds in the room. When Chris rubbed that spot behind Vin’s balls, he jerked as if shot and came, staining Chris’ shirt and spilling over his hand. The involuntary tightening of his own hand on Chris’ cock pushed the other man into coming and he spurted his seed in much the same manner.

Gasping, trying to bring his breathing back to normal, Vin’s head lolled against the wall. “Damn, Cowboy. Now there’s a greeting.”

A wicked, breathless chuckle sounded near his ear as Chris got his own breath back resting against Vin, and then he said, “Come on. Let’s go collapse in bed.”

They shucked their clothes along the way and hit the bed naked. Vin was more than happy to curl up in Chris’ arms, sprawled on his lover’s chest, and listening to the heart beat beneath his ear. He never in a million years would have guessed at this kind of welcome. The strong arms holding onto him as if he was something precious were unexpected and oh, so welcome.

Sighing deeply, Chris kissed his temple and said, “You had a lot of thinking to do.”

“Yeah,” Vin agreed softly. “Not sure I got it all worked out, though.”

“Talk to me.”

Something that he hated to do, but for Chris, it was one of the easier tasks. He finally settled on a little bit of history first and began, “I’m not normal like the rest of you. Like everyone else in this town. I can see and hear for a couple of miles in any direction. My smell’s even better. Tasting’s something that can be really damn painful, or like coming, depending on who’s at the cook-pot. And touch, well, that’s into the sky, too. My Ma always said I was special, that our family had a line of special protectors, and she raised me like I was the second coming.

“Then, well, then she died and I was on passed from family to family with no idea of why my senses were so out of control. None of them kept me around, ‘cause they knew I was different somehow. It wasn’t ‘til I spent time with the Kiowa that they recognized what I was.”

Vin paused to look up at Chris, but his lover only showed a serious listening face with no judgement one way or the other. Taking comfort from that, he continued, “They called me a Watchman, a Sentinel. I guess most of the People have them, these Watchmen, kinda like scouts and trouble-shooters. They keep an eye out for warring tribes,  the food supply, the weather, natural disasters, stuff like that.

“I ain’t never seen another white man with these kinds of talents, but I’ve felt them, I think, while I was roamin’ around. There’s this prickly feeling under my skin when I wander into someone else’s territory. It’s downright unpleasant and I move on quick as I can when I feel it. Doesn’t happen all that much around civilization, but it does happen.”

“So what was all that about me belonging to you?” Chris questioned quietly.

Embarrassment flushed through Vin as he answered, “I’m sorry, Chris, but sometimes…I get real possessive. Hasn’t happened as bad as that since my Ma, though. I’d always know when some fella was lookin’ at her like he shouldn’t be and start hanging all over her.”

“So it comes when you lo…care for someone?”

Vin hadn’t missed the word change, even as quick as it had been, and shook his head. “No, thank God. If I felt like that around all of you, I’d go stark raving mad real fast. No, the Shaman who taught me about these talents said that I was only half alive until my Guide came to me. My Ma had been a kind of Guide for me when I was a kid. Someone to keep me in balance and on the ground when I needed to see far, or hear far. So’s I didn’t concentrate too much on one thing and could come back to myself.”

“So your Ma…”

“I guess that was just ‘til I was growed up,” Vin explained with a shrug. “The Shaman said I’d know my true Guide when I found him or her. And I did. I took one look at you on the street that day and just knew you were it. I knew that you were going to try and get yourself killed in saving Nathan, and there wasn’t no way I could allow that.”

Chris was silent for a few minutes, then asked, “So what do I have to do?”

“Nothing, I don’t think,” Vin answered with another shrug.

“Nothing?”

“Nope. Only thing that happens when I’m with you, well, aside from the obvious,” Vin teased lightly, his hand rubbing over Chris’ chest. “...is that it’s easier for me to use my talents.”

“Hmm.”

“What?”

Giving him a brief smile, Chris said slowly, “Seems to me like those talents of yours could be used against you. One really loud noise, or a bright light direct in your eyes…that’d be bad.”

“Yeah,” Vin agreed. “Nothing to be done about it though. Besides, no one knows about me, except you.”

“Yeah, but…I think, I think I’m going to keep a closer eye on you anyhow. Make sure you don’t get into any worse trouble than usual,” Chris said.

Kissing the bare chest, Vin replied, “I’d be right happy about that.”

Chris chuckled, one of his hands moving to comb through Vin’s hair. “I know I will be.”

“Chris?”

“Yeah?”

“How come you’re so skinny now? And you don’t smell completely healthy, either. I thought, maybe, it was because you hated me and what I did, but that’s not the case,” Vin said hesitantly.

Chris sighed and pressed his lips to Vin’s head before answering, “Because you weren’t here, Vin. I just couldn’t eat. Josiah and Nathan’ve been riding herd on me the last week to get me to eat something, but it was all like ash in my mouth. Don’t…don’t leave me again, okay, Vin?”

Wrapping his arm tight around Chris’ chest, Vin whispered, “Never again, partner. They’ll have to pry me off of you.”

Vin smiled as, slowly, Chris relaxed. He’d get his Guide back to good health and keep him there. He was, after all, a Sentinel, and he could surely watch after one trouble-prone cowboy.