Halloween 2015: Free Short Story Friday
Oct. 16th, 2015 01:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
valarltdThis was originally a Torquere Single Shot. Not work safe.
Crossroads
Johnny Cotton had to get out. Out of the Delta, out of Arkansas, out of the whole lousy South, if he could manage it. So, one fine fall evening, after the cotton was in, when Daddy was drunk and Mama was over visiting at his grandma's, Johnny slipped out and hiked along Route 50.
The moon rode fat and full through scudding little ghost clouds and he didn't need the flashlight. His backpack felt easy on his back and his guitar case banged softly against the backs of his thighs. He'd pick up 149, get down to US 79 at Hughes and hitch a lift into Memphis and from there to Nashville.
But Johnny been up since before dawn and put in a full day's work getting in the cotton. His legs felt like they were slogging through bayou mud and more than once he drifted off the shoulder of the highway and nearly stumbled into a cypress slough as he dozed while walking.
He made it as far as Greasy Corner, a crossroad where 50 and 149 came together. Years ago, there had been a couple little country stores. Now the kudzu choked the deserted buildings and the plywood over the door was long gone.
Johnny let himself in, figuring to take a little nap and make the last three miles in the morning. More traffic by daylight anyway, he decided. Tomorrow, he'd be in Nashville, on Music Row. He spread out his blanket and was asleep almost before he had lain down.
The harsh cough of diesel air brakes and the whine of the engine woke him. He looked out of the broken window to see a big black Peterbilt stopped in front of the building. The moonlight glinted off the chrome smoke-stacks and bumper and tanks and picked out the silver scroll-work that read “Speed Demon, Lou and Lil Schiffer, owners,” on the door. Bettie Page in a sexy devil costume smiled from the side of the sleeper.
The woman opened the driver's side door and climbed down. She stretched and Johnny could do nothing but watch. All long legs and long black hair in a ponytail; her skin gleamed ivory in the moonlight. She looked around and her eyes landed on the abandoned gas station. Johnny couldn't tell their color, only that they looked like dark pits that could swallow him. He was ready to be swallowed up.
When Lou came around the front of the truck, Johnny got a shock. With that name, he'd been expecting someone short and dumpy, like Lou Costello or the cartoon mouse version of him that Johnny was used to seeing. Lou was as gorgeous as Lil, tall and saturnine, a dark beard and mustache framing a fully and sensual mouth, nicely built under the tight T-shirt and tighter jeans. The silver edge of moonlight seemed to caress that bulge as he came around and kissed Lil.
They both smiled at the old gas station. Johnny knew they couldn't see him, but it sure felt like he was naked in front of them.
“Hello, Johnny. Why don't you come out and be social?” Lil's voice was honey and velvet and all the sexy things that Johnny knew he'd never get back on the farm. His cock stood right up and took notice, but he didn't move. Midnight at the crossroads, whispered a little voice that sounded like his late grandpa, the preacher. You know what that means, boy. Oh fucking hell, Johnny thought.
And that sentiment grew very literal as Lou got hold of Lil again and kissed her harder, stroking her curves and opening her shirt. Her pale white breasts almost glowed in the moonlight. She turned to the station again, letting Johnny have a good look at her.
“So, Johnny, are you coming out, or shall we come in?” she asked.
“I'm coming out,” he said, the words out before he realized he was speaking.
Lou nodded. “Bring your guitar, boy.” His voice was higher than Johnny expected, but not one to be disobeyed.
Johnny grabbed the cheap Yamaha he'd bought at Wal-Mart in West Memphis and walked out of the building. They stood in front of the truck, kissing again, Lil wrapped around her man as if she had no bones in her body. They turned and smiled at him, dazzling him.
“Play for us,” Lou said, wrapping Lil in his arms. She didn't bother to close her shirt and Lou played with her breasts, idly, not seeming to care that Johnny was watching every caress.
Johnny did a quick check to be sure he was in tune and started with the riff from “Simple Man,” before segueing into “Sweet Home Alabama.” He played as if possessed, his fingers making the changes on the dollar-slicks much faster than he ever had before. No squeaking or fumbling marred his song. He was into the first chorus when he stopped, for no good reason.
He saw the small hand gesture and watched Lou and Lil stare at each other for a minute. The couple nodded at each other. Lou let go of his wife and stepped so close that Johnny could feel his hot breath all over his face. Johnny's head swam from his intoxicating smell and he wondered if Lou's hands would feel as good as the words that floated over his skin.
“And what is it you dream of, so very loudly?”
“Being a star. I will be.”
“Yes, you will,” Lil agreed.
“And what will you give for this dream?” Lou ran a slow hand over Johnny's cheek.
“All I have. It ain't much.”
Lil moved closer, not seeming to care that she was still topless. Johnny kept looking between her breasts and her face, unable to focus. He barely noticed the way Lou pulled his longish blond hair back from his face.
“He's lovely,” Lil said. “All that raw need and desire and energy.” Lou nodded and she kissed him, just grazing his mouth with her lips. Sparks danced along his lips as if he'd just tried playing an electric guitar with his teeth, like some of the crazier acts did.
Johnny hesitated. She was another man's woman, even if Lou wasn't exactly a man. He shot a glance at Lou and saw the man smile. Lil kissed him again and this time he dove in, losing himself in her mouth, a wild place, as untamed and dangerous as the cypress sloughs and bayous around them. There was no sweetness in the kiss, only primal desire and lust. Her teeth were sharp.
“My turn,” Lou said when Lil released Johnny. He turned Johnny around and kissed him. Johnny hadn't expected that, but yielded to the demanding mouth over his after a bare moment's hesitation. Lou controlled the kiss as much as Lil had, but kissed much harder. Johnny met it with an aggressiveness he hadn't shown the lady. “Hungry little man,” Lou chuckled when they parted. Johnny just panted. He felt like he'd been clobbered with a hoe-handle and the stars were just starting to go away.
“He's delicious.” Lil pressed her breasts into Johnny's back, pushing him into Lou's chest. She licked his neck, her tongue hotter than the Arkansas night “Johnny, we can make your dream come true.”
He looked at her, still slightly dazed and completely befuddled with arousal. “Can you? What are you? Record execs?”
Lou laughed softly and ran his hands over Johnny's chest. “Something like that. If nothing else, we can get you to Nashville. And our sleeper is much more comfortable than an abandoned gas station.”
Lil smiled, showing too many sharp teeth, her fangs white in the moonlight. “Oh, Johnny. Full moon. Crossroads...” She ran one fang over his throat and all he wanted was to let her bite him.
“Think, boy,” Lou urged him. His mouth, so close, and his hands, playing with Johnny's nipples, pinching in a way that hovered somewhere between pain and arousal, left Johnny absolutely incapable of thought.
Johnny raised one eyebrow as they reiterated his own earlier thoughts. “You're making my dream come true? Or I'm making yours?” He gave a soft groan as Lil ground against his hard cock.
Lil looked at her husband and hissed, “I told you puns don't work in print.” She pressed even closer to Johnny, trapping him between their bodies. “Pretty singer, we've seen so many like you, so few we came to. Fewer still took the offer.”
“You know the price for your dream, don't you, Johnny?” Lou asked.
Johnny nodded. He knew all right. This pair could make him anything, bigger than the Beatles if he asked for it, but the price was awful steep. Too steep, his grandparents would have said. Then again, they seemed to really like him, so how bad could it be? “Yeah," he said, slowly. “Pretty much. I'll give it.”
Lil kissed him again, her body cool marble against his own. “You drive, Lou.” They hoisted his gear into the side-box of the truck. He kept his guitar close in his hands. Lil climbed up and sat in the bunk, shedding her shirt as she went.
“You can ride shotgun. Or...” She ran one long manicured scarlet nail down his neck then over her own breast, pausing to flick the nipple. She sucked the finger suggestively, looking at Johnny.
He smiled, feeling dopey. “Or?” He meant it to sound like a suave seduction, as if he had women all the time. It came out like a clod of dirt hitting the ground and made him sound dumb. He kicked himself for the stupidity.
Lil seemed used to such behavior. “You can come join me.”
Lou climbed into the driver's seat and turned to steal a kiss from her. Johnny put his guitar in the passenger floor-well and joined her at once. He pulled his thin cotton work shirt off.
“Enjoy,” Lou said. He pulled the privacy curtains closed and started the truck. They glided out into the delta night.
Lil only left one little light on in the bunk. She drew Johnny closer. “You do like boys, don't you?”
“Love them. Part of why I have to get out.”
She smiled. “Ah, good. That must have been so hard for you here.” She kissed him, slowly, and her hand came to rest over the fly of his jeans. Johnny thought he was going to die if she didn't get down to his skin real soon now.
“Lot of things hard lately.” Her kisses were making sure of that. He groaned as she gave his cock a little squeeze and moved to play in his hair.
She laughed. “Clever boy. You'll do just fine.” She let the long fine blond strands fall through her fingers. “You'll need a makeover, of course. Right now, you look like a farmer just off a bender.” She stripped away his undershirt and opened his jeans. “New clothes, as well.”
“I'm all yours.”
Lil laughed again at that and kissed him more, her lips exploring his face and neck, brushing over his chest and lingering at his nipples. He squirmed under her kisses and shivered every time he felt her teeth. Whenever he tried to touch her, she moved somehow so he couldn't quite get hold of those big pale tits that he wanted to taste so badly.
By the time they turned onto the interstate about twenty-minutes later, Johnny was whimpering. When Lou finally parked, what felt like a million years later, he couldn't make any noise at all. All he wanted in that instant was to come, come until his balls exploded, until his ears popped, until Lil was covered in white jizz even whiter than her skin.
Lou slipped into the bunk without opening the curtains much. His kissed Lil and then Johnny. Johnny pressed up, begging Lou to be forceful and end the torment that the soft kisses and little nibbles were leaving him in.
“How is he?”
She smiled. “Beyond ready.”
“Yes,” Johnny gasped. His hips pumped against empty air.
“Tell me what you want, Johnny, right now.” Lou stripped off his tight black t-shirt to show a nicely built smooth chest.
Johnny shuddered. “I want to come. I need it.” He knew he sounded like he was begging.
Lou seemed to ignore him and kissed Lil instead. He took it slow, teasing and then forcing her to take his tongue in, his hands rough on her breasts, pinching the nipples until they turned bright pink and stood up as hard as Johnny's cock. The soft moans from Lil, the wet sounds of their mouths, the whispery rasp of skin on skin all turned the simple kiss into something almost pornographic.
“He needs it, darling,” Lil whispered when Johnny gave a soft moan.
Lou turned and seized Johnny's face in both hands, pressing him back against the wall of the sleeper, and kissing him hard. His tongue ravaged and demanded as it invaded Johnny's mouth. Johnny's cock jerked and the need in his belly wound to a fever pitch.
Lou let his mouth go and then kissed the head of his cock. There was no sucking, nothing but the graze of his lips, the mustache and beard tickling. Johnny thrust up toward his mouth before he could stop himself. Lou pulled away and kissed his mouth again. Lil kissed the head, a fast flick of her tongue along his slit.
“Oh fuck,” Johnny gasped.
Both of them pulled away. Lil lay back, spread her legs and ran two fingers over her vulva, opening herself for him. She circled and stroked her clit with the index finger of her other hand. Her nail polish was the color of old blood in the dim light.
Lou moved behind him and wrapped his arms around Johnny's chest. His breath burned on Johnny's ear. His fingers pinched Johnny's nipples, making them stand up like Lil's had. Johnny let out a half-sobbing breath.
“Do you want her, boy?” he breathed. Lil slipped two fingers into her cunt and moved them, the wet, inviting sound making Johnny lick his lips. “Look at her. You want her. Want to taste her, to feel her engulf you.”
“Yeah.” Johnny's eyes were riveted to the slim white fingers and soft red flesh before him. His balls ached, making him want to be inside her, his cock drooled with eagerness.
Lil left off and sat up. She ran her nails over Johnny's chest and teased his lips with the wet fingertips. His tongue flicked out to taste them and she laughed. She turned Johnny to look at Lou, licking along his neck and sucking his earlobe as she did. Lou stroked his own cock, bringing it fully erect, seeming content to watch Lil and Johnny.
“You want him, too,” Lil said and nipped his earlobe. “You want him inside you, don't you? Taste him, let him fuck you.”
Johnny moaned again, as Lou gave him a very sexy smile. He couldn't stop looking at the thick cock, imagining how it would taste and feel. “Yes. You can both have me.”
Lil wrapped her hand around his cock and Lou ducked his head to swallow it. Johnny nearly whooped with pleasure. He bucked up into Lou's mouth when Lil kissed him. She nipped his neck after a moment.
“Come,” Lil said.
As if the word was a trigger in his balls, he did, shooting into Lou's mouth. Lou let him finish, but didn't swallow. Instead he moved up to kiss Lil. Through half-shut eyes, Johnny watched them enjoy one of those long porno kisses, the kind that looked more intense than the blowjob he'd just had.
Lil lay down and pulled Johnny with her. “Sleep now, dear boy.” She kissed him, sweet and dry, companionable and not at all sexy. “Right here with us. It is late and we put you to hard use.”
“Good, though.” Johnny kissed her back and yawned. Lou curled around him from behind, his arms around both Johnny and Lil.
“We'll have a taste of Lilith tomorrow, dear boy,” he promised. He kissed Johnny's neck. “And I'll fuck you through the mattress.”
Johnny wasn't listening anymore. Exhausted from a hard day's work, a long night's walking and a most excruciating pleasure, he was already asleep in Lil's arms.
***
“Good evening, Johnny.” Lil stretched and peeked out of the curtains. Johnny opened one eye and realized they had gotten no farther than the West Memphis dog track. “Oh, look at us. We've slept the day away.”
Lou kissed her and then kissed Johnny. “Indeed. But night's the best time.” He stretched too and Johnny watched his muscles through half-shut eyes. They were both hotter than an August cotton field, he decided. He'd dreamed about them all day, about fucking and being fucked, about eating Lil while Lou sucked him and sucking Lou in tandem with Lil or while Lil sucked him off. Most of all, he'd dreamed of being a star, performing, before an audience full of people who wore their faces.
Lou lay back down beside him and stole another kiss. “There's a hot shower in Nashville, but I have a more pressing need.”
Johnny felt Lou's very hard cock against his thighs and woke up fast. His own morning wood was standing at attention and reminding him he was in bed with a very sexy couple.
Lil kissed him. “Let him fuck you,” she whispered. “I like to watch.”
Lou kissed him. “Fuck her. You know you want to.”
Johnny rolled on top of Lil who was already on her back and spreading for him. He stroked her with two fingers and found she was already wet. She squirmed a little at that and he slid into her with no more preparation than that. She wasn't as wet as he'd thought and he heard her gasp a little. For fucking Lou's big cock, she was still tight.
“Take him, Lou darling,” Lil said and clenched around him. He pumped at her a little. “Oh yes, dear Johnny. Nice and deep.” She nipped his throat. “And just as hard as you want to.”
“Lil... honey...” he managed.
“Yes?” She licked his neck, her voice as coolly controlled as if she were discussing the road conditions.
“Surely I'm not the first?”
“No, babe. Not even close.” Johnny gasped as Lou slipped two well-lubed fingers into him. The bare head of Lou's cock started in. “Wait. Condoms.” The thought was automatic.
Lil laughed and Lou joined her until the truck rang with it. “Johnny, my boy,” Lou said, “you know what we are.”
Lil flashed her fangs at him and as he watched, ivory horns peered out of her hair. The fear those sent crawling through his bones only made him hotter. “These bodies neither harbor disease nor make germ cells, lover. You can't get me pregnant and we are very clean.”
Johnny sighed as Lou worked at sheathing himself fully. When Lou's balls hit his ass, he gave a soft cry. “Big boy,” he said, then flinched at the banality. Lou chucked and Johnny felt his beard on the back of his neck.
He held still, trapped between them. Fear wasn't the only thing stopping him. He felt like he was going to explode just staying still. Their gorgeous bodies trapped him. He knew he was gambling with his very soul and had probably already lost, but he just had to see how it all turned out. Right now, he just needed to come and come and come until he passed out from the force of it.
“Isn't it nice?” Lil nibbled the other side of his neck. “That's all, Johnny. You did fine.” She smiled up at them both. “Sexy men.”
Johnny bent down and kissed her, letting her fangs scrape his tongue, filling both their mouths with blood. In response, she rubbed up against him, soft and wet, her nipples hard spots in the softness of her breasts as they pressed against his chest. Lou moved; slow, rough strokes that seemed to set Johnny's spine on fire.
When Johnny stole a glance back, Lou was smiling, his fangs showing. Lil was smiling, too. He closed his eyes. They could have whatever they wanted as long as they made him a star, or at least made him come, which was the foremost thing on his mind. The latter grew into an even larger concern as Lil and Lou set up a rhythm that drove him higher up the scale until his nerves all vibrated at a high D.
“Darling Johnny, you know who we are,” Lil said.
“My doom,” Johnny whispered, laying his head on Lil's shoulder.
“Your good fortune,” Lou corrected.
“Are you mine, sweet boy? Will you take what I give you?” Lil's hands moved along his side, stroking both him and Lou. “And give us what we require?” He felt her scary fingernails not quite breaking his skin. She could flay him alive, he had no doubt. He'd let her, if it meant he could come.
“Yeah, all of it.” He choked out the words. The darkness in the truck-cab seemed to deepen and a vague sensation of something leaving him flashed over his consciousness.
Lil set her teeth to one side of his neck. He shivered at their touch. “Ours.”
Johnny felt Lou at the other, the sharp fangs ready. His silken voice said “Ours.”
They bit simultaneously and Johnny screamed. Behind him, Lou slammed deep, pulsing hot, far too hot for a normal man, into him. Beneath him, Lil spasmed with orgasm.
Johnny shuddered, tipped over the brink himself, exploding in a pure crescendo that made his head ring like he'd been in front of the amps for hours. He lost all sensation except the pure, clear supernova; of climax. He came down, slowly, not wanting it to end. He wanted it again. He'd brave hell and damnation if they would only make him do that again and again.
Lou licked him clean of the blood and pulled out. “Yes, Johnny.” The softly purred words were promise and threat both, a contract made in the blood they had taken, a guarantee that while Johnny would have such experiences, the orgasms themselves might become his damnation.
Lou reached for the baby wipes and offered them to both Johnny and Lil. Johnny snorted at the prosaic act, still trying to wrap his head around the last hour. Lou leaned around Johnny and kissed Lil, pressing the three of them together. Johnny's cock twitched, but it wasn't ready for another round.
“You've got some more driving hours on the clock, honey,” he said and sat up. Seeing Johnny's puzzled look, he sighed. “Even the Speed Demon bows to might of the Department of Transportation.”
Johnny took a wipe to clean up and pulled away, letting Lil up. After all that, they still worried about log books and weigh stations. He shook his head and used the wipe.
Lil smiled and licked at an errant drop of blood that had traced a scarlet track down his chest. He shivered. “We've sealed the bargain,” she said and flicked her tongue over his nipple, before nipping it with her fangs. She laughed at his moan. “I have to drive. Lou, teach our boy what he needs to know.”
Johnny watched her slip back into her tight jeans and cherry-red cowboy boots. She didn't bother with a bra, but popped a deep crimson v-neck sweater over her head. She slipped out to check the truck over.
Lou watched him stare. “Amazing woman. She could have been your species' mother, were Adam not a domineering prick. Let her have the top next time.”
Johnny nodded, still dumbfounded. “I like ladies on top.”
“She will astound you.” Lou didn't get dressed but slipped into a black silk robe. He picked up a comb and started untangling his shoulder-length black hair. He'd finished with his and started on Johnny's when Lil climbed back in and started the truck.
“Clean him up while you're at it,” Lil suggested as she started the engine.
Johnny felt very weird having the big hands play in his hair, but Lou's touch was gentle as he got the knots out. Johnny listened, drowsy from sex and blood-loss, as Lou talked.
“Your hair is perfect, long and sun-bleached. A bit ragged, but that's easily remedied. And you will need to shave or grow a fuller beard. You can keep it short. That looks very nice.” Lou stroked along his jaw and around his mouth and Johnny felt something happening.
Lou touched his neck and the bites healed to scars. He held up a mirror. Johnny just stared. His hair looked like he'd just come from the barber and his beard was nice and neat, very short and sexy. The scars stood out bright red on his neck.
He rubbed at them and Lou moved his hand away. “No, don't touch them. They will bleed from time to time. This means only that we are pleased with you.” Lou kissed one scar and rubbed the back of Johnny's neck. “Are you stiff?”
Johnny glanced at his crotch automatically and looked up to see Lou grinning at him. Lil took the exit a little too fast, laughing at them. Lou spared a pat for Johnny's cock and said, “Stretch out on your stomach.”
“Better tell him the rules, honey,” Lil said over her shoulder.
Lou's hands worked over Johnny's back and neck, working out the kinks and tight places from a month of hard labor and an evening of acrobatic sex. He bent down to kiss Johnny's neck.
“You have the gift, Johnny. You will be big, very, very big. We will see to it.” He kissed Johnny between the shoulder blades. “But there are rules that govern your success. No more church. I know all you southern boys start singing there, but you may never set foot in one again.”
Johnny shrugged. “Didn't like it anyway.” He'd always hated church. Getting up early, dressing in the stiff good clothes, sitting in the hot little building on the hard benches and listening drove him out of his mind. Grandpa had never been afraid to thunder God's wrath down on him for squirming too much. He'd taken to reading the violent or dirty parts of the Bible during the sermon as soon as he could. Grandpa never called him out from the pulpit after that
“Not for weddings or funerals even,” Lou warned. “No matter how your family reacts.”
Johnny flinched at that. He had a couple sisters and grandma was getting up there. But Lou kept rubbing and talking in that low hypnotic voice and they all seemed unimportant. Maybe if he paid for the funerals and weddings, they could do them in the funeral parlors and parks.
“Nothing even pertaining to the other side. No holiday music, except the most secular. Now if you can make one filthy, go for it.”
Johnny laughed at that idea. “Sounds like my thing. My favorite is 'Santa's gonna kick your ass,' anyway.”
Lou kissed him lower on the spine, sending tingles through Johnny's body. “No Gospel records, not even as backup. Not if the Statler Brothers themselves ask you. Not even as a guitar player. Your new guitar won't play the enemy's music.”
Johnny wrinkled his nose. His grandparents had never allowed anything on their record player or radio besides gospel and preaching. The worst hiding he'd ever taken was when Grandpa had caught him listening to a rock-and-roll station on the big old Philco. “Hate them.”
Lil chuckled. “I told you he was the right one. I've been watching him, Lou. He has sex fantasies while his Mama reads the daily devotion at breakfast.”
Johnny blushed, but Lou didn't seem to notice. “Only when it's something sexy,” Johnny mumbled.
“All your work is in variants of thirteen. Thirteen songs per set or twenty-six per concert. Twenty-six per album.” Johnny nodded. “If you are asked, it is simply your lucky number. And never go thirty-nine. Three belongs to the other side.”
Lou kissed him just above the swell of his butt and Johnny shivered. “You may never marry.” Johnny smiled. So far this didn't sound too complicated at all. “Fuck all you like, the more the better.”
“I can handle that,” Johnny agreed.
“Men. Women. Both at the same time. Do limit yourself to adults. We'll leave the children to the clergy, shall we? Take up any vices you like. However, you are not to miss a concert or recording session because of them.”
Johnny shuddered as the silver tongue swiped along the crack of his ass.
Lil sighed and changed lanes. “No-show Jones,” she said.
“Final rule,” Lou said and Johnny felt a piece of thick paper settle on his back. “At the end of thirty-six years, you are ours.”
“That's all I got, huh?”
Lou swatted him and he felt something very hot hit the other side of the paper and burn his back. “Would you prefer seven? That's the usual contract.”
“No, no,” Johnny hasted to reassure him. “Thirty-six is great.”
“Besides, how pathetic is it when geriatric old farts get out on the stage and try to rock like they're thirty?” Lou asked, nibbling one of Johnny's ass-cheeks. “On your sixtieth birthday, we'll be in the crowd and backstage with cake. They will be a good three decades.”
“So what happens if I break 'em?”
Lil parked the truck at the Jackson rest-area and shot Lou a very dark grin. He returned it and Johnny shuddered. She pulled the curtains and joined them in the sleeper.
“If you violate the contract deliberately, you are in default and we no longer have to keep our end,” Lou said. “If, however, a power outage prevents you from performing all thirteen songs, there is some leeway. We do recognize rain checks.”
“We'll be there almost at once, for a major infraction,” Lil added, her angular face going almost skeletal.
Johnny saw and knew he wouldn't be making a major infraction. He tried not to show his fear. “Hmm. I think I know what happened to Hendrix and Morrison now.”
Lil licked her red lips. “Sweet Jim,” she whispered, looking wistful and hungry at the same time.
Johnny smirked, pleased he'd gotten that one right.
Lou rolled Johnny over, pinned him down with one hand on his throat, and glowered at him. Johnny stared up at the handsome face, seeing Lou's own horns for the first time. Lil's had been sexy last night. But in gathering twilight, when he knew it was no dream or wild fantasy, all he found them was terrifying.
“Don't try breaking it,” Lou snarled. Johnny shivered, feeling deep in his bones what the very sexy man truly was. “We're good friends to have, but lousy creditors. Some guys think they're smart. Like that Daniels asshole. And Daniel Webster may have gotten old Jabez Stone off, but I had them both in the end.”
“They don't call him the king of lawyers for nothing, dear,” Lil added.
As Johnny looked up—way up, surely Lou hadn't been that big a minute ago—he understood the seriousness of the deal. “Got it.”
Lou let him up and seemed to shrink back into the good-looking driver Johnny had first seen. Johnny rubbed his neck a little and looked at Lil.
Lil kissed him. “Don't fret, child. It's not all on you. We'll see you often, since you may call on us for help with any contracts. In fact, we insist. Elvis turned into such a mess with that dreadful Colonel.”
“How do I call you?” Johnny didn't have a cell phone and it seemed ridiculous that the devil would have one.
Lil held up a guitar pick, made of black stone, too thick and heavy to use. Johnny took it, feeling its heat as he weighed it in his palm. “You'll know how to use it when you need it,” she promised.
Lou had returned to rubbing him, chest and arms and shoulders, interspersed with kisses. Lil just watched them. Lou's cock poked him in the belly, hard and wanting attention.
“Are you game for another round?” Lil whispered, kissing him, the sharpness of her fangs disturbingly erotic on his tongue. “I like to watch Lou work.” She moved away from the bed and sat in one of the front seats.
Johnny nodded. Lou nudged his legs apart and aligned their hard cocks between their bellies. He rocked against Johnny, the hot satin of his shaft sliding along Johnny's own. Decadent and utterly male in execution, the act brought Johnny off like a geyser.
When Lou rolled off of him to lie beside him, Lil moved in to lick them both, her tongue oddly rough, like a cat's. Johnny moaned, feeling himself get ready for a third time.
“Never been that quick before.”
“Never had a sexy devil like me before,” Lou teased.
“True on every particular,” Johnny agreed. “Especially the sexy.” He groaned as Lil spread his legs farther to suck on his balls. “Lil, honey, please, you're killing me.”
She laughed. “Not yet.” She licked his head. “Such a pretty pecker and all for me.” She straddled him and took him in, shedding her sweater as she lowered herself.
“You got the most gorgeous tits,” Johnny said. She lowered them to him and he licked her stiff nipples, before settling in to suck one.
Lou kissed his neck and ear. “She's amazing isn't she?' He sucked at the other, clutching the breast in a way that looked painful to Johnny. Lil moaned when he bit, coming in a flood around Johnny's cock. Johnny tried a hard nibble and she came again.
“Uh-huh.” Johnny was lost when she bore down and her twat seemed to clench shut around him, clutching him tight, tighter than anything he'd been in, making him come almost at once.
Lil collapsed atop them and Johnny slowly went soft. She stood up as soon as he was out and pulled her clothes on, scowling at the clock. “Gotta get you where you're going.”
Johnny lay beside Lou for another hour, letting Lou teach him new music, half by repetition, half by osmosis.
“Name him, darling,” Lil said from the front seat as they screamed down the long hill toward Music City.
“Jubal,” Lou whispered in his ear. “You are Johnny Cotton to the rest of the world, but your real name is Jubal.”
Johnny shivered, the sound of it like music on his skin.
“Jubal was the great-grandson, five times removed, of Cain and one of my daughters,” Lil put in. “He's the father of all musicians.”
“Good name,” Johnny-now-Jubal agreed.
“Get dressed, darlings, we're almost there.” Lil slowed the truck from its highway speed to the city pace. She pulled off on the exit ramp near Music Row and parked illegally in a grocery store's lot.
“So is it goodbye? Or just later?” Johnny asked.
“Later. Until you get your first contract. Carry the pick in your pocket to every studio meeting.”
Lou handed him his guitar case and suitcase. Then he handed over a small satchel. “Thirty-six years, dear boy.”
Lil blew him a kiss and the big black truck roared off toward Kentucky. Johnny walked a ways, up to the Row, and found a bench under a street light. There was a tag on the satchel that said, “Open this compartment first.”
He did and found a wallet, with money and cards for the heads of all the major studios, with appointment dates. A key ring held a Ford key and a house key. A notebook poked him with its wire spiral. He opened it.
“In the lot of the McDonald's, you will find a red truck. The map of Nashville on the front seat has your apartment marked and your itinerary for the next two weeks. Don't disappoint us, darling. Kisses, L&L.” The spiky handwriting appeared as he read each line. When he looked in his bag, he saw all his clothes had changed into new and glitzier outfits.
In the McDonald's lot, he found a 1990 F150 pickup, not at all new, but clearly in good shape. Over a burger, he traced out his route on the map and drove to his apartment after supper. It wasn't in the best part of town, but it wasn't a total slum. The message on the fridge said his rent had been paid for a year. And that they'd be very disappointed if he had to make a rent payment on this place.
Johnny sat in his new apartment and opened the guitar case. Instead of the cheap, blond wood Yamaha with its dollar slicks and plastic frets, he gawked at a twelve-string Gibson SJ-200 True Vintage acoustic. He stared. That model was only supposed to be made as a six-string. The maple box gleamed mellowly in the lamplight and the strings shone. Spares were tucked into the case, Cleartone EMPs, with the hex core and the micron coating.
Johnny let out a low whistle. When he went with Lou and Lil, he went first class, at least musically. He strummed the guitar and got a low sexy growl out of the strings. It played like Waylon Jennings sounded. Perfect.
He looked it over more closely and realized the vine pattern on the fret-board wasn't quite standard. When he touched one of the silver-inlaid swirls, he could swear he felt Lil's mouth on his, in one of her light sexy kisses. He pressed at one of the mother-of-pearl leaves and he could feel Lou's cock, long and hard against the crack of his ass and Lou's arms around him. Oh yes, this would be a fun guitar to play.
A rolled parchment scroll lay in the bottom of the case. Johnny unrolled it. It was a contract, signed in blood, outlining his duties and benefits as Jubal, rocker in the hire of Lou and Lil Schiffer.
***
They were waiting in the wings before he went out.
Johnny hadn't seen Lil and Lou for years, not since he'd locked into a thirteen-year contract. They'd delivered on everything. He had six Grammies and a mansion full of gold and platinum records. He wasn't bigger than the Beatles, but he was bigger than Skynyrd and that was enough for him. Last summer, Johnny Cotton had been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
He'd left a string of broken hearts that had included some very beautiful actresses and some very talented rockers, as well as a lot of has-beens, gonna-bes, wanna-bes and no-talents of all sexes.
Over the years, he'd met a few others also under contact to the Schiffers. He was the only one who'd displayed the contract so blatantly, framed on his living room wall, the drippy dried-blood pentagram inverted at the bottom.
He'd spent a month of nights in the arms of a soulful pop balladeer who had smiled sadly upon seeing it. That affair's sweetness had paid for the nuisance of having to publicly snub a notorious satanic-goth rocker, who had turned into Johnnie's instant groupie upon seeing the contract, until Mr. Goth got the point.
He smiled at Lou and Lil. They looked exactly as they had the night they'd found him in Greasy Corner. He knew he was older, gray in his hair and beard and lines on his face. “Thanks for everything.”
“Happy birthday, dear,” Lil said and kissed him.
“We'll see you after the show, Jubal,” Lou said and stole his own kiss.
He gave them a smile and strode out on stage. The crowd was hot tonight, giving him back all the energy he sent out. He did twenty-five songs, instead of the thirteen that had his been his norm for the last five years. His doctor had told him to start coddling his pipes a little more then and he'd taken that advice. But after tonight, there were no more concerts and no reason not to give the folks their money's worth. The crowd roared, dancing in the aisles and singing along.
Before the last song, Johnny took the microphone in hand and walked along the edge of the stage, reaching down to touch all the straining hands. He spoke slowly, smiling. “All right, folks. It's my birthday today and I just want to tell you, you've been the best birthday present an old rocker like me could ever get. And the best goodbye crowd I could have asked for. So I just want to say thank you. Thank you for coming to my last show. Good night folks. Good night, Lil and Lou, wherever you are.”
The band swung into the rock version of “How Bad Do You Want It?” and Johnny sang his revised lyrics that had closed every show for thirty-six years.
“Johnny Cotton went to the crossroads
So my legend goes.
I got this here guitar.
And the devil took my soul,
The devil took my soul!”
And the crowd went wild.
Crossroads
Johnny Cotton had to get out. Out of the Delta, out of Arkansas, out of the whole lousy South, if he could manage it. So, one fine fall evening, after the cotton was in, when Daddy was drunk and Mama was over visiting at his grandma's, Johnny slipped out and hiked along Route 50.
The moon rode fat and full through scudding little ghost clouds and he didn't need the flashlight. His backpack felt easy on his back and his guitar case banged softly against the backs of his thighs. He'd pick up 149, get down to US 79 at Hughes and hitch a lift into Memphis and from there to Nashville.
But Johnny been up since before dawn and put in a full day's work getting in the cotton. His legs felt like they were slogging through bayou mud and more than once he drifted off the shoulder of the highway and nearly stumbled into a cypress slough as he dozed while walking.
He made it as far as Greasy Corner, a crossroad where 50 and 149 came together. Years ago, there had been a couple little country stores. Now the kudzu choked the deserted buildings and the plywood over the door was long gone.
Johnny let himself in, figuring to take a little nap and make the last three miles in the morning. More traffic by daylight anyway, he decided. Tomorrow, he'd be in Nashville, on Music Row. He spread out his blanket and was asleep almost before he had lain down.
The harsh cough of diesel air brakes and the whine of the engine woke him. He looked out of the broken window to see a big black Peterbilt stopped in front of the building. The moonlight glinted off the chrome smoke-stacks and bumper and tanks and picked out the silver scroll-work that read “Speed Demon, Lou and Lil Schiffer, owners,” on the door. Bettie Page in a sexy devil costume smiled from the side of the sleeper.
The woman opened the driver's side door and climbed down. She stretched and Johnny could do nothing but watch. All long legs and long black hair in a ponytail; her skin gleamed ivory in the moonlight. She looked around and her eyes landed on the abandoned gas station. Johnny couldn't tell their color, only that they looked like dark pits that could swallow him. He was ready to be swallowed up.
When Lou came around the front of the truck, Johnny got a shock. With that name, he'd been expecting someone short and dumpy, like Lou Costello or the cartoon mouse version of him that Johnny was used to seeing. Lou was as gorgeous as Lil, tall and saturnine, a dark beard and mustache framing a fully and sensual mouth, nicely built under the tight T-shirt and tighter jeans. The silver edge of moonlight seemed to caress that bulge as he came around and kissed Lil.
They both smiled at the old gas station. Johnny knew they couldn't see him, but it sure felt like he was naked in front of them.
“Hello, Johnny. Why don't you come out and be social?” Lil's voice was honey and velvet and all the sexy things that Johnny knew he'd never get back on the farm. His cock stood right up and took notice, but he didn't move. Midnight at the crossroads, whispered a little voice that sounded like his late grandpa, the preacher. You know what that means, boy. Oh fucking hell, Johnny thought.
And that sentiment grew very literal as Lou got hold of Lil again and kissed her harder, stroking her curves and opening her shirt. Her pale white breasts almost glowed in the moonlight. She turned to the station again, letting Johnny have a good look at her.
“So, Johnny, are you coming out, or shall we come in?” she asked.
“I'm coming out,” he said, the words out before he realized he was speaking.
Lou nodded. “Bring your guitar, boy.” His voice was higher than Johnny expected, but not one to be disobeyed.
Johnny grabbed the cheap Yamaha he'd bought at Wal-Mart in West Memphis and walked out of the building. They stood in front of the truck, kissing again, Lil wrapped around her man as if she had no bones in her body. They turned and smiled at him, dazzling him.
“Play for us,” Lou said, wrapping Lil in his arms. She didn't bother to close her shirt and Lou played with her breasts, idly, not seeming to care that Johnny was watching every caress.
Johnny did a quick check to be sure he was in tune and started with the riff from “Simple Man,” before segueing into “Sweet Home Alabama.” He played as if possessed, his fingers making the changes on the dollar-slicks much faster than he ever had before. No squeaking or fumbling marred his song. He was into the first chorus when he stopped, for no good reason.
He saw the small hand gesture and watched Lou and Lil stare at each other for a minute. The couple nodded at each other. Lou let go of his wife and stepped so close that Johnny could feel his hot breath all over his face. Johnny's head swam from his intoxicating smell and he wondered if Lou's hands would feel as good as the words that floated over his skin.
“And what is it you dream of, so very loudly?”
“Being a star. I will be.”
“Yes, you will,” Lil agreed.
“And what will you give for this dream?” Lou ran a slow hand over Johnny's cheek.
“All I have. It ain't much.”
Lil moved closer, not seeming to care that she was still topless. Johnny kept looking between her breasts and her face, unable to focus. He barely noticed the way Lou pulled his longish blond hair back from his face.
“He's lovely,” Lil said. “All that raw need and desire and energy.” Lou nodded and she kissed him, just grazing his mouth with her lips. Sparks danced along his lips as if he'd just tried playing an electric guitar with his teeth, like some of the crazier acts did.
Johnny hesitated. She was another man's woman, even if Lou wasn't exactly a man. He shot a glance at Lou and saw the man smile. Lil kissed him again and this time he dove in, losing himself in her mouth, a wild place, as untamed and dangerous as the cypress sloughs and bayous around them. There was no sweetness in the kiss, only primal desire and lust. Her teeth were sharp.
“My turn,” Lou said when Lil released Johnny. He turned Johnny around and kissed him. Johnny hadn't expected that, but yielded to the demanding mouth over his after a bare moment's hesitation. Lou controlled the kiss as much as Lil had, but kissed much harder. Johnny met it with an aggressiveness he hadn't shown the lady. “Hungry little man,” Lou chuckled when they parted. Johnny just panted. He felt like he'd been clobbered with a hoe-handle and the stars were just starting to go away.
“He's delicious.” Lil pressed her breasts into Johnny's back, pushing him into Lou's chest. She licked his neck, her tongue hotter than the Arkansas night “Johnny, we can make your dream come true.”
He looked at her, still slightly dazed and completely befuddled with arousal. “Can you? What are you? Record execs?”
Lou laughed softly and ran his hands over Johnny's chest. “Something like that. If nothing else, we can get you to Nashville. And our sleeper is much more comfortable than an abandoned gas station.”
Lil smiled, showing too many sharp teeth, her fangs white in the moonlight. “Oh, Johnny. Full moon. Crossroads...” She ran one fang over his throat and all he wanted was to let her bite him.
“Think, boy,” Lou urged him. His mouth, so close, and his hands, playing with Johnny's nipples, pinching in a way that hovered somewhere between pain and arousal, left Johnny absolutely incapable of thought.
Johnny raised one eyebrow as they reiterated his own earlier thoughts. “You're making my dream come true? Or I'm making yours?” He gave a soft groan as Lil ground against his hard cock.
Lil looked at her husband and hissed, “I told you puns don't work in print.” She pressed even closer to Johnny, trapping him between their bodies. “Pretty singer, we've seen so many like you, so few we came to. Fewer still took the offer.”
“You know the price for your dream, don't you, Johnny?” Lou asked.
Johnny nodded. He knew all right. This pair could make him anything, bigger than the Beatles if he asked for it, but the price was awful steep. Too steep, his grandparents would have said. Then again, they seemed to really like him, so how bad could it be? “Yeah," he said, slowly. “Pretty much. I'll give it.”
Lil kissed him again, her body cool marble against his own. “You drive, Lou.” They hoisted his gear into the side-box of the truck. He kept his guitar close in his hands. Lil climbed up and sat in the bunk, shedding her shirt as she went.
“You can ride shotgun. Or...” She ran one long manicured scarlet nail down his neck then over her own breast, pausing to flick the nipple. She sucked the finger suggestively, looking at Johnny.
He smiled, feeling dopey. “Or?” He meant it to sound like a suave seduction, as if he had women all the time. It came out like a clod of dirt hitting the ground and made him sound dumb. He kicked himself for the stupidity.
Lil seemed used to such behavior. “You can come join me.”
Lou climbed into the driver's seat and turned to steal a kiss from her. Johnny put his guitar in the passenger floor-well and joined her at once. He pulled his thin cotton work shirt off.
“Enjoy,” Lou said. He pulled the privacy curtains closed and started the truck. They glided out into the delta night.
Lil only left one little light on in the bunk. She drew Johnny closer. “You do like boys, don't you?”
“Love them. Part of why I have to get out.”
She smiled. “Ah, good. That must have been so hard for you here.” She kissed him, slowly, and her hand came to rest over the fly of his jeans. Johnny thought he was going to die if she didn't get down to his skin real soon now.
“Lot of things hard lately.” Her kisses were making sure of that. He groaned as she gave his cock a little squeeze and moved to play in his hair.
She laughed. “Clever boy. You'll do just fine.” She let the long fine blond strands fall through her fingers. “You'll need a makeover, of course. Right now, you look like a farmer just off a bender.” She stripped away his undershirt and opened his jeans. “New clothes, as well.”
“I'm all yours.”
Lil laughed again at that and kissed him more, her lips exploring his face and neck, brushing over his chest and lingering at his nipples. He squirmed under her kisses and shivered every time he felt her teeth. Whenever he tried to touch her, she moved somehow so he couldn't quite get hold of those big pale tits that he wanted to taste so badly.
By the time they turned onto the interstate about twenty-minutes later, Johnny was whimpering. When Lou finally parked, what felt like a million years later, he couldn't make any noise at all. All he wanted in that instant was to come, come until his balls exploded, until his ears popped, until Lil was covered in white jizz even whiter than her skin.
Lou slipped into the bunk without opening the curtains much. His kissed Lil and then Johnny. Johnny pressed up, begging Lou to be forceful and end the torment that the soft kisses and little nibbles were leaving him in.
“How is he?”
She smiled. “Beyond ready.”
“Yes,” Johnny gasped. His hips pumped against empty air.
“Tell me what you want, Johnny, right now.” Lou stripped off his tight black t-shirt to show a nicely built smooth chest.
Johnny shuddered. “I want to come. I need it.” He knew he sounded like he was begging.
Lou seemed to ignore him and kissed Lil instead. He took it slow, teasing and then forcing her to take his tongue in, his hands rough on her breasts, pinching the nipples until they turned bright pink and stood up as hard as Johnny's cock. The soft moans from Lil, the wet sounds of their mouths, the whispery rasp of skin on skin all turned the simple kiss into something almost pornographic.
“He needs it, darling,” Lil whispered when Johnny gave a soft moan.
Lou turned and seized Johnny's face in both hands, pressing him back against the wall of the sleeper, and kissing him hard. His tongue ravaged and demanded as it invaded Johnny's mouth. Johnny's cock jerked and the need in his belly wound to a fever pitch.
Lou let his mouth go and then kissed the head of his cock. There was no sucking, nothing but the graze of his lips, the mustache and beard tickling. Johnny thrust up toward his mouth before he could stop himself. Lou pulled away and kissed his mouth again. Lil kissed the head, a fast flick of her tongue along his slit.
“Oh fuck,” Johnny gasped.
Both of them pulled away. Lil lay back, spread her legs and ran two fingers over her vulva, opening herself for him. She circled and stroked her clit with the index finger of her other hand. Her nail polish was the color of old blood in the dim light.
Lou moved behind him and wrapped his arms around Johnny's chest. His breath burned on Johnny's ear. His fingers pinched Johnny's nipples, making them stand up like Lil's had. Johnny let out a half-sobbing breath.
“Do you want her, boy?” he breathed. Lil slipped two fingers into her cunt and moved them, the wet, inviting sound making Johnny lick his lips. “Look at her. You want her. Want to taste her, to feel her engulf you.”
“Yeah.” Johnny's eyes were riveted to the slim white fingers and soft red flesh before him. His balls ached, making him want to be inside her, his cock drooled with eagerness.
Lil left off and sat up. She ran her nails over Johnny's chest and teased his lips with the wet fingertips. His tongue flicked out to taste them and she laughed. She turned Johnny to look at Lou, licking along his neck and sucking his earlobe as she did. Lou stroked his own cock, bringing it fully erect, seeming content to watch Lil and Johnny.
“You want him, too,” Lil said and nipped his earlobe. “You want him inside you, don't you? Taste him, let him fuck you.”
Johnny moaned again, as Lou gave him a very sexy smile. He couldn't stop looking at the thick cock, imagining how it would taste and feel. “Yes. You can both have me.”
Lil wrapped her hand around his cock and Lou ducked his head to swallow it. Johnny nearly whooped with pleasure. He bucked up into Lou's mouth when Lil kissed him. She nipped his neck after a moment.
“Come,” Lil said.
As if the word was a trigger in his balls, he did, shooting into Lou's mouth. Lou let him finish, but didn't swallow. Instead he moved up to kiss Lil. Through half-shut eyes, Johnny watched them enjoy one of those long porno kisses, the kind that looked more intense than the blowjob he'd just had.
Lil lay down and pulled Johnny with her. “Sleep now, dear boy.” She kissed him, sweet and dry, companionable and not at all sexy. “Right here with us. It is late and we put you to hard use.”
“Good, though.” Johnny kissed her back and yawned. Lou curled around him from behind, his arms around both Johnny and Lil.
“We'll have a taste of Lilith tomorrow, dear boy,” he promised. He kissed Johnny's neck. “And I'll fuck you through the mattress.”
Johnny wasn't listening anymore. Exhausted from a hard day's work, a long night's walking and a most excruciating pleasure, he was already asleep in Lil's arms.
***
“Good evening, Johnny.” Lil stretched and peeked out of the curtains. Johnny opened one eye and realized they had gotten no farther than the West Memphis dog track. “Oh, look at us. We've slept the day away.”
Lou kissed her and then kissed Johnny. “Indeed. But night's the best time.” He stretched too and Johnny watched his muscles through half-shut eyes. They were both hotter than an August cotton field, he decided. He'd dreamed about them all day, about fucking and being fucked, about eating Lil while Lou sucked him and sucking Lou in tandem with Lil or while Lil sucked him off. Most of all, he'd dreamed of being a star, performing, before an audience full of people who wore their faces.
Lou lay back down beside him and stole another kiss. “There's a hot shower in Nashville, but I have a more pressing need.”
Johnny felt Lou's very hard cock against his thighs and woke up fast. His own morning wood was standing at attention and reminding him he was in bed with a very sexy couple.
Lil kissed him. “Let him fuck you,” she whispered. “I like to watch.”
Lou kissed him. “Fuck her. You know you want to.”
Johnny rolled on top of Lil who was already on her back and spreading for him. He stroked her with two fingers and found she was already wet. She squirmed a little at that and he slid into her with no more preparation than that. She wasn't as wet as he'd thought and he heard her gasp a little. For fucking Lou's big cock, she was still tight.
“Take him, Lou darling,” Lil said and clenched around him. He pumped at her a little. “Oh yes, dear Johnny. Nice and deep.” She nipped his throat. “And just as hard as you want to.”
“Lil... honey...” he managed.
“Yes?” She licked his neck, her voice as coolly controlled as if she were discussing the road conditions.
“Surely I'm not the first?”
“No, babe. Not even close.” Johnny gasped as Lou slipped two well-lubed fingers into him. The bare head of Lou's cock started in. “Wait. Condoms.” The thought was automatic.
Lil laughed and Lou joined her until the truck rang with it. “Johnny, my boy,” Lou said, “you know what we are.”
Lil flashed her fangs at him and as he watched, ivory horns peered out of her hair. The fear those sent crawling through his bones only made him hotter. “These bodies neither harbor disease nor make germ cells, lover. You can't get me pregnant and we are very clean.”
Johnny sighed as Lou worked at sheathing himself fully. When Lou's balls hit his ass, he gave a soft cry. “Big boy,” he said, then flinched at the banality. Lou chucked and Johnny felt his beard on the back of his neck.
He held still, trapped between them. Fear wasn't the only thing stopping him. He felt like he was going to explode just staying still. Their gorgeous bodies trapped him. He knew he was gambling with his very soul and had probably already lost, but he just had to see how it all turned out. Right now, he just needed to come and come and come until he passed out from the force of it.
“Isn't it nice?” Lil nibbled the other side of his neck. “That's all, Johnny. You did fine.” She smiled up at them both. “Sexy men.”
Johnny bent down and kissed her, letting her fangs scrape his tongue, filling both their mouths with blood. In response, she rubbed up against him, soft and wet, her nipples hard spots in the softness of her breasts as they pressed against his chest. Lou moved; slow, rough strokes that seemed to set Johnny's spine on fire.
When Johnny stole a glance back, Lou was smiling, his fangs showing. Lil was smiling, too. He closed his eyes. They could have whatever they wanted as long as they made him a star, or at least made him come, which was the foremost thing on his mind. The latter grew into an even larger concern as Lil and Lou set up a rhythm that drove him higher up the scale until his nerves all vibrated at a high D.
“Darling Johnny, you know who we are,” Lil said.
“My doom,” Johnny whispered, laying his head on Lil's shoulder.
“Your good fortune,” Lou corrected.
“Are you mine, sweet boy? Will you take what I give you?” Lil's hands moved along his side, stroking both him and Lou. “And give us what we require?” He felt her scary fingernails not quite breaking his skin. She could flay him alive, he had no doubt. He'd let her, if it meant he could come.
“Yeah, all of it.” He choked out the words. The darkness in the truck-cab seemed to deepen and a vague sensation of something leaving him flashed over his consciousness.
Lil set her teeth to one side of his neck. He shivered at their touch. “Ours.”
Johnny felt Lou at the other, the sharp fangs ready. His silken voice said “Ours.”
They bit simultaneously and Johnny screamed. Behind him, Lou slammed deep, pulsing hot, far too hot for a normal man, into him. Beneath him, Lil spasmed with orgasm.
Johnny shuddered, tipped over the brink himself, exploding in a pure crescendo that made his head ring like he'd been in front of the amps for hours. He lost all sensation except the pure, clear supernova; of climax. He came down, slowly, not wanting it to end. He wanted it again. He'd brave hell and damnation if they would only make him do that again and again.
Lou licked him clean of the blood and pulled out. “Yes, Johnny.” The softly purred words were promise and threat both, a contract made in the blood they had taken, a guarantee that while Johnny would have such experiences, the orgasms themselves might become his damnation.
Lou reached for the baby wipes and offered them to both Johnny and Lil. Johnny snorted at the prosaic act, still trying to wrap his head around the last hour. Lou leaned around Johnny and kissed Lil, pressing the three of them together. Johnny's cock twitched, but it wasn't ready for another round.
“You've got some more driving hours on the clock, honey,” he said and sat up. Seeing Johnny's puzzled look, he sighed. “Even the Speed Demon bows to might of the Department of Transportation.”
Johnny took a wipe to clean up and pulled away, letting Lil up. After all that, they still worried about log books and weigh stations. He shook his head and used the wipe.
Lil smiled and licked at an errant drop of blood that had traced a scarlet track down his chest. He shivered. “We've sealed the bargain,” she said and flicked her tongue over his nipple, before nipping it with her fangs. She laughed at his moan. “I have to drive. Lou, teach our boy what he needs to know.”
Johnny watched her slip back into her tight jeans and cherry-red cowboy boots. She didn't bother with a bra, but popped a deep crimson v-neck sweater over her head. She slipped out to check the truck over.
Lou watched him stare. “Amazing woman. She could have been your species' mother, were Adam not a domineering prick. Let her have the top next time.”
Johnny nodded, still dumbfounded. “I like ladies on top.”
“She will astound you.” Lou didn't get dressed but slipped into a black silk robe. He picked up a comb and started untangling his shoulder-length black hair. He'd finished with his and started on Johnny's when Lil climbed back in and started the truck.
“Clean him up while you're at it,” Lil suggested as she started the engine.
Johnny felt very weird having the big hands play in his hair, but Lou's touch was gentle as he got the knots out. Johnny listened, drowsy from sex and blood-loss, as Lou talked.
“Your hair is perfect, long and sun-bleached. A bit ragged, but that's easily remedied. And you will need to shave or grow a fuller beard. You can keep it short. That looks very nice.” Lou stroked along his jaw and around his mouth and Johnny felt something happening.
Lou touched his neck and the bites healed to scars. He held up a mirror. Johnny just stared. His hair looked like he'd just come from the barber and his beard was nice and neat, very short and sexy. The scars stood out bright red on his neck.
He rubbed at them and Lou moved his hand away. “No, don't touch them. They will bleed from time to time. This means only that we are pleased with you.” Lou kissed one scar and rubbed the back of Johnny's neck. “Are you stiff?”
Johnny glanced at his crotch automatically and looked up to see Lou grinning at him. Lil took the exit a little too fast, laughing at them. Lou spared a pat for Johnny's cock and said, “Stretch out on your stomach.”
“Better tell him the rules, honey,” Lil said over her shoulder.
Lou's hands worked over Johnny's back and neck, working out the kinks and tight places from a month of hard labor and an evening of acrobatic sex. He bent down to kiss Johnny's neck.
“You have the gift, Johnny. You will be big, very, very big. We will see to it.” He kissed Johnny between the shoulder blades. “But there are rules that govern your success. No more church. I know all you southern boys start singing there, but you may never set foot in one again.”
Johnny shrugged. “Didn't like it anyway.” He'd always hated church. Getting up early, dressing in the stiff good clothes, sitting in the hot little building on the hard benches and listening drove him out of his mind. Grandpa had never been afraid to thunder God's wrath down on him for squirming too much. He'd taken to reading the violent or dirty parts of the Bible during the sermon as soon as he could. Grandpa never called him out from the pulpit after that
“Not for weddings or funerals even,” Lou warned. “No matter how your family reacts.”
Johnny flinched at that. He had a couple sisters and grandma was getting up there. But Lou kept rubbing and talking in that low hypnotic voice and they all seemed unimportant. Maybe if he paid for the funerals and weddings, they could do them in the funeral parlors and parks.
“Nothing even pertaining to the other side. No holiday music, except the most secular. Now if you can make one filthy, go for it.”
Johnny laughed at that idea. “Sounds like my thing. My favorite is 'Santa's gonna kick your ass,' anyway.”
Lou kissed him lower on the spine, sending tingles through Johnny's body. “No Gospel records, not even as backup. Not if the Statler Brothers themselves ask you. Not even as a guitar player. Your new guitar won't play the enemy's music.”
Johnny wrinkled his nose. His grandparents had never allowed anything on their record player or radio besides gospel and preaching. The worst hiding he'd ever taken was when Grandpa had caught him listening to a rock-and-roll station on the big old Philco. “Hate them.”
Lil chuckled. “I told you he was the right one. I've been watching him, Lou. He has sex fantasies while his Mama reads the daily devotion at breakfast.”
Johnny blushed, but Lou didn't seem to notice. “Only when it's something sexy,” Johnny mumbled.
“All your work is in variants of thirteen. Thirteen songs per set or twenty-six per concert. Twenty-six per album.” Johnny nodded. “If you are asked, it is simply your lucky number. And never go thirty-nine. Three belongs to the other side.”
Lou kissed him just above the swell of his butt and Johnny shivered. “You may never marry.” Johnny smiled. So far this didn't sound too complicated at all. “Fuck all you like, the more the better.”
“I can handle that,” Johnny agreed.
“Men. Women. Both at the same time. Do limit yourself to adults. We'll leave the children to the clergy, shall we? Take up any vices you like. However, you are not to miss a concert or recording session because of them.”
Johnny shuddered as the silver tongue swiped along the crack of his ass.
Lil sighed and changed lanes. “No-show Jones,” she said.
“Final rule,” Lou said and Johnny felt a piece of thick paper settle on his back. “At the end of thirty-six years, you are ours.”
“That's all I got, huh?”
Lou swatted him and he felt something very hot hit the other side of the paper and burn his back. “Would you prefer seven? That's the usual contract.”
“No, no,” Johnny hasted to reassure him. “Thirty-six is great.”
“Besides, how pathetic is it when geriatric old farts get out on the stage and try to rock like they're thirty?” Lou asked, nibbling one of Johnny's ass-cheeks. “On your sixtieth birthday, we'll be in the crowd and backstage with cake. They will be a good three decades.”
“So what happens if I break 'em?”
Lil parked the truck at the Jackson rest-area and shot Lou a very dark grin. He returned it and Johnny shuddered. She pulled the curtains and joined them in the sleeper.
“If you violate the contract deliberately, you are in default and we no longer have to keep our end,” Lou said. “If, however, a power outage prevents you from performing all thirteen songs, there is some leeway. We do recognize rain checks.”
“We'll be there almost at once, for a major infraction,” Lil added, her angular face going almost skeletal.
Johnny saw and knew he wouldn't be making a major infraction. He tried not to show his fear. “Hmm. I think I know what happened to Hendrix and Morrison now.”
Lil licked her red lips. “Sweet Jim,” she whispered, looking wistful and hungry at the same time.
Johnny smirked, pleased he'd gotten that one right.
Lou rolled Johnny over, pinned him down with one hand on his throat, and glowered at him. Johnny stared up at the handsome face, seeing Lou's own horns for the first time. Lil's had been sexy last night. But in gathering twilight, when he knew it was no dream or wild fantasy, all he found them was terrifying.
“Don't try breaking it,” Lou snarled. Johnny shivered, feeling deep in his bones what the very sexy man truly was. “We're good friends to have, but lousy creditors. Some guys think they're smart. Like that Daniels asshole. And Daniel Webster may have gotten old Jabez Stone off, but I had them both in the end.”
“They don't call him the king of lawyers for nothing, dear,” Lil added.
As Johnny looked up—way up, surely Lou hadn't been that big a minute ago—he understood the seriousness of the deal. “Got it.”
Lou let him up and seemed to shrink back into the good-looking driver Johnny had first seen. Johnny rubbed his neck a little and looked at Lil.
Lil kissed him. “Don't fret, child. It's not all on you. We'll see you often, since you may call on us for help with any contracts. In fact, we insist. Elvis turned into such a mess with that dreadful Colonel.”
“How do I call you?” Johnny didn't have a cell phone and it seemed ridiculous that the devil would have one.
Lil held up a guitar pick, made of black stone, too thick and heavy to use. Johnny took it, feeling its heat as he weighed it in his palm. “You'll know how to use it when you need it,” she promised.
Lou had returned to rubbing him, chest and arms and shoulders, interspersed with kisses. Lil just watched them. Lou's cock poked him in the belly, hard and wanting attention.
“Are you game for another round?” Lil whispered, kissing him, the sharpness of her fangs disturbingly erotic on his tongue. “I like to watch Lou work.” She moved away from the bed and sat in one of the front seats.
Johnny nodded. Lou nudged his legs apart and aligned their hard cocks between their bellies. He rocked against Johnny, the hot satin of his shaft sliding along Johnny's own. Decadent and utterly male in execution, the act brought Johnny off like a geyser.
When Lou rolled off of him to lie beside him, Lil moved in to lick them both, her tongue oddly rough, like a cat's. Johnny moaned, feeling himself get ready for a third time.
“Never been that quick before.”
“Never had a sexy devil like me before,” Lou teased.
“True on every particular,” Johnny agreed. “Especially the sexy.” He groaned as Lil spread his legs farther to suck on his balls. “Lil, honey, please, you're killing me.”
She laughed. “Not yet.” She licked his head. “Such a pretty pecker and all for me.” She straddled him and took him in, shedding her sweater as she lowered herself.
“You got the most gorgeous tits,” Johnny said. She lowered them to him and he licked her stiff nipples, before settling in to suck one.
Lou kissed his neck and ear. “She's amazing isn't she?' He sucked at the other, clutching the breast in a way that looked painful to Johnny. Lil moaned when he bit, coming in a flood around Johnny's cock. Johnny tried a hard nibble and she came again.
“Uh-huh.” Johnny was lost when she bore down and her twat seemed to clench shut around him, clutching him tight, tighter than anything he'd been in, making him come almost at once.
Lil collapsed atop them and Johnny slowly went soft. She stood up as soon as he was out and pulled her clothes on, scowling at the clock. “Gotta get you where you're going.”
Johnny lay beside Lou for another hour, letting Lou teach him new music, half by repetition, half by osmosis.
“Name him, darling,” Lil said from the front seat as they screamed down the long hill toward Music City.
“Jubal,” Lou whispered in his ear. “You are Johnny Cotton to the rest of the world, but your real name is Jubal.”
Johnny shivered, the sound of it like music on his skin.
“Jubal was the great-grandson, five times removed, of Cain and one of my daughters,” Lil put in. “He's the father of all musicians.”
“Good name,” Johnny-now-Jubal agreed.
“Get dressed, darlings, we're almost there.” Lil slowed the truck from its highway speed to the city pace. She pulled off on the exit ramp near Music Row and parked illegally in a grocery store's lot.
“So is it goodbye? Or just later?” Johnny asked.
“Later. Until you get your first contract. Carry the pick in your pocket to every studio meeting.”
Lou handed him his guitar case and suitcase. Then he handed over a small satchel. “Thirty-six years, dear boy.”
Lil blew him a kiss and the big black truck roared off toward Kentucky. Johnny walked a ways, up to the Row, and found a bench under a street light. There was a tag on the satchel that said, “Open this compartment first.”
He did and found a wallet, with money and cards for the heads of all the major studios, with appointment dates. A key ring held a Ford key and a house key. A notebook poked him with its wire spiral. He opened it.
“In the lot of the McDonald's, you will find a red truck. The map of Nashville on the front seat has your apartment marked and your itinerary for the next two weeks. Don't disappoint us, darling. Kisses, L&L.” The spiky handwriting appeared as he read each line. When he looked in his bag, he saw all his clothes had changed into new and glitzier outfits.
In the McDonald's lot, he found a 1990 F150 pickup, not at all new, but clearly in good shape. Over a burger, he traced out his route on the map and drove to his apartment after supper. It wasn't in the best part of town, but it wasn't a total slum. The message on the fridge said his rent had been paid for a year. And that they'd be very disappointed if he had to make a rent payment on this place.
Johnny sat in his new apartment and opened the guitar case. Instead of the cheap, blond wood Yamaha with its dollar slicks and plastic frets, he gawked at a twelve-string Gibson SJ-200 True Vintage acoustic. He stared. That model was only supposed to be made as a six-string. The maple box gleamed mellowly in the lamplight and the strings shone. Spares were tucked into the case, Cleartone EMPs, with the hex core and the micron coating.
Johnny let out a low whistle. When he went with Lou and Lil, he went first class, at least musically. He strummed the guitar and got a low sexy growl out of the strings. It played like Waylon Jennings sounded. Perfect.
He looked it over more closely and realized the vine pattern on the fret-board wasn't quite standard. When he touched one of the silver-inlaid swirls, he could swear he felt Lil's mouth on his, in one of her light sexy kisses. He pressed at one of the mother-of-pearl leaves and he could feel Lou's cock, long and hard against the crack of his ass and Lou's arms around him. Oh yes, this would be a fun guitar to play.
A rolled parchment scroll lay in the bottom of the case. Johnny unrolled it. It was a contract, signed in blood, outlining his duties and benefits as Jubal, rocker in the hire of Lou and Lil Schiffer.
***
They were waiting in the wings before he went out.
Johnny hadn't seen Lil and Lou for years, not since he'd locked into a thirteen-year contract. They'd delivered on everything. He had six Grammies and a mansion full of gold and platinum records. He wasn't bigger than the Beatles, but he was bigger than Skynyrd and that was enough for him. Last summer, Johnny Cotton had been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
He'd left a string of broken hearts that had included some very beautiful actresses and some very talented rockers, as well as a lot of has-beens, gonna-bes, wanna-bes and no-talents of all sexes.
Over the years, he'd met a few others also under contact to the Schiffers. He was the only one who'd displayed the contract so blatantly, framed on his living room wall, the drippy dried-blood pentagram inverted at the bottom.
He'd spent a month of nights in the arms of a soulful pop balladeer who had smiled sadly upon seeing it. That affair's sweetness had paid for the nuisance of having to publicly snub a notorious satanic-goth rocker, who had turned into Johnnie's instant groupie upon seeing the contract, until Mr. Goth got the point.
He smiled at Lou and Lil. They looked exactly as they had the night they'd found him in Greasy Corner. He knew he was older, gray in his hair and beard and lines on his face. “Thanks for everything.”
“Happy birthday, dear,” Lil said and kissed him.
“We'll see you after the show, Jubal,” Lou said and stole his own kiss.
He gave them a smile and strode out on stage. The crowd was hot tonight, giving him back all the energy he sent out. He did twenty-five songs, instead of the thirteen that had his been his norm for the last five years. His doctor had told him to start coddling his pipes a little more then and he'd taken that advice. But after tonight, there were no more concerts and no reason not to give the folks their money's worth. The crowd roared, dancing in the aisles and singing along.
Before the last song, Johnny took the microphone in hand and walked along the edge of the stage, reaching down to touch all the straining hands. He spoke slowly, smiling. “All right, folks. It's my birthday today and I just want to tell you, you've been the best birthday present an old rocker like me could ever get. And the best goodbye crowd I could have asked for. So I just want to say thank you. Thank you for coming to my last show. Good night folks. Good night, Lil and Lou, wherever you are.”
The band swung into the rock version of “How Bad Do You Want It?” and Johnny sang his revised lyrics that had closed every show for thirty-six years.
“Johnny Cotton went to the crossroads
So my legend goes.
I got this here guitar.
And the devil took my soul,
The devil took my soul!”
And the crowd went wild.
