Magery

Concordium Chapter 49

Magery Chapter 5

Sebastian

It had taken some arm twisting to get enough mages willing to work on the weekend to complete the ritual Jason had asked for. I had looked up the going rate for magic of this kind and each of the nine participants would be receiving 2 aurei for their services. At one ounce per aureus that came to about $3500 each this weekend for 9 hours work. I had told Jason that it would take more time, but that was an estimate. Professor Thorne showed me that the effect Jason wanted could be brought about by a variation on a standardized ritual. She also agreed to lead the ritual because she was concerned that the velamen arcanum not be violated on her watch. She did insist that Jason be here for the ritual since it was, in her words, his screw up that made the ritual necessary in the first place. We were going to begin the work at 10:00 p.m. on Saturday and work through 7:00 a.m. on Sunday.

That meant that I had to be sure and give Ethan his surprise tonight. I’d be busy tomorrow night. And did I ever have a lot to do. I’d asked Remy Adler to leave Micah on campus tonight to begin the one-week cool-down period on his oath-taking, but he’d insisted that he had possession of Micah until Friday ended. If I’d wanted to be a jerk, I could have insisted on picking him up at midnight, but I settled for Remy dropping him off at 8:00 a.m. Saturday morning instead.

While Ethan slept, I took out my speculum arcanum. I had a fancy flip case that held my magic device on one side and my cellphone on the other. The speculum looked like a mirror when not in use (not really a surprise since speculum was the Latin word for “mirror”), so it raised no eyebrows when mundanes saw it. I contacted Elijah and he agreed to keep Micah at his house this weekend so he could see a different kind of dominant-submissive relationship in action. I would have to ask Jason and Erik if they could take responsibility for him the next weekend. After that it would be family weekend, and hopefully his mother would be here.

Somehow, Ethan had allowed me to become his alarm clock. It was an added responsibility that I didn’t need, but looking at him sprawled face down on the bed I didn’t care. The sheet had been tossed aside, exposing his small round butt. He was muscular, but in that natural boyish way that reflected good genes more than an exercise program. I should just buy him a good magical alarm bracelet, but for now I’d have to do it the mundane way.

I sat on the edge of the bed and traced his storm sigils with my hand. There’d been very little lightning discharge last night when he’d orgasmed so it seemed his channels were clearing as we’d hoped. Ethan stirred beneath my touch, so I let my hand slide down to cup his butt while I bent to kiss his temple. That’s when I noticed that he was only pretending to be asleep.

I smacked his butt playfully and said, “I can see that you’re awake, Puer Aureus. You need to get up before I have to really spank you.”

Puer Aureus, golden boy, that was my pet name for him because of his blond hair and his golden tan. It was also a reference to an old mage saying, “Cur accipire cuprum velis cum aureum tenere possis?” (Why would you want a copper coin when you could embrace a gold coin.)

Ethan started giving off a loud fake snore, so I gave him three rapid swats to his butt that he couldn’t ignore. “I’m up!” he shouted after the third stroke.

We were both laughing. He jumped up and ran to the bathroom, his morning wood flopping, and his butt flexing with each step. I adjusted myself while he was gone and checked the schedule. He still had an hour and a half before his first class, and I had two hours before mine. I was just contemplating whether we had time for some fun this morning when he came out of the bathroom and walked over to me. He was still hard.

“Um, Sebastian, Medicus Marvin told me that I shouldn’t masturbate when I’m like this. He said that I should find you and ask you to take care of it,” he said, standing with his hands on his hips.

I stood up and kissed his pretty lips, then said, “By all means, lie down on the bed and I’ll give you your medicus mandated morning orgasm.”

He jumped into bed and stretched out flat. I sat down and stroked him a couple of times, but he put his hand on my arm and said, “Marvin said it didn’t help unless it was reciprocal, so I need to do you too.”

I quickly performed the exutio vestamenta spell to remove my clothes, then I lay down next to him and wrapped my arm under his neck so we could kiss while we slowly stroked one another to orgasm. It didn’t take long. Ethan was always horny, and I was still just about young enough to keep up. We came quickly and there was almost no discharge of lightning. I did notice that his storm sigils glowed when he came, brighter than they had before, so I assumed whatever blockage he’d been experiencing had gone away, but I made a mental note to check with Marvin.

When Ethan ran off to his Latin class, I used the speculum again to call Remy. It took him several minutes to answer. “Hello, Sebastian,” he said. “What can I do for you this morning?”

“I was wondering at what time I should expect Micah to report to school this morning,” I asked.

He scowled and said, “His only class isn’t until later, so I was going to drop him off just after lunch.”

“That won’t do,” I said. “He has a study session that he needs to get to, and I need to check on his homework, so I need him to be here no later than 9:00 a.m. every day.”

“That wasn’t part of the deal you made with my father, Sebastian,” he said with an angry tone.

“It is part of the deal I made with his mother when I agreed to supervise his studies. He needs to be on campus from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. every day, Monday through Friday, plus whatever other mandatory study times are necessary,” I insisted. “I want to be able to report to his mother that you are doing everything necessary to support his education.”

“You’re going to go too far, Sebastian. You know who I am and who my father is,” he snarled.

He didn’t frighten me, and I was still angry with him over his attempt to beguile me the other day. I smiled and said, “I’ll be kind and assume that you weren’t trying to threaten a Conclave agent, because if you were, you would have just implicated your father in a class one offense against the Codex Legalis and I would have to report it to the Conclave.”

“9:00 a.m!” he snarled and ended the call.

I sat back and smiled. Remy Adler had made a mistake trying to bully me. I saved a magical record of the conversation and filed it away for my next report to Clavia Esther Blume.

 

Oliver

“What if Remy won’t let him come for the study session? You know how controlling he is, and Micah needs these sessions. He’s not going to pass without them,” Cameron said for the third time this morning.

“Don’t worry about it, Cam. If Micah doesn’t show up, I’ll talk to Sebastian about it. And if that doesn’t work, I’ll wait until I see Remy on campus and I’ll take care of it,” I replied.

Cameron started to object, but I put up a hand and repeated, “I’ll take care of it. I’m not afraid of Remuel Adler.”

It was true. I’d been afraid of him back in the Academia, especially right after he’d raped me, but I soon realized that I was twice the mage he was. I doubt that had changed. If anything, I’d probably widened the gap since I’d been studying magic theory hard in the last few years. My cousin, Valerio DaSilva, had taught me a lot of things last summer while he was visiting. He’d completed advanced work in magical theory and was working for the Conclave doing secret work on numina flows. I was itching to try out that curse that would make Remy drool diarrhea, and I was sure that I’d perfected an alternate magical signature so that no one could identify me as the caster by examining the curse. And I had a spell lock prepared that he’d never guess.

“Fine! I’ll let you handle it, Oliver, but watch out for Remy. You may be a better mage than he is, but he’s bigger than you and if he gets his hands on you, you won’t be able to wave a wand at him,” Cameron warned.

I shrugged and said, “I have something for that, something I can trigger with a word. Don’t worry about me. He’ll never get his hands on me again. And if he tries, he’ll regret it.”

Cameron shook his head like he didn’t believe me, but he let it go. He was like that sometimes, and he worried too much. He’d be a better mage if he didn’t worry so much that he overthought everything and then made the very mistakes he’d been trying to avoid.

He sighed and said, “Are you coming down to get breakfast?”

“I should be down in a little while,” I replied. “I have a few things to do first. Go ahead and get started. Keep an eye out for Micah.”

When Cameron left, I finished packing my bag for the day. I had just finished fastening the straps when there was a knock on the door. Ever since Sebastian had told us about the hunters on campus, I’d been cautious. I used a simple spell to let me see through the door. I saw Lalo standing there alone, so I let him in.

“Hola, Oliver,” he said. I’d noticed that Lalo often sprinkled Spanish in his conversation, but he had a distinct Virginia accent even when he did.

“Hello,” I said in response. “I’m surprised to see you up here. I was just about to head down to breakfast.”

“Well, I wanted to talk to you before you went down to the others. I… Well, I was talking to one of my alphas the other day and he said… Dammit, Oliver, you don’t make things easy, do you?” he said.

I was confused, and I was even more confused when he grabbed me and kissed me. Then he wrapped his arms around me and kissed me again. I was surprised, but it felt amazing, like the warmth of his lips was spreading throughout my body. I kissed him back, and it felt just as good as when he’d kissed me. When he pulled away, he said, “I’ve been wanting to do that for more than a week now.”

“Why didn’t you say something?” I asked. His dark good looks had been distracting me from the moment he sat next to me the second day of class. He was one of the reasons I’d created this study group in the first place. I wanted to get closer to him. It’s why I’d pestered Ethan with questions about Simon. It was all about Lalo.

“Because despite being a genius and the smartest guy I know, you are remarkably unobservant. I’ve taken you out twice on a date, and you didn’t seem to even realize we were dating,” he said.

I was embarrassed because it was true. Looking back in hindsight, going to coffee, and then going to lunch alone, just the two of us, had been dates. At the time I hadn’t realized it. I felt like a fool, but I let it slide. It was in the past and if Lalo had just asked me on a date, I wouldn’t have misread the situation. I’d thought he was just being nice.

“I was afraid that you wouldn’t want to go out with me, and that you wouldn’t even want to be friends with me if I asked you out and you didn’t like me that way, but when I talked to Simon, he said I should take a chance and kiss you. Now I have and you aren’t saying anything, and I don’t know what you’re thinking, whether you like me the way I like you or if you’re going to tell me to go away,” he rambled.

It was crude, but I shut him up by grabbing him and kissing him again. “I like you too, Lalo. I’m not very observant, as you know, so I didn’t know how you felt.”

“Do you want to go out to dinner with me, just the two of us, and then maybe a movie?” he asked.

“Tonight?” I asked. I was running over my schedule again. I was free. Cameron wouldn’t be happy to be left alone, but I wanted to take a chance and go out with Lalo. “That will work for me if you’re free.”

He was smiling and almost bouncing on the balls of his feet. “Yes! I’m free, and I’m paying. I’ll get the details and send them to you. Oh, and I have a car, so we can drive there.”

I was as excited as he was, even though I had trouble showing it. I stared at his face for a moment before we left. Lalo was, without exception, the handsomest gay I’d ever seen. He had an olive skin tone, lighter than Alonzo, but still very Latino. His eyes were a deep jade and his hair was dark brown, with just a few dark golden highlights. He wore it long, pulled back in a style that he called a wolf’s tail. His features were delicate, more pretty than handsome really. And his eyelashes were longer than any I’d ever seen. His perfect lips were surrounded by a wispy mustache and goatee that didn’t make him look as macho as he thought it did. Yeah. I thought about him a lot.

We went down to breakfast. I thought Cameron must have noticed something because he gave me a quizzical look. I raised an eyebrow and put a hand on Lalo’s arm. I wondered if even my liberal mother would be happy if she found out that I was dating a versipelles. Some prejudices ran deep in the mage community. I let that phrase roll around in my mind. I was dating a versipellis. I was dating. Even that phrase made my stomach flutter like Lalo’s eyelashes when he got excited.

After breakfast, we went to the library for our study group. This time, everyone was there. I was at the head of the table, with Kyle at the far end. He looked as good as he always did. I felt bad that I hadn’t come up with a way to free him from his enslavement at the hands of the elf, Nico. Lalo was to my right, his bare knee pressing against my leg. Cameron to my left, and Tristan was next to him this morning with Ethan on his other side. Micah was between Kyle and Lalo. His leather collar and cuffs were prominently on display this morning, marking his own voluntary slave status. He was wearing rather short shorts, although they were still more modest than Kyle’s.

Micah was one of my oldest friends, and he was the guy who’d given me my first blowjob back at the Academy. I knew that Cameron was in love with him, but for some reason he would never admit it. He always followed Micah with his eyes when he wasn’t looking. I was kind of mad at him. I knew that Micah had deep feelings for Cameron as well, and if Cameron had been open with Micah maybe the two of them would be together and Micah would never have fallen back into Remuel’s clutches. I had to find a way to get Micah away from his master (Remy couldn’t even master his own crude behavior. How could he possibly be someone else’s master?) If I couldn’t find a way to help Micah, I would find a way to make Remy so miserable that he’d wish he’d never been born.

Remy’s father was the Mordecai Adler, the savior of mages and mundanes alike, the only man who could face down Robardin Reynard and bring an end to the Millenium Uprising. It had happened before I was born, but I’d heard about it all my life. I had been prepared to be impressed when I met him, but I’d been severely disappointed. The way he’d strutted about and expected everyone to acknowledge him had seemed petty and pathetic to me. Of course, I felt that anyone who needed to call themself someone else’s master was trying to compensate for their own feelings of inadequacy.

Kyle always looked good, although he’d look better if he lost the remainder of his gut. He’d been working on it, but he needed to lose another ten to fifteen pounds. Maybe I’d give him a boost next week. I was sure there was a spell like that in Transmutationes Practicales by Hecuba Primrose. I had a copy back in my room.

Everyone had come prepared except for Micah. He had his notebook, but he hadn’t reviewed the material at all. I was going to keep a record for Sebastian because it looked to me like Remy was interfering with Micah’s education. Kyle projected his notes again and he shared them with those of us with computers. I was able to elaborate on some of his points. One of these days, I would convince Micah and Cameron to use a computer. Like a lot of mages from old families they had an aversion to mundane technology. I didn’t. They were too useful. Of course, my dad had made some magical enhancements to mine, but it was essentially still a high-end Dell. Ethan had a very cheap old laptop that was constantly losing connection. He could take advantage of the shared documents, but I would have to make a hard copy of the notes for Cameron and Micah when we were done.

After the session, Cameron, Ethan, and Micah had to run to their lab class. Kyle went back to the dorm. His master kept him on as tight a leash as Remy did Micah. It made me sick.

Tristan, Lalo, and I were free until this afternoon. We spent some time discussing what to do with the four hours before class while we watched some shirtless guys throwing a frisbee around on the quad. If I had any doubts about Tristan’s sexuality, they were laid to rest when I heard him critiquing the guys’ physiques.

“Do you guys want to come get lunch?” Tristan asked. “There’s a place I know where we can get better sandwiches than we can on campus.”

“Do they have anything vegetarian for Oliver?” Lalo asked. I was impressed that he’d noticed, or maybe he’d asked around.

“Millie’s Café has salads and soups, too. Some of them are vegetarian,” Tristan replied.

We agreed and started walking, but we stopped by my dorm room and left our bags so we wouldn’t have to carry them. We left through the front gate and headed toward Main Street. Lalo and Tristan were flanking me, and both seemed to be looking out for something. We’d turned down Main, heading for the park when Tristan whispered, “I need to tell you both something. There’s no danger, but Momma Jones wants to meet both of you. She guarantees your protection.”

“Who is she?” I asked.

“She’s the pack leader for our tribe and she’s the owner of Millie’s Café,” Tristan replied. “She’s a good judge of character and she wants to talk with you both face to face so she can get a good read on you. That’s all. She’ll give you lunch for free and just wants to make sure of your motives.”

Lalo looked nervous. “Are you saying that you’re leading me into a place where I’ll be surrounded by wererats without any of my pack to watch my back?”

“You’ll be safe. I promise. Momma Jones promised me, and her word is her bond. Chances are that you would have come down to the park sometime and stopped in the restaurant anyway. It’s no different. Once she’s convinced that you aren’t plotting something, you’ll be under her protection. None of the pack will dare touch you then,” Tristan reassured us.

He seemed anxious. “Please don’t be mad at me. I’m telling you now while there’s still time to call a Lyft and get back to campus if you don’t want to go. But I’ll remind you that your own pack leader has been begging for just this chance you’re getting. He’s been trying to get a meeting with Momma Jones, but she wanted to meet with you instead. If she likes you well enough, she’ll probably agree to meet with Drew.”

Lalo still looked nervous. I put my hand on his shoulder and said, “I think we should agree, Lalo. I’ll be there too, and I’ll send a message to Sebastian telling him where we’re going. No one will dare to risk trouble with the Conclave, not with custodes now stationed in town. It’ll be fine.”

Lalo reached out and took my hand. He nodded and we walked the rest of the way with our hands clasped together. I sent a quick message spell to Sebastian, as I’d promised. And since I’d promised my parents that I would be cautious now that I was in town with hunters, versipelles, fae, vampires and who knew what else, I used a sententium hostium spell to detect any enemies. The name was a little misleading since it not only detected enemies, but also detected anyone paying excessive attention to me. Soon I was glad that I had. We picked up a tail. A couple of young women were following us at a distance. They drew no closer, but they followed us all the way to the restaurant.

It was a homey place, like a nice diner. There was a counter, but we were seated at a table back near the kitchen, where we were joined by an older woman wearing a casual dress and a lot of costume jewelry.

“Welcome boys. I’m Momma Jones and I’m glad you were able to meet with me today. Please don’t hold it against Tristan that he brought you here, Lalo. If your pack leader told you to do something, I imagine you would have to do it. It’s the same with him,” she said with a smile.

“It’s fine, ma’am,” Lalo replied. “It was just a little bit frightening to come into your territory without backup.”

She smiled again and tapped her long lacquered nails on the wooden tabletop. “If you’d come with backup, you wouldn’t have made it, my little wolf cub.”

“What do you need from us, ma’am?” I asked cautiously. I wasn’t afraid they’d do anything to us. Like I’d told Lalo earlier, I didn’t think the muripelles would risk trouble with the Conclave by luring a mage into their territory and allowing him to come to harm.

“I’ll get to you in a moment, mageling, since you’re the one stirring the pot, but first I want to talk to Lalo,” she replied.

She turned back to him and said, “I was afraid that you were in a relationship with Tristan, but I can see by your body language that you’re focused on the mageling next to you. That makes it easier. There are a lot of folks in both our packs who wouldn’t be happy if the two of you were together, but they should be able to accept a friendship, no matter how weird they deem it to be. If Tristan came back here smelling of wolf, even I couldn’t guarantee his safety.”

She turned to Tristan and asked, “Who is it then, Tristan? It’s not this mage who’s leaving his scent on you. Don’t you dare look surprised. None of my pack can do anything without it eventually getting back to me.”

Tristan blushed and whispered, “His name is Conley McAoidh, and he lives in town. He saw me taking pictures in the woods and he asked to see them. And then one thing led to another. I think he’s a mage… but I don’t know for sure. His scent was off somehow.”

She nodded and seemed satisfied. Then she pursed her lips and turned to Oliver. “Now, my little mageling, I need to know what your agenda is. Why are you endangering the peace by putting two tribes that have a history of conflict together in one group?”

I probably should have felt more fear in that moment than I did. I wasn’t really afraid of versipelles, and I hadn’t done anything wrong. Besides, Mama Jones had a half smile at the corners of her mouth, and I’d learned from experience that when someone did that it meant that they were pretending to be harsher and angrier than they really were.

“My name is Oliver Rankin, and my mother is Aurelia Da Silva. She’s a leader in the Liberal Party in the Conclave, and the head of the Resident Non-Mage Liaison Committee. I’m just following her lead and trying to make friends without regard to whether they’re mage, mundane, fey or versipellis.”

Mama Jones laughed quietly. “I suppose ‘Resident Non-Mage’ is better than the old name – ‘Magical Creatures’, but it’s still a little condescending, don’t you think?”

I shrugged. “I’m not sure. I know my mother and her party don’t intend for it to be condescending. What do you think we should call you?”

She narrowed her eyes thoughtfully. “That’s a very good question, my boy. Is that your way of telling me to think of solutions instead of just complaining?”

I tried not to smile, but she caught it, nonetheless. “Never mind, Oliver. Your story is a good one, but I don’t think it’s the whole truth. You chose to set up a mixed study group on purpose. You also chose to include one of my ratpack and one of the wolfpack. What was your agenda?”

I shrugged and tried to keep a stoic expression on my face. “My mother says that we should always work to break down the artificial barriers we’ve allowed hatred and fear to construct between us.”

“Your mother must be an extraordinary woman. Your cadence says that you’re repeating her words verbatim. She may be right on a purely idealistic level, but the conflict between mine and Lalo’s people goes back a very long time, centuries, perhaps even millennia. According to some legends, it dates from the earliest days of hunters versus farmers. It’s dangerous to try and cross that divide.”

“Nothing good ever happens without someone having the courage to do something instead of allowing the same old bigotries to control them.”

Lalo was giving me a pleading look like he wished I would be quiet and stop antagonizing her, and I thought Tristan was going to pass out from fear. But Momma Jones just frowned and tapped her lacquered nails against the table again. Then she shook her head and clicked her tongue. “I like you, Oliver Rankin. You aren’t even a little bit afraid of me, are you?”

“No ma’am. I believe you want to be a good leader, and I believe that you’re also tired of the wolf-shifters and rat-shifters constantly attacking one another,” I replied.

She narrowed her eyes again. “We’re not afraid of the wolf-shifters. When conflict arises, we usually come out on top.”

I agreed. “I know my history, ma’am, so I know all about it. Your tribe does win almost every serious conflict, but I also know that you suffer casualties in significantly greater numbers than they do. A wise leader such as yourself must be heartbroken when it comes to open conflict.”

She laughed loud enough that others looked in our direction. “I like you, mageling. I really do. So, I’m going to allow your little experiment to continue with my blessing. Tristan can continue with your study group, and I’ll put the word out to my people not to bother you. But you’ll only have my blessing on two conditions. First, Tristan will fulfill the obligations he accepted when joining the Severan ratpack. That comes first, before any other consideration. Second, you will not attempt any larger experiment of this type. Oh, and finally, you have to go ahead and call me momma like my own people do.”

I smiled back at her. “I accept your three conditions. Thank you, momma.”

She sighed and looked at all three of us this time. “And be aware young mageling that your work here reaches beyond your little study group. You three have convinced me to have a sit down with Drew’s representative. I don’t know when or where, but it will happen.”

“So, you’re going to put the word out not to harass us, right momma?” I asked.

“Yes. And I’m going to reinforce my blessing by sitting down here and having lunch with you three. My people here will see it, and they will spread the word,” she replied.

Lunch at Millie’s Café was excellent. Momma Jones paid for it. I had the best macaroni and cheese I’d ever tasted. The other two had sandwiches, Lalo had a Tuna Melt and Tristan a BLT. We had sweet tea with our lunch and a cup of excellent coffee with a slice of pie afterward. Momma Jones ate with us and chatted about our families. From the reaction of her staff, it really was a big deal that she had sat down to a meal with us.

Tristan was apologetic but said he’d had no choice but to bring us to meet her. Lalo told him it was okay, that he would have done whatever his alphas had told him and that there’d been no harm. He admitted that he’d liked Momma Jones, and I said that I did too. Lalo did warn Tristan that he would have to tell his alphas all about this meeting. Tristan just shrugged and said that Momma Jones probably expected him to tell what he knew.

 

Sebastian

I’d had a discussion with Clavia Blume and passed on the details of the conversation with Remy Adler. She seemed both angry and pleased at the same time. Oliver’s report on Micah’s unpreparedness for the study group went into my notes for my next report. I’d already told Remy that Micah needed to be here from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. every weekday. I now had a good enough reason to back that up. But now, I was going to let that rest until tomorrow when he showed up for the mandatory break from his contract. It was time for me to focus on my personal life.

When Ethan came back to the room, he told me that Cameron was going to be in his and Micah’s room tonight because it wasn’t being used, and Oliver was having Lalo over. My head was starting to hurt. Simon had already been transformed into a lupipelles. His bio mom was mundane, but his other mom was a member of the influential Wu family. Oliver had a similarly deceptive background. His father was Alexander Rankin, a new blood mage from Boston, but his mother was Aurelia Da Silva, and the Da Silva’s were another extremely influential family. I couldn’t lose a mage to the grex lupipellum, the wolfpack.

“Puer Aureus, I’m going to take you to meet some other mages tonight for dinner.” Then with a sly smile and a twinkle in my eye, “When we come back here we’re going to move our relationship to the next level. But I’m going to have to leave you alone for a few minutes. I need to speak to Drew about something important,” I said.

Then I kissed him. I let it turn into a long kiss and a passionate embrace.

“Do I need to get dressed up?” he asked.

I kissed his nose and said, “Not at all. It’s very casual. You can wear anything you want.”

I’d texted Drew and he said we could talk in his room, so I headed over at the appointed time. He was standing in front of his mirror combing out his hair. He was wearing only a towel wrapped around his waist and his skin was still moist from the shower. I’d always thought he looked fine, but I’d never seen him this close to unclothed before.

“What’s so important that we have to talk before my date night?” he asked while he trimmed his nose hairs.

“I need to know something. As we are both aware, mages have a lot of superstitions around shifters and I know it is more misinformed prejudice than any real facts, but, given current circumstances, I feel I have to ask… How do you pass on the… um… the gift or curse or whatever you call it?” I asked.

“Come on Sebastian. We both know no shifters trust mages enough to share those details. That’s pack business. I can’t tell any of our secrets,” he replied.

“Let me put it this way,” I asked. “Hypothetically, if Lalo and Oliver have sex, can Oliver be transformed?”

Drew laughed and replied, “No. And you can’t catch it from the pool or sitting on a toilet seat either.”

“I’m serious, Drew. I still haven’t explained to Simon’s family about his transformation, and the Wu’s are not going to be happy. I can’t get another of the fifty families breathing down my neck if Oliver gets infected,” I said.

“Ouch! That’s why we don’t share. Mages are prejudiced against us. Being a skinchanger isn’t an infection. It isn’t a curse. It’s a blessing from the spirit world. You can’t just catch it. You must be bitten. I won’t tell you any more than that, so you’ll have to believe me. Lalo would have to bite Oliver, and he would have to break the skin, not a little scratch but a real bite,” he explained.

“When Simon was bitten, he could have died from that wound. Only Xav’s spirit magic saved his life. Lalo doesn’t have it in him to do that to someone unless his life were threatened. Oliver is safe with Lalo.”

I nodded. Drew would hold back information he didn’t think I needed to know, but he wouldn’t lie to me about something this important, not about my people’s safety.

“If you say so, I’m going to believe you,” I said. “Tell Dawn, I said hi.”

He blushed and said, “Dawn has a girl’s night out tonight. I’m going to watch Zeno dance, and then spend the night out at Wolf House. Do you want to join me? To watch him dance, that is, not for the after party.”

“That’s tempting,” I said. “Zeno is a seriously sexy dude and you’re lucky to have him. And his sister; she’s a looker too. I’m not sure how you ended up with both of them, but I kind of envy you.”

“Are you going to come with me? We can ogle the dancers, maybe you can get lucky with someone who isn’t named Zeno Schiller,” he said.

“I wish you’d asked me before I met Ethan. He’s waiting for me back in my room and he’s… I don’t need anyone else while I have him. I’m committed to him right now and…” I shrugged and let my sentence trail off.

“And you’re not a fuckboy like me,” Drew said. He was smiling, despite his tone.

Then he grew serious. “I like Dawn and we’re together because the pack expected it. It helped us to solidify our leadership. The betas were wary of us because of our youth. We promoted ourselves as a pair, and it worked. I like her. She likes me. The sex is nice. But I think I may be in love with Zeno, Sebastian.”

I don’t know why I did it, but I grabbed him and gave him a hug and offered him some comfort. “You’ll get it figured out, Drew. From what I’ve seen, Zeno is probably in love with you too.”

Then I went back to the room to get Ethan. He was dressed in what he called his nerdy professor outfit. It didn’t insult me, even though it was a fair copy of my everyday outfit. I suspected he’d gotten the phrase from his friends, probably Cameron or Micah. He had a tweed jacket, a button-down shirt, and a pair of jeans. He was wearing his magic glasses that let him see at night and a pair of deck shoes like mine. He was a shorter, slender, younger, blonder, mini-me. It was all I could do not to rip his clothes off and take him on the bed right then.

He was smiling at me and stroking his smooth chin the way I often did with my scruffy chin when I was thinking. I used magic to freshen up and then I threw an arm around his shoulders and led him to the rug with the arcane circle. In a matter of moments, we’d been translocated to the circle in the gazebo of Ibis House.

It was one of the biggest houses in Severan and had originally been owned by a wealthy mundane family that had once owned much of the land in and around town. It had been purchased by the Ibis Foundation back in the 1880s and turned into housing for mages attending the college. Since then, it had been improved by mages who’d stayed here. It was arguably more secure than the college itself.

My sigil ring opened the back door. The house was never left unattended. If Felicia Gladstone wasn’t in, then the housekeeper, Egon Strehle, would be. One of them would have been alerted when we entered. I was registered with the house, so it wouldn’t sound any alarms.

Sure enough, we were greeted by Felicia shortly after our arrival. She came into the room wearing modern mage wear, a pantsuit with a long open jacket that could pass as robes. She wore her wand in a belt holster.

“Sebastian, it’s so good to see you again. And this must be Ethan, the foundling mage I’ve heard about,” she said. She pulled Ethan into a hug and added, “I’m pleased to meet you Ethan. You’re welcome here any time.”

Ms. Gladstone made as much of a fuss over Ethan as my mom had done. I was glad she was being nice to him, but I kept wishing it was my arm around his shoulders as we took the tour, not hers. She didn’t take him upstairs, but she showed him the sitting room, the downstairs study room, the dining room, the patio, the kitchen, the downstairs baths, the greenhouse, the music room, the meditation room, and the library. I watched his eyes as it slowly dawned on him.

“These rooms are too big! I mean they’re bigger on the inside than they should be!” he exclaimed.

I took that opportunity to pull him away from Ms. Gladstone and into my arms. I kissed his temple and said, “That’s right. This place has been magically remodeled over the decades. There’s more than enough room for the sixty mages who live here.”

“Sixty-seven,” Ms. Gladstone said, “including me, my daughter, Housekeeper Strehle and Groundskeeper Peralta. You haven’t met her yet, but you will eventually. We have thirty-three more rooms, so we’re set for this year and probably next. After that we’ll have to acquire the house next door.”

“I knew it!” Ethan said. “That dining room is long enough that it should run the whole length of the house, but the study room and the library are in that space.”

“You’ll get used to the idea,” I assured him.

“I’m not freaked out; I love it!” he said with wide eyes.

One of the reasons I liked new bloods so much was that they had a sense of wonder around magical effects that those of us who’d grown up around it just took for granted. His excitement made me feel energized. I was looking forward to showing him everything magical about the hidden world we lived in.

“Can I live here next year?” he asked.

“Unless you want to be my roommate , you can assuredly live here,” I replied.

Ethan turned around and looked up into my eyes. “Did you say I could be your roommate next year?” he asked. “Like officially your roommate, not just sneaking in to sleep with you at night?”

“We can even put a double bed in the room and buy his and his towel sets,” I answered with a grin, “unless you get bored of me before next year, that is.”

Ethan buried his face in my neck and whispered, “Never. I’ll never get bored of you, Sebastian.”

He was clinging tightly to me. I knew that he had abandonment issues. His father had been killed when he was eight. His mother had always been distant, and she’d disappeared on the same night his father had died. Ethan had thought she’d been killed as well. A few weeks ago, he found out that his mother was a sylph, she was still alive, and she had also abandoned him. His uncle had taken him in, had used him to try and kill the Severan wolfpack and had gotten himself killed in the process. He was holding onto me like he was afraid I was going to leave him like everyone else in his life had.

I held him for several minutes until he finally let me go. Then I kissed him gently and said, “I’m not going to leave you, Ethan.”

He was a little teary eyed as we finished the tour. I introduced him to the residents. Most of them had elected to be here for dinner tonight because they were curious about the boy whose mother was a sylph. Mr. Strehle expanded the dining room to hold six long tables instead of the normal three. He’d conjured a half dozen servants to arrange furniture and set the tables and the long sideboard where the food would be served.

I’d been called aside by Ms. Gladstone to discuss some suspicious characters she’d seen lurking on the sidewalk across the street from Ibis House. She was convinced that they could see through the velamen arcanum, and that they were watching the house. I promised to carry her information back to Professor Thorne.

“I will probably report it to Mordecai Adler now that he’s in town, but I wanted Sybil to know first. The Conclave needs to go ahead and appoint her dirigent of Severan, or rather subdirigent since we have a dirigent in Columbus. You know how the custodes are. Adler will be acting as if he’s in charge if there’s no official announcement,” she said. “And tell Sybil that unless I’m told different, I’ll be reporting to her, not him.”

Her reasons were different from mine, but she didn’t seem to be much of a Mordecai Adler fan either. Then she clarified her thoughts a little by saying, “It’s not Mordecai himself. He’s the hero who took down Robardin during the Millennium Uprising, but that son of his, Remuel, is a bit of a problem. It’s out of Sybil’s jurisdiction, but I think Remuel may have dominated Leo Wagner, one of the younger dads at the elementary school. I saw the two of them together at the grocery store. Remuel was saying something to Leo. Leo seemed angry when he hurried away from him. I was busy looking over the zucchinis, but I heard what sounded like a whispered domination spell. When I looked around I saw Remuel sliding his wand back into his jacket pocket. Then he followed Leo into the bathroom. When I saw them later in the parking lot, Remuel had his hand on Leo’s butt and Leo had his hand on Remuel’s crotch.”

“Did you say anything to anyone?” I asked.

Ms. Gladstone gave a low chuckle. “To whom? The only custos in town is his father, and I’m pretty sure that he didn’t violate any magical laws. Mundanes aren’t protected from abuse unless it threatens the velamen. You know that.”

I shook my head in silent agreement with her dismay. I had more cause to dislike Remuel Adler every day. “I’ll put it all in my reports,” I said.

I looked around and noticed that Reggie Delmar was pestering Ethan to show him his sigila tempestua. Reggie was born in Puerto Rico but had grown up in Brooklyn. I’d know him for years. Back at the Imperial Lodge in New York, he’d been one of the annoying kids a few years younger than me and my friends who’d always tried to hang out with us. He’d grown into a darkly handsome young man with light brown skin and curly black hair. He was a sophomore, and I knew he had the same taste in guys that I did. I’d noticed him sniffing around Alonzo this year already and now he was getting too close to Ethan.

I didn’t know whether Ethan was naïve or what, but he didn’t seem to be perturbed by Reggie’s attention. I swallowed my annoyance and sighed. I wasn’t going to be a controlling boyfriend like Jason or Erik. Besides, Reggie couldn’t get too intimate with Ethan in such a public setting. They’d been joined by Delian Khalkis, an auburn-haired boy from Chicago with olive skin, and Rowan Vidas-Wu, another Chicagoan with black hair, fair skin, and slanted gray-blue eyes. Delian and Rowan had known each other back in the Lake City Lodge in Chicago and had been roommates in the Academy and two years ago in the dorms. They were inseparable best friends. I didn’t think they were together, but I’d heard that they shared everything including the girls and boys they dated.

I took pity on Ethan, who didn’t seem comfortable with whatever conversation they were having. I walked over and wrapped my arms around him.

Reggie was saying, “I’ll bet they’re sexy as hell.”

I looked him in the eyes and replied, “They’re sexier than you can imagine, Reggie, but you’ll never see them unless we’re at the pool at the same time. Those sexy marks are for my eyes only, so stop trying to get my boyfriend to strip for you.”

I gave him a smile, but my eyes said that I wasn’t kidding around, and he needed to back off. He took the hint and smiled back. “You can’t blame a guy for trying to get a look, Sebastian. Your boy is seriously cute, but I have my eye on someone else,” he sighed.

“Just the one?” I asked. Reggie had established himself as a player last year, running through a lot of the other freshmen in the dorm. It had been easy for him with his good looks, his amazing guitar and piano playing, and his nice singing voice.

He sighed even more deeply. “Yeah. I think I’ve found the guy for me, but he’s with someone else right now. I don’t think it will last, but… oh well, I’ve probably said too much.”

“Who’s the lucky guy,” I asked.

He shook his head. “Nope. I’m not going to say. Just suffice it to say that he’s perfect for me. He’d be perfect for anyone. He’s the cutest boy I’ve ever seen, and he sings like an angel.”

Then he went and found someone else to talk to. Delian and Rowan were laughing at him. Rowan said, “Reggie thinks he’s so sly, but he was just teasing Ethan. He really is smitten with someone. We don’t know who but you know how Reggie feels about music. He’s been rewriting all his original songs. We asked him when he was going to sing them and he said that he isn’t, that he’s found the perfect guy to sing them for him.”

“So you have no idea who it is?” I asked.

He shrugged. “I don’t know… but I think it’s that Latino boy who stole Clarissa’s ritual, the one who’s always with that big ass Viking guy with the…”

He tapped his hand against his thigh to show that he was talking about a big dick. I stared at him and asked, “Alonzo?”

He snapped his fingers. “Alonzo! That’s it.”

Then he leaned forward and said to Ethan, “Del and I don’t want to come between you and Sebastian, even though we’d love to see your sigila, just from an academic point of view.”

Delian looked at me and said, “Rowan and I didn’t want to leave Reggie alone with your boy, just in case. He wouldn’t press it too far, but he can get a little handsy sometimes.”

The look on his face said that there was more than just academic interest there. Delian made that clear when he added, “But if you ever tire of Straight-laced Sebastian, just let us know. Rowan and I would be happy to show you something new.”

Both guys winked at Ethan and then walked off. Ethan was blushing and his eyes were wide. “Were they serious?”

“Completely serious,” I said, stroking his smooth chin. “Delian and Rowan would happily take you back to their room and share you between them. I can call them back if that’s something you’re interested in.”

Ethan shook his head. “They called you straight-laced,” he said. “I think I want more of that.”

“Did they scare you off?” I asked.

He nodded and said, “A little. Maybe I’m straight-laced too, but I don’t think you’re boring at all.”

I kept Ethan next to me for the rest of the evening. Everyone was pleasant and they made Ethan feel welcome. We had roasted turkeys, homemade noodles, roasted corn on the cob, sweet potato casserole, macaroni and cheese, homemade rolls, and fresh baked apple pie. I knew that Mr. Strehle was an expert practical transmuter. Given good raw ingredients, he could prepare them magically in a short time and they would taste just like they’d cooked all day.

We stuck around for a little while after dinner, then I used another spell to take us back to my room. I asked him, “Did you have fun tonight?”

“Yes, I did. I’m still a little overexcited when I see magic, so I’m sorry if I embarrassed you gushing about everything,” he said.

“You’re not embarrassing, Puer Aureus. I love it when you get so excited. It’s easy for me and those like me who grew up around magic to be blasé about it. Now, are you ready for a new kind of fun?” I asked.

He nodded at me and said, “Yes, sir.”

I arched an eyebrow and asked, “Sir?”

“Sorry. Yes, Sebastian,” he replied, giving me a coy look.

“Then, deponantur vestimenta!,” I said, using the fast spell that caused our clothes to fly off our bodies. I followed it up with ‘in armarium ponantur!” which caused the clothes to hang themselves properly in the closet.

We stood next to one another, naked and already partially aroused. The next step was “perluamus maximo cum ostentio!”. Purple bubbles erupted all over our bodies and swirled around before slowly evaporating, leaving us clean, but still dry. Ethan was giggling as he asked me, “Did you just give us a dry cleaning?”

“I did,” I admitted. “Now I’m going to eschew magic and do this.”

I picked him up and carried his naked body over to the bed and stretched out naked next to him. I looked deep into his eyes and ran my right hands down his slender chest. His cock twitched when I paused to rub his nipples gently.

“Why does that feel so good, Sebastian?” Ethan moaned.

I bent down to flick the hard little nubs with my tongue. “Your nipples are connected to your cock. Twist them, pinch them, or bite them and just like magic your cock gets harder,” I explained.

His chest was hairless except for a very few silken strands around his areolas. I ran my fingers down his abdomen. He had a very faint and downy trail of golden hair beginning at his navel and running in a thin line down to his sparse pubes. The most intriguing thing about his torso were the faint blue sigila that ran from his neck down to his cock. When I teased him and his sexual energy began flowing, the marks grew brighter and more silvery. There were only a few sparks as I touched them. According to Marvin, who I’d managed to speak to quickly during my hectic day, the sparks were diminishing because his energy channels were clearing.

I kissed down his chest and down that trail. I ran my tongue along those powerful sigils and felt a tingling on my tongue, like I’d placed it on a battery. Ethan moaned and arched his back as I moved down his body. When I reached his cock, I gave it a kiss on the head and tasted his sweet precum. I positioned myself between his legs, took hold of his small cock and looked up into his eyes as I licked the head. His eyes opened even wider, and he shivered a little.

“That feels so good, Sebastian. Please don’t stop,” he gasped.

I thought he was going to pass out when I opened my mouth and took the head of his cock inside. I sucked and then used my tongue to rub the frenum with firm pressure. He yelled out, “I’m going to cum any minute now, Sebastian!”

I pulled my mouth off him and moved back up to kiss his lips. “I’ll let you cool down a little bit and then suck you again.”

“You’re really good at that, Sebastian,” he said.

“Are you calling me a good cocksucker?” I asked, devouring his lips.

He laughed and said, “Yes. You are a great cocksucker!”

We kissed for several minutes, then I moved down to fellate him again. He started moaning and writhing around as I worked his small cock down my throat. I sucked him for a few minutes, then took a break to kiss his inner thighs before taking him in my mouth again. I alternated between working his cock and kissing or nibbling his other parts.

His body was telling me that he liked it, and his moans had become louder. “Oh, yes! Oh yes! Oh YES! That feels great!”

I wanted to prolong his pleasure, so I teased him instead of bringing him off immediately. I licked his navel. I sucked his balls. I ate his ass. I kept him on edge for about fifteen minutes before I decided he was ready for the mind blowing orgasm I had in mind for him. I held him in my mouth and rubbed my index finger against his sloppy wet little hole. His moaning was turning into little whimpers of need.

I paused for a moment. “Have you ever had anything inside you before?”

He gasped, “My… my finger… a sm… small candle. Nothing big.”

“Do you want to feel my finger inside you now?” I asked.

He nodded and panted, “Yes! Please.”

I made sure to mumble an unguentium spell to ease the penetration. I’d gotten him loose and sloppy, but saliva wasn’t as slippery as lubricant, magical or otherwise, and my Puer Aureus was essentially still a virgin despite his earlier attempts at pleasing himself.

I slid my finger inside and stroked his hard little g-spot. His eyes flew open and he let out a long incoherent moan, telling me that in his experimentation he’d never found his prostate. I stroked him gently for a minute or so and then swallowed his cock again. He didn’t last long after that.

“I’m cumming!” he screamed as he wrapped his fingers in my hair and flailed his legs around.

When I’d sucked all his boy cream out of his cock, I moved up to kiss him and shared his load with him. We kissed for several minutes and then he said, “I came, and I didn’t set fire to the bed with my sigils!”

His sigila were still glowing with his sexual energy as I traced them with my fingers. “You did. I think we’ve cleared your channels.”

We snuggled together for a while, then Ethan said, “I want to become a good cocksucker like you, Sebastian.”

I kissed him again and replied, “Then you’d better start practicing now.”

He smiled at me and gave me a quick kiss on the lips. He started to move down between my legs, but I grabbed his arm and said, “Turn around and leave your butt up here. I want to show you some love while you’re sucking my cock.”

He turned around and I sat up a little so I could see his butt clearly. He started kissing my cock. He was hesitant, but soon got into it. His lips were soft, and his kisses were gentle. He played with my erect penis for a minute or so before sliding my foreskin back and licked the entire head.

“You’re doing a good job, mi aureus,” I encouraged him. “Your mouth feels like heaven.”

I stroked his exposed hole, and it quivered at my touch. I rubbed his pretty little rosula. I could see it much better from this angle.  “And your little hole looks like heaven as well,” I said.

“You’re making my butt feel so good that I may need to cum again before we’re done,” he said.

He went back to licking my cock like it was a lollipop, and I leaned forward to lick his hole. “You taste good, too, lover boy. And if you need to cum again, I’ll suck your cock for you again,” I promised.

Ethan moaned around my cock. He was pretty good for a beginner. My cock wasn’t huge, but it was about as big as it could be and still be called average; he was having trouble, less trouble than I would have expected for a beginner, but he was still gagging.

“Don’t try and swallow the whole thing, Carissime. It’s your first time and you may need to work up to that. Just take your time and do what you’re comfortable with tonight,” I said.

He paused long enough to say, “I want to make you feel as good as you made me feel.”

“Don’t worry about it, baby. What you’re doing feels plenty good,” I said.

He went back to sucking on the head and playing with my shaft; I went back to fingering his butt. His mouth was warm and moist, and his butt was warm and getting moister as I kept adding saliva. His tongue felt good, and I hardly felt his teeth at all. He was moaning as he worked on my cock, and that brought a whole new level of pleasure.

I felt my balls tighten and my shaft contract, then my cock exploded, and I flooded his mouth with my load. He started choking and I could feel my cum spilling out around my cock. He was a champ; he resealed his lips around me and sucked as hard as he could. I was using two fingers on his hole. He swallowed most of my load and then licked up the cum that had spilled out earlier.

He climbed up next to me and we kissed for a while. “How does it feel to be a cocksucker, Ethan?” I asked.

“It feels great. It’s like another step on the way,” he answered, settling down into the crook of my arm and wrapping his leg around mine.

“Another step on the way to what?” I asked.

“On the way to becoming a real man,” he replied. Then he asked, “Are you going to fuck me tonight?”

I hugged him tight and said, “Not tonight. I need to play with your hole every night so I can get you ready for me and it won’t hurt too bad. I’m going to fuck you on your birthday because the last thing we need is any trouble, even from mundane laws.”

“I don’t turn eighteen for two weeks,” he whined.

“Thirteen days of me playing with your butt while I suck your cock. I hardly think you’ll be suffering from a lack of attention, Ethan. It will be special, a night you will never forget,” I promised.

We lay there together until we fell asleep, and we rested peacefully all night long.

 

Remy

Severan was really beginning to piss me off, I thought. First, it was full of hicks – mundane hicks. Their snide racism and homophobic comments grated on my nerves. I may have been gay, and my skin may have been the color of café au lait, but I didn’t have to take their shit. Earlier this week, I was shopping at the local Kroger. I’d just placed an order for some steaks cut the way I liked them, and I was looking through the produce section, when I saw this hot guy with light brown hair and fair skin. He had one of those scruffy beards like Sebastian Trent. He even looked kind of like him if Sebastian ever let himself be seen in torn jeans and a muscle shirt.

I don’t want anyone to think that I’ve got a thing for Sebastian. Sure he was the sexy upperclassman three years ahead of me at the Academy, and sure he strutted around acting like he was a man when I could see that he was just a little bitch waiting to be put on a leash by a real man, and sure I regretted not having a chance to do it back then, but he was too much in denial about what he really was for me to get my hands on him now.

This guy in the grocery store was looking good, although his jeans were a little too loose for the bottom bitch I suspected lurked deep inside him, wishing to get out. He couldn’t have been more than thirty years old or so. He was talking to an ugly fat dude with a bushy beard, and I heard the big guy refer to one of the produce clerks as a “nigger faggot”. The sexy guy could have told him to go to hell, but instead he laughed, like it was a joke.

It was hard enough to be gay or black in this town, let alone both. I felt sorry for the clerk who clearly heard the comment. When the fat guy turned to go to the checkout, I hit him with a powerful suggestion. He ended up getting arrested for trying to steal the most expensive steaks by opening the packages and shoving the raw meat down his pants. It cost him hundreds of dollars just to pay for the meat, and he still got arrested.

While the fat guy was off trying to get himself arrested, I went over to the Sebastian lookalike and said, “Damn your ass looks fine in those jeans.”

The guy turned toward me with a sneer. He snarled, “Fuck off, faggot.”

He was even prettier up close than he had been from across the produce department. His eyes were a sapphire blue instead of Sebastian’s emerald green, but he had the same long lashes and shapely mouth with full pouty lips.

I whispered, “You’ll be sucking my cock soon, hot stuff.”

Then I moved to the peppers and looked them over. When I saw that no one was even glancing in my direction, I slid my wand into my hand, letting only the tip protrude. I’d mastered this choked wand-hold while working with my father. “Mens mea tuam vincat,” I muttered. I chanted it slowly under my breath using the subtle motions that I’d mastered and wrapping the spell itself in the velamen so that no one would be able to see any effects except for others who could see through the velamen; mages, versipelles, fey and a few mundanes whom everyone thought were crazy to begin with.

Slowly the spell built to its maximum effect, then I released it. The sexy guy stumbled a little and looked dazed. I walked back over to him and said, “Go to the bathroom and wait for me in the stall. Take your clothes off when you get there.”

He left his basket and walked toward the bathroom with a purpose. I gave it a minute and then followed him. He was waiting for me in the stall, just like I’d told him. His naked body didn’t have any fat, but it was covered by too much hair. I’d make him take it off later.

I told him to sit on the toilet, and he complied. I opened my pants and pulled out my big cock and waved it in front of him. “Do you want to suck my cock?” I asked him.

“No. I don’t. I’m not gay. I’m married and I have three kids,” he begged. “Please don’t make me do this.”

“What’s your name?” I asked.

He replied, “Leo Wagner. Please I beg you not to turn me into a faggot.”

“How old are you Leo?” I asked.

“Thirty-two,” he replied.

He looked younger than his age. I would have guessed late twenties, maybe thirty at most.

“How old are your kids?” I asked.

“Mason is sixteen, Tiffany is thirteen and Brittany is twelve,” he said. “Please leave them alone.”

“I have no interest in anyone under sixteen,” I assured him. “And I may leave Mason alone if his father sucks cock good enough.”

“I’m not gay,” he cried.

“Let’s see about that,” I said. “Put your head down.”

He looked down at the floor and I prepared another spell. It was easier to do when no mundanes were watching. I went into his mind subtly so he wouldn’t feel it. Deep inside his subconscious, there it was. He had several suppressed gay feelings. It wasn’t really a surprise. Most guys had them. I murmured another spell and let those fantasies rise to the surface of his mind.

“We both know that’s not true,” I said.

The look on his face was precious. He knew I spoke the truth. He recognized those thoughts as his own, long suppressed. He tried to be so macho, but it was a lie. He started to cry. I used a charm to enhance my charisma.

“I’m going to help you out,” I said. “I’m going to let you experience all the things you dream about late at night while you’re sleeping. And if you’re a good boy, we’ll keep it between us. I can make you do what I want you to do, but it would be better for both of us, if you went ahead and did what we both know you want to do.”

He looked up at me and shook his head, pleading silently.

“This isn’t a command,” I said. “You can refuse if you want. I wonder if Mason has these same urges as you. If you don’t do it, maybe he’ll do it in your place.”

“No, please,” he begged. “I’ll… I’ll do it.”

He reached out with his trembling hands and took hold of my cock. His palms were rough, a working man’s palms. I wondered what he did for a living. He leaned forward and licked the head of my cock. He shuddered a little as he tasted the precum at the tip. I could have ordered him to be faster about it, but I was letting him make the decisions on purpose. I knew from experience that if he did it of his own will, even if he felt coerced, it would weaken his resistance to all the things I had planned for him in the future.

Leo licked the head of my cock some more, then he opened his mouth and took it inside. He gagged and choked, then pulled off my cock. I was torn. I liked to see him choke and suffer, but I really wanted him to comply without magical command. I touched his head lightly with my wand and muttered another spell I knew that would suppress his gag reflex. It would only last for a few hours, but he would be able to follow his secret fantasy and suck his first cock.

Leo was a trooper. He sucked my cock again and swallowed it down his throat. I took hold of his head and pulled him down on my virga. He wasn’t gagging, but he couldn’t breathe with my cock inside his throat. I held him for a few minutes and then pulled out.

“You need to take a deep breath when your throat isn’t full of cock, so you can hold it while it’s stuffed with my dick,” I instructed him.

I sank into his throat again and held it there until he turned red in the face, then I pulled out again. He took my advice and breathed deeply through his nose when his passages were clear, so I felt safe to fuck his face roughly. Despite my treatment of him, or maybe because of it, he started to get hard. I fucked him savagely until I was ready to cum, then I sank into his throat so far that his teeth were entangled in my pubes. I held him there until I shot my load straight down into his stomach.

When I released him, he was gasping for breath and his dick was hard and throbbing. That wasn’t my spell. He’d been suppressing some extremely gay fantasies for a long time. It wouldn’t have mattered to me. If he’d been as straight as he’d pretended, I still would have fucked him, but it was more fun this way. I was going to remake him, to turn him into what his darkest fantasies craved.

“Suck on your finger, Leo,” I ordered. Then I said, “Stick it up your ass, then beat off.”

These were orders and he couldn’t disobey them. He stuck his finger up his ass and started beating his meat furiously. I stroked his hair and then pulled out a few strands to use later.

“I’m going to give you a set of rules, Leo, and you will remember them and obey them,” I said.

“Your first rule is that you will throw away all your underwear when you get home,” I commanded.

“Yes, sir,” he replied.

I hadn’t told him to call me sir. That came from within him somewhere. This was going to be fun.

“Your second rule is that you will remove all the hair below your neck. You can keep the scruffy beard, but you will always trim it short,” I instructed.

“Yes, sir,” he moaned, clearly getting excited by this scene.

“Your third rule is that you can only cum when you have something up your ass,” I insisted.

“Yes, sir,” he replied, shoving his finger further inside his ass.

“Your fourth rule is that you will no longer get hard when you’re naked around women, or when you think about women,” I ordered. I wanted to make him experience pleasure only from his gay side for now.

“Yes, sir,” he replied, taking this rule in. The look on his face said that he wasn’t happy about it, but he had no choice but to comply.

“Your fifth rule is that you will always suck a man’s cock if he tells you to do it,” I said. “You don’t have to do it in public, but you do have to do it.”

“Yes, sir,” he said, memorizing it as ordered.

“Your sixth rule is that you will remember these rules, but you will not remember that I gave them to you. You will believe that they are your own choice,” I said.

He seemed confused by this rule, but nonetheless he replied, “Yes, sir.”

He was on the edge, ready to cum. “Lean back and shoot on your chest, then lick it up when you’ve finished. Your seventh rule is that you will always eat cum when you see it, whether it’s yours or not,” I said.

“Yes, sir!” he moaned as his cock exploded and shot cum all over himself.

While he was scraping the cum off his body and licking it off his fingers, I used a different spell to make the rules he’d memorized a permanent part of him. The commands I’d given him would have worn off in a day or so. Now they were permanent.

I let Leo go to finish his shopping, but I followed him back to the produce section and rubbed his butt while he shopped. Then I let him go and finished my own shopping. We ended up in the same line at the checkout, so I made him pack my groceries into his car along with his own. I had planned on translocating back to the house, but I wanted him to drive me. I couldn’t stop myself from rubbing his ass while he packed the car. When he was done, he surprised me by rubbing my rapidly swelling cock through my pants. I hadn’t ordered him to do that, but it felt great.

I’d hooked up with Leo one other time over the following week. He’d confessed to me that his wife was mad because he couldn’t have sex with her. She’d seen his hairless body and had walked in on him once when he was masturbating with his finger up his ass. He’d lost his erection immediately when she walked into the room, and she’d yelled at him and called him a “fag”. Now he was sleeping on the couch.

I doubted she would divorce him because he had a good paying construction job, and good jobs were hard to come by in this area. I couldn’t wait until she started bringing lovers home to cuckold him in his own bed. Maybe I’d make him suck her lovers off once they’d finished with her. Since Micah was going to be gone for a week, I planned to bring him home and make him serve in Micah’s place in the evenings. I’d make sure he couldn’t remember the directions to the house except when I called him over.

 

Micah

Master Remy had been angry all week. I knew that it had something to do with Sebastian. I’d heard Master Remy arguing with Master Mordecai. They’d been arguing a lot lately. I tried not to listen in, but I couldn’t help it. Sebastian was interfering in my relationship with Master Remy, and my master wanted to do something about it, but his father insisted that he wait peacefully and follow Sebastian’s instructions. I wasn’t sure why Sebastian had the power to give Master Remy orders, but I heard Master Mordecai say that Sebastian was working for his sister, my mother.

During the week, I was so busy attending to Master Remy that I didn’t have a lot of time to study. I’d gotten a D on a math test, and I hadn’t been prepared for my biology study group today. Oliver had noticed, but it was Cameron who’d given me the hardest time over it, like he always did. He was one of my best friends, but I wished he could just accept me for who I was. I needed a dominant man in my life. Sure, Master Remy took it too far sometimes, and sure I missed being able to spend time with my friends, but what else could I do?

Of course, what I really wanted was for Cameron to become that dominant man and claim me as his own. I’d waited for two years after Remy had graduated from the academy. I’d given Cameron blowjobs almost every night. Of course I’d sometimes blown Oliver and Ezra as well. When I did, I always pretended that Cameron had ordered me to suck his friends’ cocks.

At college I’d begun to fantasize about Jason Lee. I’d never met a guy like him before. The way he treated Kieran was perfect. He was the dominant man to Kieran’s submissive boy. I needed that, and that’s what Master Remy did for me. I’d never seen Jason hit Kieran, but I was sure that he probably did. It’s what dominant guys did with submissives like us. Of course, Cameron would never hit me. If he were my master, he’d dominate me, but he would love me.

When Master Remy had graduated from the Academy, I still had two years. What I’d had with Cameron, Oliver and even Ezra was good. We’d made out and sucked each other’s cocks, but I’d dreamed constantly of being taken. Cameron had teased me a lot, saying he was going to do it, but he never did. I’d waited, and he’d never even tried. If he had, things may have been different.

I felt guilty thinking about Jason and Cameron when I already Master Remy. I felt like I was being disloyal to my master. It didn’t matter that Jason sat and held Kieran on his lap all the time when I spent my time kneeling at Master Remy’s feet. And it didn’t matter that Cameron always kissed me with a look of love on his face and liked to play video games with me, while Master Remy never kissed me and didn’t even let me have any free time. If I wanted the good parts with Master Remy, I had to take the bad parts as well. I liked that Master Remy was fucking me, and I loved it when he took charge. Cameron hadn’t fucked me even though he’d had the chance. All he’d had to do was take me. I would have been his. Maybe he could have been forceful enough if he’d tried. But he hadn’t.

When Master Remy picked me up at school at 4:00 p.m., I sat quietly in the back seat of his car. We’d barely pulled out of the parking lot when he looked in the mirror and said, “Take your clothes off, slave. My car is the same as my house. I don’t want you wearing clothes in the car from now on.”

“Yes, Master,” I said.

Then I quickly took my clothes off. I had a feeling he was in a bad mood again. Had he been this angry back at the Academy? Thinking back to those days, it seemed to me that he had been. I sat quietly, naked on the back seat while he fumed in the front seat. It wasn’t a long drive back to my master’s house, but it felt like it. When we pulled out, he made me get out of the car and carry my clothes and bags into the house.

I put my clothes in the cubby set aside just inside the door and hung my backpack on the hook over top of it. Then I fell to my knees. My father moved around the house on his feet, but Master Remy required me to crawl everywhere unless I needed to stand up to do work. He’d told me that I hadn’t earned the privilege of standing and walking. I followed him as he walked into the living room.

When he sat down, I knelt before him and waited for him to shift his boot forward. I pulled it off his foot and then moved to the other. Then I carefully pulled his socks off, rolled them up and stuck them inside the boots. I bent down and kissed each of his feet three times and pressed my forehead to the ground. He put his feet up on my back and turned on the television. He liked to watch the mundane news for an hour or so while I acted as his footstool.

He always ignored me during his television time and treated me like a piece of furniture. It wasn’t one of my fantasies, but I had sworn to serve him in any way he desired. When he was done, he stood up and said, “Go into the other room and help my father’s slave make dinner. You may not speak unless my father or I give you permission. Slaves don’t need to chatter.”

“Yes, Master,” I said, resigned to another night of isolation, unable to speak even with my father.

Master Remy smiled at me and gestured for me to get moving. I crawled into the kitchen before standing up and washing my hands. My father had a look on his face that showed he wasn’t pleased. He gave me a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

“I have the roast almost done, and carrots are ready to go in the oven, so all I need for you to do is to clean the lettuce and get the salad ready, son,” he said.

I nodded and started the tasks he’d assigned me. Dinner smelled so good, but Master Remy had me eating slave gruel for every meal. He said that it had all the nutrients I needed, and he wouldn’t have to track my nutritional needs. I thought he was trying to train me to think of myself as a slave. I assumed that he would allow me regular food once he felt I learned what I needed to know. I hoped so anyway.

My father kept looking at me and frowning, like he wanted to say something. I’d already finished arranging the salad and he’d pulled the roast out of the lower oven and had put the rolls in when he turned to me and whispered, “Don’t sign up with your cousin Remy again, Micah. He’s not a good master.”

He started to say something else, but Remy came into the room at that exact moment. He pushed my father against the counter, burning his shoulder on the roasting pan causing my father to cry out in pain. “I knew you were undermining me with my slave. You forget that you’re nothing but a slave as well,” he growled.

Then he grabbed my father’s jaw in his hand and pushed him backwards on the counter until his feet came off the floor. “My father is too permissive with you,” he said. “I’m going to…”

“You’re going to take your hand off my slave, right now!” Master Mordecai said, his voice thundering over all the other noises in the kitchen.

When Master Remuel didn’t move to comply, Master Mordecai waved his wand and ribbons flowed out and wrapped around his son. Master Remy tried to block it, but Master Mordecai was too fast, faster than I’d ever seen before. He flicked his wand, and Master Remuel was wrapped head to toe. Then he cast another spell so fast I couldn’t make out the words and his son levitated and floated out of the room, cocoon and all.

“Take care of your father, Micah. You can talk to him all you want,” he said with a calm, even voice.

I helped Dad off the counter and looked at his back. He had a bruise from where the edge of the counter had pressed into him, and he had a burn that looked like it was going to blister where his shoulder had been pressed against the 250-degree pan.

“Are you okay, Dad?” I asked.

“I will be, Son,” he replied. “But listen to me. Remy is not mature enough to make a good master. I love having you here, but you need to go back to campus tomorrow and not renew your contract with him.”

“Dad I… Master Remy and I have an odd relationship, but he understands me and what I need,” I said.

My father shook his head sadly and said, “No, he doesn’t, Son. I just hope you realize that before it’s too late.”

I didn’t see Master Remy for the rest of the night, nor in the morning when I got up to get ready to go to campus. I felt strange but soon realized that it was because my contract had expired overnight, and I was no longer bound to my master’s will. I didn’t know how I felt about that. And now I had nine days to decide.

 

Oliver

Lalo and I met up for our dinner date down in the lobby of the dorm. Since Micah was at the Adler House and Ethan was spending the night with Sebastian, Cameron was going to sleep in Micah’s bed. I knew that he was worked up over Micah being with Remy, and it wasn’t all due to him worrying about Micah’s safety. Cameron’s eyes followed Micah all the time, and his body language said that Cameron was in love with him. Lalo was the first one to point it out to me, but then I could see it clearly for myself. And in retrospect I could see that he’d always been hung up on Micah. I sent a message to Sebastian on my tabellum arcanum to that effect. I hoped he could use that to help Micah.

I felt a little guilty about putting Micah and Cameron out of my mind, but I wanted to concentrate on my date with Lalo. He’d planned everything, and he’d insisted on paying. I’d never been on a date before, well, at least not knowingly, as apparently we’d been on two dates together already. It was a new experience for me, and I intended to enjoy every minute of it.

I didn’t know how formal our date was going to be, so I wore a pair of nice jeans and a short sleeve shirt with buttons on it. I must have guessed right because Lalo wore a pair of nice shorts and shirt with buttons instead of his normal knit shorts and tee shirt. When he came into the lobby, he walked over, kissed me and held my hands. A couple of girls gave us a “woo” and a guy gave us a wolf whistle. I was a little embarrassed, but just because everyone was looking at us.

We left the lobby hand in hand and went to Lalo’s car. His parents had bought him a new red Honda CR-V hybrid before he came to school. Maybe they wanted to keep him safe. But after just a couple of minutes of his driving, I wasn’t sure anyone else on the road was safe, however. I made a mental note to research the appropriate spells I could use to help keep us both safe if this was going to be a regular occurance.

He’d chosen a restaurant at the edge of town. It looked homey and comfortable. We were met by an older woman with graying hair who said, “Welcome to Newbury’s Country Kitchen boys. I’m Esther Newbury. Will it just be the two of you this evening?”

Lalo chimed in and said, “Just us, ma’am. I called for a reservation. The name’s Lalo Arenas.”

She obviously remembered the phone call. “Then this must be the young man you were talking about,” she said. “You’re right, he is good looking. I have a table for you by the garden window and I made sure to have the menu you requested.”

She led us back to a table with a wonderful view of a patio with climbing rose bushes. It looked like some tiles were being repaired because all the patio tables were against the walls. The table was small, and it was covered in a tablecloth with small blue and white checks. There was also a candle in a colored glass cup, but it wasn’t lit because it was still early.

In a few moments a young woman came by and took our drink orders. We both had sweet tea again. “Dinner will be ready for you in a few minutes,” she said as she put some butter and fresh rolls on the table.

When she left, Lalo said, “I ordered for us ahead of time so I could make sure that everything was vegetarian.”

“You're being sweet, Lalo,” I loved his nickname, the way it rolled off my tongue; La-Lo.

“I wanted everything to be good for our first date,” he said.

He stroked my hand and added, “I want you to be impressed enough to go out with me again.”

“So far, so good,” I replied.

I was impressed. He’d gone all out. When dinner arrived, it was stuffed portobello mushrooms, homemade noodles in a rich brown mushroom gravy and oven roasted asparagus. The food was excellent, but it was Lalo’s company that made it even better. I found myself distracted by his lips and his beautiful eyes.

“Drew told me that Sebastian asked if you could catch ‘the werewolf’ from being with me. He thought it was funny, so he told me about it, but then I wondered if maybe you were afraid of the same thing,” he said.

“I wasn’t worried, and I didn’t ask him to talk to Drew,” I replied.

“Well, I’m going to tell you more than I should because I really like you. I could only bring you over if I bit you, in wolf form on the full moon, maybe a day or two before the full moon. So, unless we were making out while I was a wolf, there’s no chance. I can’t change partially. I have to be a hundred percent wolf at the time,” he assured me.

“Good. Thank you for that, but I’ve read up enough to know that versipellia shares some traits with diseases, some with curses and some with spirit possession. My Serapis medallion provides protection against all three, so I’m not afraid of you, Lalo,” I said. “But I’m still not planning on having sex with you while you’re in wolf form, not unless I learn a spell to transform myself as well.”

He looked at me with a mixture of amusement and bemusement. He shook his head and said, “You’re weirdly efficient and well-read. That’s not a bad thing. I think it’s kind of sexy, but I’ve never seen you unprepared for anything. I should have known you would have done your research.”

Then he leaned across the table and kissed me. When he sat back down, he asked, “Does that mean that you’re planning on having sex with me, maybe even tonight?”

I smiled at him and said, “Probably. You should know that I consider myself to be a proficient cocksucker, but I’m still an anal virgin.”

Lalo laughed at me and said, “You are refreshingly direct, Oliver. Well, you should know that I’m not any kind of virgin, and I’m open for anything you want to do tonight.”

I had to think about that. Lalo was handsome and sexy, and he was only a little bit taller than me. I thought of myself as versatile, but it was all theoretical at this point. Did I want to go all the way with him? Absolutely. Did I want to do it tonight? I wasn’t sure yet.

We finished dinner and then went to see the movie Candyman. It was fun and scary, so it gave us a chance to hold hands in the dark theater. Before the end of the movie, we’d pushed up the arm rest between our seats and we were cuddled together. A little kissing turned into a bit of over the clothes petting. By the time we left, I was more than ready to go a little farther.

Back in the dorm, Lalo joined me in my room. We were barely inside when he grabbed me and kissed me forcefully, pushing me back toward my bed. “I’ve been wanting to do this since about halfway through the movie,” he said, kissing my neck and pushing me down onto the mattress.

“Wait a minute,” I said. Then I pulled out my wand and waved it in a complex pattern that pointed to each of us then towards Cameron’s empty bed. “Deponamus Vestamenta!” I said.

Our clothes flew off and landed in a heap on the far bed and then we were both naked. I could tell that he was as excited as I was. His hard cock was pressing into my abdomen. I reached down and wrapped my hand around it, relieved to see that it was about the same size as mine at six inches. We were both average, and I didn’t have to fear taking a huge one if we did it all tonight.

“It’s damned convenient being with a mage, is all I’ll say,” Lalo murmured against my neck

He wrapped his hands around my cock in turn. His grip was both firm, but his skin was soft. I let my hands leave his cock and roam over his body. He was more muscular than me. He was also a little hairier than me, but not by as much.

“Can we just kiss and touch one another tonight?” I asked.

“Sure thing, Oli. I said anything you want. If you want to move slowly, we can go slow,” he said. “Just tell me that you want us to get there eventually.”

I thought about it, but it didn’t take long. I said, “I want to be with you tonight, but I’m not sure I’m ready to go all the way. I need to build up to it.”

Lalo touched me gently and kissed my face. I touched him again and began to stroke his cock. He moaned against me and stroked me in return. We lay there for an hour or so, edging one another and then backing off, our lips crushing each other, our mouths gently nibbling and sucking on nipples, fingers and finally, when we’d built up an almost irresistible tension, slowly taking in the other’s cock. I felt Lalo’s warm and soft mouth engulf my cock, just as I took his into my mouth as well.

It took almost no time. My ears grew hot. My scalp tingled. My skin felt like it was on fire. My nuts pulled up against my shaft, and my shaft tightened. And then it released, and I felt Lalo’s tongue teasing the sensitive head of my cock. He sucked my dick and swallowed my load. I couldn’t cry out his cock was flooding my mouth at that exact same moment. The taste of his cum overwhelmed my senses. I swallowed it greedily like it was the best thing I’d ever had.

When we’d both finished, we lay in each other’s arms and drifted slowly to sleep.

**********

You can read each story in The Concordium Cycle independently, or you can follow the author's preferred reading order that will blend the stories together. The next chapter in the author's preferred reading order is Elf Master 10. It will be out soon.

Special Thanks to my editor [email protected].