Quicsilver Messenger

Chapter 1

The Buffalo Bend Saloon, otherwise known by the locals as "The Bend", was packed with the usual crowd blowing off steam. They were celebrating the end of another week; it was another Friday night in Alpine, Texas.

As usual April Hunt was holding court and spending her time with her friends on a Friday night at 'The Bend'. Most of the night consisted of drinking, lots of talking, gossiping, dancing and some food. The crowd was rowdy, the local band played the music loud, but almost everyone came to the Saloon to socialize. It was a great place to mingle and get together. After all none of the drink was watered down, food was good pub grub, and the music was loud in the background, until someone wanted to dance.

April was the most beautiful women in the room and was always the center of attention. Tonight, she was wearing a skin tight, vibrant, almost electric blue mini dress that set off her blue eyes, blonde hair and fabulous figure. The dress wrapped around her prefect figure and would have made her the center of attention anyway. That her father owned a large chunk of the town and the largest ranch in West Texas also helped her popularity.

April had it all. She was the high school homecoming queen two years in a row and the Sul Ross homecoming queen as well. She was the head of the Sul Ross Lobo's cheer leading squad, on the track team, swim team and was set to graduate magna cum laude in pre-Med school in next month. Despite all this she only had a couple of close friends and no real steady boyfriend at the moment. She was very careful about whom she let get close to her.

In addition, April had been a very popular teen and adult model. She had modeled all over the world, but always came back home. She didn't need the money, she did it because she loved being pampered and spoiled, plus it fed her exhibitionist side. She loved having every eye in the room focused on her, and when her swimsuit and lingerie shoots came out the guys in Alpine went crazy. While her beauty was legendary, her brilliant mind, philanthropic and charity work were only known by a few.

It was her intimating beauty and wealth that kept the men away. It was the same reason she was alone tonight. Her rich and powerful father, combined with her devastating beauty intimated most suitors. It seemed most good men never came near her, only the bad boys. She had become good at spotting what the bad boys wanted. Her friends really enjoyed watching her destroy would be suitors. Most of her local friends didn't even know how to play the kind of games that she did.

April had seen her share of grifters and gigolos trying to get to her father through her or just trying to put another beauty queen notch on their belt. She loved being the center of attention, was kind to everyone she met and loved to help people when she could. All of these wonderful traits left her vulnerable to people trying to run scams on her or trying to steal their share of the family fortune. So despite her innocent beauty, her radar was well honed leaving her street smart and wary of anyone she didn't know.

April's group was off to the left side of the stage with lots of hangers on, wandering in and out of April's aura hoping to connect or at least be noticed. The rest of the Saloon was similarly divided into knots of like-minded people and all seemed to having a great time. After all it was a Friday night in Alpine, Texas.

However, there was a lone man sitting at the bar close to the door. He was well dressed in a black button-down shirt, blue jeans, Ostrich Lucchese boots and a black Stetson. He had a beer in front of him, but it didn't look as if he had touched it. To the casual observer he seemed lost in thought or pondering his next apology to his girlfriend.

To the trained observer the only thing that seemed to interest him was April and she was never out of his sight. All of his movements were covert, never drawing attention to the object of his surveillance. He would occasionally talk to other people at the bar, but his eyes always wandered back towards April's area of the bar.

As the night wore on the man's beer just got warm, while April was having a great time oblivious to the man at the bar. When April went out to the dance floor the man in the black shirt turned to keep her in his vision. Likewise, when she went to the restroom, he would walk over to the back side of the saloon to keep an eye on the restroom doors.

His plan was as bold as it was daring and there were plenty of potential problems. However, the one starter requirement was April's unwitting part in his little drama. Without her none of this would make any sense. She was his pawn or maybe his bait.

At about 11:30 April started packing up to go home. As usual some of her friends kept teasing her about leaving so early and some of the other guys in the bar starting making their last-ditch effort to have April come home with them. She knew what she wanted, nearly always got what she desired and right now she wanted to go home alone.

April putting on her long coat was a signal ... she was leaving and that was it. April's close friend Tera made moves to leave with her, but she was told to stay and have a good time. April gave her a hug and air kiss, telling her she would see her later.

The man at the bar waited until April had paid her bar tab. He dropped a ten spot on the bar then he slipped outside, his now warm beer still untouched.

Although April's long coat covered most of her, every eye the place followed her out the door. As she stepped out the door into the brisk November air, she felt alone and wished she had someone she could snuggle with in front of a warm fire. Instead she turned up her collar and headed for her BMW Z3.

April was proud of her car and always parked in a remote part of the parking lot so no one would ding her car. About half way through the parking lot she began to fish her keys out of her purse and looked down to find her keys. While her eyes were downcast looking in her purse, two arms suddenly wrapped in a bear hug. A pungent smelling cloth was pressed over her nose and mouth stifling her startled gasp.

April took a big breath to scream, but as she did her head began to spin and her legs started to buckle. As the blackness started over take her, she remembered strong arms picking her up and carrying her as she blacked out.

Chapter 2

BBBBBBBRRRRRRRRUUUUUUBBBBBB. Steve jerked the steering wheel hard to the left. The 93 Mustang Cobra responded effortlessly and swerved back from the rumble strip onto Interstate 10. It was well after midnight, and he had been listening to a Norah Jones CD. He loved her music, and she had mellowed him out, but right now he needed some good driving music.

He reached over to the seat beside him and opened his big CD case. After popping out the Norah Jones CD he popped in the CD labeled, Road Trip 1. Within a few seconds one of his all-time favorite songs started rumbling through the speakers. The first chords of Mike and the Mechanics,

Silent Running

were always a bit weird, but then the melody kicked in. Steve didn't know what it was up this particular song that touched him so, the words always struck a chord, but the melody drove through him.

"Hey, pay attention to the road and quit daydreaming." Steve said to himself. He had been day dreaming about the country, and how he was going to miss Texas. Well, talking to himself wasn't so bad, at least he didn't answer himself. He was also daydreaming about his going away party in Corpus Christi and it had been nothing short of epic.

The party had been held at the Cureo Club (Cuero is Spanish for leather) and Steve was one of the top Dom's. Even though his day job was in engineering, Steve was one of the most requested Dom's for a session. He had a reputation as a top capable of pushing any bottom, regardless of experience, into subspace. He was very mechanical and emotionless as he stripped a Sub of all thought reducing her to base feelings and emotions.

For his going away party five bottoms had been chosen by lottery and bound on the main stage. Each was bound differently, with one in stocks, two were in various forms of suspension, one was bound to whipping post and the last was bound to a St. Andrews cross. The objective was to take each bottom to that special Nirvana that only someone in subspace can achieve. Before he began Steve made sure that Sub had someone that could provide them aftercare. Since he would be busy with the next bottom, someone else would have to provide the very critical aftercare.

Steve began with a very svelte strawberry blonde bound in stocks. He used his hands, floggers and riding crops to stimulate her and vibrators and his own fingers to take away the pain. In the beginning her white alabaster skin became crisscrossed with red stripes until her all her skin was glowing red. At this point she had the shallow breathing and thousand-yard stare of someone in subspace. Steve ended the session using his fingertip vibrators and a big wand vibrator to give her three massive gut twisting cums. On the last orgasm her legs couldn't hold her anymore and she sagged against the stocks. With her neck caught in stocks she couldn't breathe and Steve had to act quickly to get her out of the stocks. He turned her over to the person responsible for her aftercare after he made sure she was okay.

When he was sure she was okay he moved to an overweight, but still sexy brunette suspended on her tiptoes. She had watched the previous session and was already so aroused that it didn't take much to push her into subspace. Only when she was hanging limp and exhausted from multiple orgasms did he turned her over to the person responsible for her aftercare.

The rest of the night went much the same way. Each bottom had seen what came before and each had vicariously lived through the whipsaw of pain, pleasure and orgasms. By the time Steve reached them, most were already verging on subspace just from watching the previous sessions. Nonetheless he pushed them through

to the end of their session.

It had taken almost all night, but Steve was finally finished with the last Sub. He felt a sense of accomplishment, but his heart and soul were still empty. In all of his sessions he had hoped someone would challenge him and fill the holes in his heart. Steve spent the next day putting most of his belongings in storage and packing. He had a breakfast sendoff with a few of his close friends and then left for his new engineering job in California.

Steve's musings ended and he looked up seeing the highway 67 exit to Alpine, Texas. He hadn't been to Big Bend National Park since he was 8. When he started planning his trip to California it struck him as a good time to visit the Big Bend area again. Steve took the exit and made the left turn onto Highway 67 and headed south.

When he was 8 his parents took the entire family to a vacation into Big Bend National park. He remembered the stark countryside and having a good time running up the craggy hills around the park, trying to avoid the cactus. He knew that his Dad remembered it differently since the car broke down at the only gas station for 50 miles in any direction. His dad spent most of his time in Big Bend working with a gas station mechanic getting the car fixed. However, while his dad and the mechanic were working on the car, Steve and his brothers were climbing the hills around the gas station. They raced up the hills, only to tumble down as fast as they went up.

It was one of those innocent childhood times that everyone always remembers. He and his brothers always fought about everything, but not on this trip. Being the oldest with the longest legs Steve won all races going up the hill. The tumbling and rolling down the hills were crazy getting dirty, boy type fun, until someone hit a cactus. They were no doubt creating some environmental disaster that would reveal itself twenty years into the future.

So now he was in the middle of the West Texas with nothing but the shapes of scrubby tumbleweeds and Mesquite trees. In the deep dark of the night they would attack the headlights then skulk back into the shadows. The setting moon was low on the horizon, and it was playing hide and seek with the peaks of the Davis Mountains. The full moon would peek over a mountain spotlight his Cobra moving through the night then duck behind another peak leaving him back in the dark.

Steve started to miss Texas even before he left it. So, he had decided to see and photograph some of it before he left. Steve had stopped several places along the way to take photos of any scenic opportunities that popped up. He took photos of the windmills on the Edwards plateau highlighted by the moonlight and a silhouette of the ghostly Fort Stockton, Fort among others.

Now that Steve was headed for Alpine, he thought he would find a place to stay for a quick nap. Then tomorrow travel through some of the Big Bend country and photograph some of the stark mountains and desert.

With the moon creating jagged silhouettes of the mountains Steve saw some beautiful opportunities to take some black and white photographs. He found a wide section of the road and pulled off the road leaving one side of the car on the road. Before he turned off the engine, he put the Cobra in neutral, exited the car and checked how soft the shoulder was. The Cobra is a great car, but it doesn't off-road well and can get stuck easily. The shoulder was crusty, hard packed with sheets of earth cracked and peeling back from lack of rain. Steve got back in the car, parked it further off the road and began to setup his tripod.

Steve usually carried three N-90's loaded with different types of film. Steve had fought the digital trend, because he felt as if he got better color saturation with film. However, film was getting harder to come by, so as well as his film cameras Steve also had his new Nikon digital camera. He preferred some of the new Canon cameras, but the thought of having to replace all of his lenses was daunting and expensive.

Steve pulled out his Gitzo carbon fiber tripod with a three-way head and snapped in the quick release plate attached to his Nikon Camera. After attaching the remote shutter release, he setup some silhouette shots of the mountains and took several shots with varying shutter speeds. He dropped the tripod to a lower level and took shots of the scrub brush glowing in the moonlight.

After spending a half an hour experimenting with different shots, he finally packed up the camera equipment, repacked the Cobra and continued his journey to Alpine, Texas. It was now about 2am, the moon had set below the mountains and the shimmering stars were so bright he almost didn't need the headlights on the car to see the road. The stars were hypnotic and it was easy to let his eyes and mind follow the next shooting star. So he was doing a little daydreaming at night and he had a lot to daydream about.

Steve could tell this side trip was a great decision. The roads were winding with hills and valleys. Yeah, this let him push the Cobra a little, take the curves a little faster than he should have and accelerate though the curves listening to the squealing tires and the rumbling engine. The desert mountain air started to get a little chilly, but with the wind in his face it felt good letting the Cobra stretch its legs.

Crowded House's,

Private Universe

was just ending on the CD player. The windows were open, the music was deafening and it was everything a road trip should be.

Barracuda

from Heart just came on, and it made Steve push just a little bit harder on the gas pedal. The cobra rumbled happily as Steve pushed it around the corners.

This trip was a mulligan. He had been divorced for over a year, taking consulting jobs and seeing the world. Steve was a native Texan, but his next consulting job was in California. However, he didn't have to be in California for a week, so he thought he would take his time and see most of the country along the way.

Steve had just exited a long sweeping turn and on the long straight-away ahead he noticed a large shape in the middle of the road. Originally Steve thought it was a dead animal and again he jerked the wheel to the left with the Cobra responding easily. As he glided around the shape he looked over and damn it looked just like a body. As his eyes automatically popped open he was immediately wide awake and decided he needed to see what it really was. If anyone was hurt he knew they needed his help.

Steve slowed down and did a 180. As he went back his headlights lit up a blonde head attached to a curvy body, wrapped in a slinky blue dress. Okay it is a body, and an extremely gorgeous one at that ... so now what?

Steve eased the Cobra closer to the body but stayed in the car. He remembered several years ago when some carjackers used a body in the road trick to get people to stop and get out of their cars. They would then rob them, and most of the times kill them before taking the car. So he stayed in the car letting his pounding heart settle down. Steve was big, strong and could handle himself very well if it came to it. Why take the chance if he didn't need to?

First, he needed to find out if sexy body was bait for a trap. Steve turned on the Cobra's high beams and did a slow 360. He looked in the bushes to see if there were any other cars or people hiding in the bushes ... Nope, no one. So, he started looking at the body and he couldn't see any signs of injury.

Wait the cell phone. Steve turned it on the phone and dialed 911 ... nothing. He looked at the phone and noticed the dreaded 'No Signal'. Okay, it didn't look like a trap, so time to see if the lady needed help. Steve opened the car door, and half expected someone to jump out of the bushes at him. He sat in the car for a few seconds waiting ... nothing.

Okay ... He started to get out of the car when something grabbed him. His hair was standing on end as he pulled back and tried to punch the unseen attacker. His fists flailed in the, air hitting nothing. It's then that he realized that he had forgotten to unfasten his seat belt. Steve sat back in the seat calming his hair and pulse.

Okay ... so this time he unfastened his seat belt and got out of the car. Steve took some tentative steps towards the body ... waited, then a couple more. He was poised and ready to either defend himself or jump back in the car if anything happened. As he approached the body he began to take notice of the women lying in the road.

She had a flawless figure and she had beautiful slim, muscular legs ... runner's legs. The dress was an electric blue slinky dress that ended high above her knees. She had to have an almost perfect figure to wear a dress like that ... and she did. She had long blonde hair and it would have been down to the middle of her back if it hadn't been spread out around her face.

Her face seemed innocent with a hint of mischief. She didn't look to be more than 18, but that's what most women want to look like. A girl of 15 or a woman of 30 could all look as if they were 18. However, she didn't have the baby soft look of a teenager so he was guessing she was in her early twenties.

Steve bent over her to check her pulse, felt soft warm skin and a steady pulse at her throat. She's alive. He noticed her nostrils flaring and chest rise as she breathed. Steve began to look for signs of an injury, but he knew better than to move her. He noticed some blood on the ground and some matted in her hair ... okay a head injury. No other areas seemed to be bleeding. He felt weird touching an unconscious woman, like he was a pervert or something, but he had to know her injuries. Steve felt her arms, ribs and legs looking for broken bones, cuts ... nothing except the head injury.