Chapter One

"Come on Lancer, let's show them how it's done, baby," Candy Arnold said with a big smile.

The roaring of the crowd rang like a gong. Sheer excitement keyed the air. Beneath her the horse moved with an exact sameness. Softly ploughed dirt scattered under Lancer's hoofs, as trick rider and beast attuned themselves.

Not bad. Candy responded with another flashing smile as the crowd cheered her on. She circled the arena as she maneuvered for the running trick mounts. Timing was ultra critical. Lancer sprang into action upon her signals. Half way through the next trick, as she whirled about the horse like an acrobat, there was another roar of cheers and whistles. Candy felt her confidence soar.

She sensed the danger instantly, but it was too late to do anything about it. She felt Lancer's head going down too soon. The turn was too wide. The horse stumbled and faltered, sending her careening to the ground, face first. She gritted her teeth and, strangely enough, she could hear the breath rush from her lungs. Stunned, she lay immobile. Where was Lancer?

A black void threatened to overcome her but she fought it back. Had the crowd hushed or had she lost her hearing, too? Trying to regain her composure, she opened her eyes and locked gazes with the meanest, angriest bull she had ever seen--only a few yards away

Obviously, it looked good to the crowd; they roared with blind excitement. They didn't know it, but this wasn't part of her act.

White-hot fear shot through her.

Was this the end? Was that mad, drooling, over-grown bulldozer going to be her demise? At least it was a befitting death, she mused, as her body refused to move.

The rodeo clowns sprang into action, but the bull wasn't interested in their antics. No--he had something else on his mind. One familiar clown worked diligently to distract him. It didn't work. The bull gave an angry snort, then fastened his blood-red eyes on Candy. One of his hoof's dug a short path deeper and deeper into the soft ploughed ground.

Once more the crowd fell silent.

Candy's eyes widened; sweat trickled between her breasts. She was welded to the soft earth. Fear surged through her in ripples of awareness.

They called the bull White Demon, and for good reason. Candy gulped back a sob.

Come on, get it over with, her mind cried as she closed her eyes. She smelled the good, clean earth one last time; she felt her heart hammer against her chest. She gritted her teeth.