College Magic Cycle

Alchemy and Songcraft Chapter 8

Introduction

I welcome feedback from readers, in fact I thrive on it. It's really the only payment authors on NIFTY receive for their efforts. If you enjoy the story please take a moment to drop me an email and let me know. Comments from my readers drive my creativity.

This storyline is about the two couples, Jason and Kieran and Erik and Alonzo, the main characters from My Roommate the Alchemist and Wishcraft. Now that we're in phase II of the story, the POV will change between these four characters. The two storylines combine because the lives of the two couples are becoming more intertwined from this point on.

This cycle includes four storylines. The stories intertwine. They are listed in the College Magic Cycle folder in the suggested reading order.

Please remember that NIFTY is a free site that provides an invaluable resource for men like us. Please consider donating to help ensure that site remains available for everyone. https://donate.nifty.org/

You can contact me at pseudonominius@gmail.com.

Author's Notes

·        If you want to be informed of new stories, send me an email, and ask to be put on the notification list. I'll send a notification. Everyone will be on the bcc line so your email address will not show to other members.

·        You can also sign up for the google group mailing list. All notifications for new stories are posted there as well as on the notification list, but I also answer questions from readers on that site after removing the reader's contact information.

·        Not a mistake! Please remember that Alonzo, Erik and Kieran have changed size over the course of the story, but reality has been changed to reflect the fact that they have always been their current size.

·        My editor is Robbear (robbear78@gmail.com). He not only edited this story but provided a lot of insight and suggestions that made the story better.

Other Stories

• Small Town Slave Boys
• Jack and the Giant
• Sacred Submissives
• Bellus Cinaedus
• Guardian Angel
• Eros in Arcadia
• Nivean and the Dvergar
• Desert Heat
• Constituent Services
• The Dancing Princes

Alchemy and Songcraft Chapter 8

Alonzo

I was in the music room with Reggie. Everyone else had left and for some reason, there wasn't a horde of students trying to squeeze into the room for the next class to begin. Reggie moved up behind me and wrapped his arms around my shoulders. It felt so nice that I leaned back against him as his warm lips kissed my neck.

"Mm, that feels so good, Reggie."

He mumbled, "I can make you feel good in so many ways. You have no idea how much I want to please you."

His hands slid under my shirt and rubbed my hairless chest, finally settling on my hard nipples. Reggie gave a low laugh and pinched them hard enough to make me squeal and push my butt back against his crotch. I could feel his erection through his jeans.

"Someone has sensitive nipples," he muttered. "I'll bet you're sensitive all over."

Then he picked me up and carried me over to a pile of cushions that were lying in the corner of the room for some reason. He placed me down on them gently and took hold of my shirt, pulling it off, leaving me naked from the waist up. He ran his hands across my chest again. The look on his face said that he was reveling in the sensual feeling of his hands on smooth skin. When he reached the gold necklace Erik had given me, he began to frown.

With a flick of his wand, the necklace flew off and landed in the garbage. I knew that I should be upset, but I wasn't. All my anger disappeared when he crushed my lips with his own and lay on top of me, pressing me into the pillows. His hard cock was pressing against mine and I started to moan.

The next class had come into the room and were taking their seats. Professor Gantz was calling them to order. I had no idea why they hadn't noticed us in the corner of the room. I pushed feebly against Reggie's chest, trying to get him to stop despite the way my body was reacting to him. "They're going to see us."

Reggie took my hands and held them tight against the cushion covered floor. "No, they won't. They can't see through the velamen_. They are just mundanes and they don't matter. This is between us, two mages. Only a mage knows how to pleasure another mage."_

I glanced over and noticed that Reggie was right. They weren't paying any attention to us. I gave myself over to his tender lovemaking and put them out of my mind. Reggie moved from my neck to my chest. His teeth grazed against one nipple, and he said, "Sorry. Didn't mean to hurt you."

I stared into his eyes and took a deep breath. "Do it, Reggie. Do it harder, make me feel your love."

A smile came over his face. "You are more amazing than I'd dreamed, Alonzo. I didn't think it was possible to be more in love with you than I was."

Then he bit my nipple harder, making me cry out in a mixture of pain and pleasure. The sheer sensation of the bite traveled in waves down my body and made my dick spring to attention. If he kept that up, I was going to cum just from the nipple play alone.

Reggie moved down to my navel and teased it with his tongue, making me giggle loud enough that it reverberated around the room. We were louder than the singing students. It was like they were providing background music for us. They were singing "Often" by the Weeknd, only they'd gender swapped the lyrics.

He asked me if I do this every day, I said, "Often"
Asked how many times he rode the wave, not so often (he rode the wave)
Gay boys down to do it either way (baby), often
Baby, I can make that booty twitch, often (baby, I can make that booty twitch)
Often, often, boy, I do this often
Make that booty open, do it how I want it
Often, often, boy, I do this often
Make that booty open, do it how I want it
Often

Reggie waved his wand and my clothes flew off. He moved down and grabbed my cock. He seemed surprised by the size, but he looked up at me and said, "It's the perfect size for a mouthful."

Then he swallowed it. I started to thrash around on the pillows and moan like I was in heat. The sensations were incredible. He did things with his tongue like... well like the things I did to Erik. Only he was better at it than I was. His tongue touched me in multiple places at once. And he sucked with enough force to make me feel it in every nerve ending.

He gently rubbed my hole while he blew me. He pressed his finger inside me and stroked my prostate from within. I could feel my orgasm building as we rose into the air and hovered in front of the students. I could see Erik in the crowd, but Reggie's words echoed in my ears. "I told you that mundanes don't matter."

I exploded in his warm mouth, while he teased my ass; from the outside with his tongue and the inside with his fingers. I couldn't think. My concentration was focused on my cock and the way he made it feel. He sucked the last drop of cum out of me and then we kissed. It was like electricity connected us.

In the front row of the audience, I caught sight of Kieran. He looked upset over something. Unlike the others, he noticed me looking at him and he blushed.

**********

I woke up, and for a moment I didn't know where I was. Then I felt Erik's strong arms around me, and everything made sense again. I pressed back against him, and I could feel his erection pressing into my butt. Suddenly he was awake, and he started nibbling my ear.

His hands slid down my chest and tweaked my nipples. "I don't know how I ever managed to sleep before we started sharing a bed. I can't imagine not having you in my arms all night."

I arched my back and pressed harder back against him. "Mm. I love the feeling of your strong arms around me, Vikingo."

His hand touched my cock and then jerked away to feel the sheet. He pulled it back to his mouth and extended his tongue to taste it. "You did it again, baby."

This was the second night in a row that I'd dreamed of Reggie, and it was the second time in a row that I'd cum in my sleep without touching myself. I felt guilty, like I was cheating on Erik, even if only in my dreams. Or was it worse because it was in my dreams? Erik and I had great sex, the best sex. Why would I be dreaming of someone else? And why would that be so intense that I was having wet dreams?

"Sorry," I mumbled as I turned around to face him.

He put one large hand on my cheek and kissed me. "Nothing to be sorry about, so long as you were dreaming about me."

I swallowed my guilt and put on my sexiest smile. "Who else would I be dreaming about except for my guapisimo güero?"

He rolled over and took me with him so that I was now lying on top. He pulled me up to kiss him, while he fumbled for one of the magic lube balls. He pushed it gently into my butt while his tongue took possession of my mouth, quickly forcing it into abject surrender. I loved the way Erik touched my body. He was firm and demanding, but at the same time he was gentle and thoughtful.

He sat me up on his chest and pulled me forward so that his tongue could graze across the head of my dick. "Let me see if I can bring this little guy back to life."

He teased me with his lips and touched the head with his tongue. He alternated warming my cock with his mouth and blowing softly on it like he was trying to breathe life into a fire. His fingers were rubbing my hole making me moan and squirm. He knew what he was doing. In fact, despite his lack of musical talent, he knew how to play my body like an instrument.

I'd been with guys before, but I'd only gone as far as handjobs and blowjobs. I'd read about all the amazing things that a man could do to another man's body, but I'd never experienced them. Every time Erik touched me, my body seemed to melt in a pool of pleasure. I was taking my time to learn about Erik's body, what pleased him, what drove him to the heights of pleasure. But whoever I had been with, I'd always tried to please my lover. Erik was the only man who'd done the same for me.

Soon I was hard and throbbing. Erik smiled and said, "There's the little guy popping up to say good morning."

I reached back to grab his eleven inches and stroke it. I gave him a grin. "And your pinga grandisimo seems eager to return the day's greetings."

He picked me up and moved me back so that I was straddling his cock. "I'm always eager to get inside the sweetest boy hole on the planet. Can you guide my cock inside you?"

I nodded with a smile. "Oh yes, papi. Use me like fleshlight."

Erik paused and shook his head. He let out a loud laugh. "That was nowhere near as sexy as you intended."

I was laughing and shaking my head. "Yeah. It sounded good in my head. Just fuck me hard this morning, stud."

He pulled me down and I guided him inside me. I was more than ready for him. My guilt rose again as, due to the excitement brought on by the dream sex, I was relaxed enough to take him. Engulfing Erik's massive cock was always a challenge, but I was getting better at surpassing that challenge every day.

Despite the less than sexy image, Erik was using me like a fleshlight. I was holding his cock at the right angle, and he was holding me over it and slowly pulling me down. I grimaced and let out a sharp cry, "Ay, ay, ay! Cuidado!"

Erik's concern showed in the intense expression on his face. "Do I need to stop? Am I hurting you too much?"

I shook my head. "No. It's great. Just let me shift a little."

He was erect enough to keep the position I had angled, so I thought it would be okay to remove my hands from his cock. Instead, I reached down and took hold of my cheeks to spread them as wide as I could. "Now you can impale me on your lanza larga."

With a smile he pulled me further down, keeping the slow pace he had established. I was breathing carefully as each inch pushed inside me. By the time I was seated on his groin, my cock was leaking all over his hairy abdomen. Erik let go of my hips and said, "I'm feeling lazy this morning. I'm just going to lie here and watch your beautiful face and sexy little body while you fuck yourself on my `long spear'."

Erik was really into medieval weapons, so he loved it when I called his cock things like lanza (spear), espada (sword) or martillo (hammer). He especially loved it when I told him enfunda tu espada en mi culo (sheathe your sword in my ass). He was a nerd, but he was my big sexy nerd.

I licked my lips at him and lifted myself up just far enough that only the head was still inside me. Then I sank back down until my hairless culo sat on his pubes. I sighed. "Ay papi, no one could ever fill me up like you do."

I rode him like that for several minutes. I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to cum again so soon without someone touching my dick. I was singing to him while I slid up and down that magnificent cock of his. Usually, songs just played in my head, but I'd just come across this old song, and it sounded so much like what I was doing that I felt I had to let it out. Of course, I made a few changes to make it more relevant. I tended to forget that my magic was channeled through my music and the movement of my body. I hadn't planned on it, but the natural flow of numina in the room was swirling around my body. I could feel the eddies and swirls in the flow, like I was an oar, propelling myself through the water.

I'm taking a ride on my boyfriend
I hope he never lets me down again
He knows where he's taking me
Taking me where I want to be
I'm taking a ride on my boyfriend.

We're flying high
We're watching the world pass us by
Never want to come down
Never want to put my feet back down on the ground.

I'm taking a ride on my boyfriend
I hope he never lets me down again
Promises me I'm as safe as houses
As long as I remember who's wearing the trousers
I hope he never lets me down again.

The song vibrated through my body. I moved my torso to the beat while I continued to sing and slide up and down on him. I was becoming aware of that fact I might not cum with Erik, given my dream escapades. But that did not feel like an option. I had to cum with him. Since we'd been together I had always cum with him. (Yes, I was choosing to ignore the scant few times Erik had cum without me while he was overshadowed by Einar Bloodaxe; that wasn't him.) I was determined to do it, despite shooting a load during my wet dream. I was enjoying the pure sensual feeling of having sex with Erik, so it barely registered with me that the numina had begun to flow through my body instead of just around it. It resonated with and amplified my sexual energy. I'd never experienced this sensation before. Working magic through my body always felt like a sexual experience, but this time was different. It was like my body was drawing the numina inside and bolstering my libido. Maybe it was because I wasn't working a spell. The energy had no other place to go but to accumulate inside me.

My urgency began to grow. I could feel the tell-tale signs of my approaching orgasm. Erik's face was turning red, and both of us were drenched in sweat. He was panting, and I would have been too if it weren't for the breath control learned through years of singing. My body was tingling from head to toe, and it felt like someone was running an electric current through my spine. Erik's need for release was so intense that he'd begun to look desperate. I could feel that it was my magic that was holding him back. I could sense the fact that I'd tied our sexual responses together. His libido was joined with mine. He was feeding my own approaching orgasm while I was holding his at bay, edging him with my magic. And then, we both came simultaneously. I sank down on his cock and sprayed my cum all over him. He was groaning loudly, but incoherently. I could feel his cock pulse inside me, and I swear I felt his seed spraying my colon.

Erik sat up and scooted back against the wall, pulling me with him while I was impaled on his still hard cock. Our chests were pressed against each other, and we could feel our hearts pounding in tandem. Erik smothered me in kisses and then he said, "That was the best orgasm of my life. Somehow you kept me on edge for ten minutes after I was ready to cum. I literally thought I was going to die."

As I was coming down from my own post-coital bliss, I realized that I was also experiencing a post-spellcasting high. I had no idea what I had done, but somehow, I had joined our orgasms together, so they came at exactly the same time. He'd been ready before me, but, somehow, I'd held him on the edge until I was ready.

I really wanted to ask someone about what had happened, but Clarissa and Sebastian had warned me not to perform any magic unless I'd learned the spell to their satisfaction. I didn't want to get chewed out, so I kept it to myself. Besides, as much as I liked them both, they were kind of uptight and proper. I couldn't imagine having a discussion on sex magic with them. However, Clarissa had mentioned a secret magic library in the sub-basement of Severan House. Studying dry, stupid, boring books wasn't my idea of a fun time. I did it for class, but it looked like I was going to have to reconcile myself to diving in there and taking a look.

Kieran

I was in Doctor Kamon's dream garden. For some reason, I was always naked when I was there. I was stooping down to watch the fancy catfish in the pond when the doctor came up and squatted next to me. I looked over at him and asked, "Are these catfish really here, and, if they are, does that mean that they're dreaming too?"

The doctor put his hand on my shoulder and replied, "That is a very deep question you ask. The catfish are not part of my mind, but I do spend a lot of time thinking about them and watching them. Their minds are very small, but it is possible that some part of them finds a way here while I am dreaming."

He stood up and took my arm. "Come join me in the meditation room."

As soon as my mind agreed, I found myself sitting on the mat in his meditation room. The scent of incense was in the air and there was a tinkling of chimes as if they were blowing in the wind. The doctor sat down opposite me. He was fully clothed in an Asian tunic of some kind with loose black trousers. He was only three inches taller than me and not a lot heavier.

"I noticed that you still come here unclothed," he said.

I shrugged. "I don't know what to wear. I don't even know how to dress myself here. Does it mean something that I'm naked here?"

He nodded sagely. "This is the realm of Dream. Everything here means something."

"Then why am I naked?"

He took a deep breath and prompted me to follow him in our controlled breathing exercises. Then he said, "Perhaps you still don't know who and what you are."

"I do know. I'm Jason's luantong, and he's my zhangfu."

"Then why are you naked?"

I shook my head. "I don't know how to dress. No one has told me how."

He held out his hand and I held out mine for him to take it. "I will show you. Stand up."

I stood up and he said, "Relax and let me guide you."

I tried to relax. I always found it easier in his presence than any other time or place. Suddenly I was dressed in baggy jeans and a loose tee shirt. "This is how you dressed yourself before you came to college. Is this what you want?"

I shook my head. "It doesn't fit me anymore."

"I doubt that it ever did fit you," he offered. "You claim to be Jason's luantong."

My clothing changed so that I was wearing a mandarin style shirt in bright colors. My trousers were like his, but they cut tighter to my legs. I looked down but couldn't really see what it looked like. He pointed out a mirror I had never seen before. The outfit looked good, but it still didn't seem to fit right.

I shook my head. "It's not quite right. I'm sorry."

"Don't be. Maybe you aren't trying to lose yourself completely in my nephew after all."

He touched my forehead and suddenly I was dressed in a knee length plaid skirt with a long sleeve shirt tucked into the waistband. I wore a cute beret, kind of like Alonzo wore, but also in plaid. I had knee high socks and shoes with low heels.

"Why am I dressed in a skirt?" I asked.

Doctor Kamon laughed. He never seemed to be laughing at me, just laughing to let me know that it would be okay if I wanted to join in. "I tapped into the universal subconscious through your mind. This isn't a skirt. It's a kilt, and it is the traditional garb of your people. Does it seem right?"

I shook my head. "It's no better or worse than the Chinese outfit. It still doesn't feel like me."

He nodded. "I think that is to be expected. You're lost. You don't know yourself yet."

"Jason always chooses my clothes. I don't care because I want to please him."

He shook his head. "It is not possible to lie here and remain undetected."

"I don't know what you mean. I'm not lying."

He smiled at me again. "Does Jason always pick your clothes?"

I nodded. "Except when Alonzo does it for me, and that's only when Jason isn't there."

"That's the truth," he said. "Now, do you want to please Jason?"

"More than anything in the world!" I replied.

"Aha! That is also the truth. Then what is left to be false?"

I sighed. "Maybe I do care a little."

"Now we are getting somewhere. Why do you care?"

"Maybe it's because the clothes make me look gay," I admitted.

"Does it bother you if people think you're gay?" he asked.

I had to think about that one. But Doctor Kamon was infinitely patient. Finally, I said, "I don't think that's really it."

He continued waiting for me to express myself. "I think it's not that they think I'm gay. It used to bother me, but now it doesn't. It's that they..."

After a long stretch, Doctor Kamon put his arm around me. "You can tell me. I know you want to."

"It's because they keep looking at me."

"And you don't like people looking at you?"

I shook my head. "It makes me uncomfortable. I know they're not really looking at me and judging me. I've been able to lower my barriers and hear that sometimes. It's just that the clothes Jason puts me in make them look at me. They make them think about me."

Uncle Kamon laughed again, and I found myself standing there in a pair of tiny shorts and a vee neck shirt with a rainbow pattern. He walked around me and ran a finger along the curve of my buttocks. They were barely covered by the shorts.

He said, "I see. This is an outfit he had you wear last week. And you think people were staring at you because it is so revealing."

I nodded. He sighed and touched my arm. Suddenly I was wearing a baggy gray sweatshirt and baggy jeans. He turned me to the mirror and said, "Take a look and tell me what you see."

"I look like a slob, sir."

He tousled my copper gold hair and adjusted my shirt, so it was straight. "What do you see?"

I blushed. "I see a good-looking red headed boy."

"You are the master of understatement, Kieran. You are a beautiful boy. Would you stare at that boy in the mirror if he walked into the room?"

I smiled and admitted, "Maybe."

"So, maybe, people are going to look at you no matter what. You told me that you've already begun using your empathic senses to determine if people around you are dangerous. That's the talent you need to hone."

We sat and did breathing practice for... it was hard to keep track of time in the dreamscape. But eventually, I told him about the encounter in the laundry room on Sunday. He put a hand on mine and reviewed the main points.

"You and your friend Alonzo were doing laundry. Those two men were already there. They expressed a perfectly understandable interest in you, understandable because, as you've admitted, you are a very attractive boy. And I believe your friend is also a very attractive boy."

I interrupted without even meaning to do so. "He's the prettiest boy I've ever seen."

"Hmm. And you love him." It wasn't a question.

I nodded. "I do. Not like as a boyfriend, but he's the most amazing boy I've ever met."

"More amazing than Jason?"

I snorted. "Jason's not a boy. He's a man."

"And Alonzo's boyfriend Erik?"

"He's a man too."

He nodded again. "And this Darren that you talk about so much in our sessions. He's also a man, correct?"

"Yes, sir." I didn't like where he was going with this.

"So, you see all male human beings as either `men' or `boys', and there is no real overlap. You can be completely in love with Alonzo, but you couldn't be with him because you are both boys. And you are afraid to love Erik, despite your feelings for him, because you are afraid that would mean being untrue to Jason."

I swallowed hard. "I think it's not that simple, sir."

He stared at me. It was unnerving because I knew he was looking at my aura. All his questions, all his statements were chosen less to elicit information and more to cause specific reactions in my aura that he could read. It made it very difficult to argue with him.

"It's exactly that simple, and also not that simple at all. It's no surprise that you and my nephew are so drawn to one another. He too sees the world this way, but he understands the secret of yin and yang."

He drew my attention to the representation on the wall. "If you notice, yin contains within it the essence of yang, and vice versa. Each contains within it the potential to be the other. And neither is ever truly without its complement. Jason understands this. You need to understand that fact as well."

I nodded. Everything he said made sense, but I had the impression that there was more to it. We talked about some of my other fears and anxieties. Doctor Kamon helped me to work through many of the issues that had arisen, both in recent weeks and from my time before Severan. As we were coming to the end of our time, he said, "There are two things I want you to take away from this session. First, it is not a threat to you if someone finds you attractive. And it is not a betrayal of Jason for you to accept their attention."

"Does that mean that I should act on those feelings?" I asked with confusion.

He shook his head. "We don't have to act on feelings in order to acknowledge them and even enjoy them."

"I think I get it," I said.

He raised two fingers. "And the second thing is this. If you don't like the way Jason dresses you, it's okay to tell him that. And tell him the real reason why."

The garden was fading around me, but I called out, "What if I don't know what the real reason is?"

"Trust yourself. You do."

**********

I woke up this time when I returned to my body. I sat there patiently while Jason dismantled the ward and joined me in bed. He wrapped me in his arms and we fell asleep with my head resting on his chest and me drinking in the unique Jason-ness of his scent. My dreams were pleasant, until I found myself inside Alonzo's dream. At first my dream self was wandering around Alonzo's version of the campus. I was not supposed to be doing this. Doctor Kamon and Rakesh had both warned me not to leave my body without someone watching over me, but I was too curious to stop. If Jason figured it out, I'd face the music later.

I heard Alonzo singing, so I followed the sound. It led me to the music building. Inside one of the classrooms, Alonzo was lying naked on a pile of cushions and another student was kissing him. A crowd of students came in for their lesson, but they didn't notice the sex scene going on in the corner. I sat down with the other students. As I watched them, I realized that all of them were mere dream imagos. Rakesh had explained to me that the imago was a part of the soul, the part that could remain as shade after death. By itself, it was incomplete, like a copy, but a copy that could carry information back to the other parts of the soul.

There were two other complete souls here with me, Alonzo and this other guy. I didn't understand how that could be. I was a mind mage. It made sense for my conscious self to appear in the dreamscape with my imago, mind and soul still conjoined, but other dreamers shouldn't be able to do so without training. And Alonzo was as inexperienced with magic as I was, and he wasn't even a mind mage. I looked over and caught his eye. He realized I was there, and I immediately blushed. I wanted to leave, but I couldn't. I'd become caught up in Alonzo's dream and no matter how much my conscious mind said that I should leave, my subconscious wanted to remain. This part of the dreamscape had become more real because of the presence of three lucid (or semi-lucid) dreamers. I watched until a powerful orgasm washed over Alonzo's dream self.

In the aftermath, that part of the dreamscape collapsed around us. The imagos of the other students faded and the building crumbled into the raw stuff of dreams. I'd been told that everyone perceived it differently, but to me the raw dream looked like a flat expanse of silvery mist that stretched into infinity. When I looked into the mist, I felt that I could see the barest hint of creatures and objects that seemed to be reflecting my thoughts. I knew from experience that I could concentrate on them and make them real, but I didn't. I allowed this portion of the dreamscape to fade away. The last thing I saw was the guy who'd been with Alonzo, staring in my direction.

I let the rest of the dream construct fall apart, but I was careful not to allow myself to be sucked into its dissolution. I held the image of the permanent dream construct of the campus in mind until I could see it in the mist. Then I moved into it. This was the dream version of the campus that had been created by students and faculty since its founding. It was bolstered each night by the dreamers. Even a master of mind magic would have difficulty tearing it down.

I found myself drifting through the dreamscape, back into Baylor Hall. Why hadn't I ever noticed the iridescent serpent shapes that flew around the building, with wings fashioned from rainbows? They seemed agitated, like they were on alert. One of them drew close to me and flicked its tongue in my direction, like it was smelling or tasting me.

I heard its voice like a sibilant flute inside my head. "You may pass, little dream mage."

"Who are you?" I asked.

"We guard the gates of dream. We're bound to prevent the intrusion of malevolent dreams into the minds of the sleepers within."

"Why haven't I seen you before now?" I asked.

The creature seemed to stare deep within me. When it responded, its musical thoughts made my whole body resonate. "You have never left the protected confines of this dream haven before, Awakener."

"Awakener?"

"Yes. You are an awakener."

"What's an awakener?"

Unhelpfully, the creature replied, "You are an awakener, one of only a handful in the world."

The creature flew back up to join its partner in weaving their way through the air around the dormitory. I sank through the walls and allowed myself to snap back into my body.

I had somehow rolled in my sleep so that I was sleeping with my back to Jason. So, I turned back over to face him. When he was sleeping, he looked more vulnerable than when he was awake. He still looked powerful, but he also looked peaceful and unguarded. That was it. I'd never seen him with his guard down before. He was always in charge of himself and his environment.

It suddenly dawned on me that maybe Jason wasn't always sure of himself, and what he was doing, as he seemed. Maybe he had doubts and insecurities like I did. A momentary sense of panic and anxiety washed over me at the thought. Jason was my rock, my anchor. I went through one of the mind exercises Doctor Kamon had taught me to calm down and get my breathing back to normal.

If Jason was just as insecure as... well, maybe not me, but people with normal levels of insecurity... Then how could I help him? What was my job, as luantong, to my zhangfu? I was afraid to tell him that I suspected. Would it make him mad? No, never that. Jason didn't get mad at me, not really. Would he be disappointed in me? I doubted that too. Maybe I shouldn't let him know that I know. Maybe I should keep that fact to myself and just... help him. I had to figure that one out. How could I help Jason?

While I was watching him sleep, I let my vision slide into my aura sense. Suddenly, I could see his numina body. It was pulsing with the flow of his life energy, amplified, like all mages, with the numina that he manipulated while casting spells. His aura was bright and strong. After Rakesh had pointed it out to me, I had no trouble seeing the tendril of his aura that reached out and intertwined with the tendrils emanating from my own. We were connected on an intimate level that was so much deeper than the physical.

On a whim, I sent a wave of my own energy into his numina body to smooth out a rogue eddy of magic I'd seen. And it worked. Jason's breathing became easier, and his aura brightened. That was it. I could support him when his own insecurities grew by easing the snarls of energy my talents allowed me to see and respond to. When his aura was bolstered, he'd feel both mentally and physically fortified. Rakesh had taught me that it worked both ways. The aura affected the mind and body, just like the mind and body reflected the aura.

And maybe I could find ways to do the same without resorting to mind magic. Maybe I could use words to support him. And suddenly, I was overwhelmed by the realization that Jason did that for me every day. He didn't have my mental talents, but he still knew the right words to say to make me feel better, like he was able to calm me with his words, the same way I could use my mind magery to smooth out the snarls in his energy body. That was just more evidence that he and I were complements to one another. I had never been good at talking to people, except for Jason and Alonzo. I still got tongue tied, even around Erik. I wanted to learn how to use my words to help people the way Jason did. It felt... less invasive than using my powers to change their mood. I especially wanted to learn how to use my words to support my zhangfu the same way he did for me. More than that, I was determined to learn how.

My aura was still touching his, exploring it just like my hands enjoyed exploring Jason's body. I could see the major energy nodes. Rakesh called them chakras, but he said the name didn't really matter. I touched each of them in turn and saw it brighten. This was the art of aligning the energy bodies. I'd done it with Alonzo as a prelude to mental communion, but I wouldn't pry into Jason's mind without his invitation. Still, as my energy nodes reached out to the equal on his body, I felt our breathing and heartbeat synchronize. It was erotic in its own way. And that's what had disturbed me with Alonzo. What we had done was the mental equivalent of sex, or at least of foreplay.

With Jason, I didn't hold back. I wasn't afraid to let my aura mingle thoroughly with his. I could feel the energy nodes beginning to resonate and then the edges to our auras lost their distinction and they merged. I wasn't aware that Jason had awakened until I felt his hands moving on me, stroking my back and spreading my legs. His mouth was on mine, urgently crushing my lips with his own. I felt his erection pressing against my hole, demanding entry. And I responded. As my yin-aligned self opened to embrace his yang-dominant spirit on the mental plane, my body opened to accept him on the physical plane.

We were almost complete, but something was missing. And then I saw it, the tiny bit of yang inside my yin. The tiny bit of dominance that refused to go away. I was on the verge of tears trying to suppress it, when I heard Doctor Kamon's words inside my head.

"If you notice, the yin contains within it the essence of the yang, and vice versa. Each contains within it the potential to be the other. And neither is ever truly without its complement."

Instead of trying to suppress that part, I allowed myself to embrace it. My own yang thrust inside Jason's aura seeking his yin. And when they touched, it was like a circuit had been completed. Our auras merged completely. We remained in that state for what felt like hours, our auras and our bodies joined.

The pleasure began in the energy node near our genitals. In our energy bodies, this node governed everything from the penis to the buttocks, including the rectum and the prostate. But it didn't remain there. It spread slowly through the body, traveling to the feet, the abdomen, the chest, the pectorals, and the head all the way to the crown. Each wave of energy was stronger than the last, like a crescendo building with the same intensity as the physical urgency driving us toward orgasm.

And at that very moment, Jason's hands dug into my hips. My butt started clenching and Jason spilled his seed inside me. We grunted our pleasure loud enough to ring off the walls, but we didn't use words. It was more like the primal groans of animals caught in the throes of passion.

And then we became individuals again, or at least as separate as two codependent people can be. I could still sense his emotions. And I could feel the afterglow of his orgasm, just as I knew he could feel mine. He kissed me again, passionately, and this time, I kissed back, not struggling for control with him, but complementing his actions.

Jason held my sweaty body in his arms. He was coated in perspiration as well. We lay there for a minute or so until Jason broke the silence. "I'm going to have to rethink the rule about you not asking for sex or initiating a sexual encounter."

I started laughing and then I climbed up onto his abdomen to look down at his handsome face, with his high cheekbones and noble brow. "I didn't mean to break the rule about asking for sex. I was just touching your aura with mine and one thing led to..."

He put one hand on the side of my face and interrupted me. "...it led to the most amazing sex we've had so far. And that is quite the achievement! The old rule came from when I was in a very different place, with very different goals than I have now. I want to change the rule so that you may ask and you may start things, but you must not argue if I say no."

"And what if I say no?" I asked with a smile.

He shook his head. "A proper luantong doesn't deny his zhangfu. I may tell you no because I have decided that you need to go without release for some reason. I am your dominant after all and you – despite recent developments – are my submissive. But usually, it will be because I am aware of things you are not and there is some reason why we can't make love."

Then he smacked my butt and added, "And a proper luantong remembers to call his zhangfu `Sir'."

"I can live with that, Sir," I said.

I lay myself down on top of him so that my cheek was pressed against his chest. It was more than just being able to live with it. The idea of Jason having authority over my orgasms excited me. It made me feel controlled and safe the same way his arms around my body made me feel. And I trusted Jason. At first that had been a conscious decision, a leap of faith. But now it was based on a deeper understanding of my zhangfu. I knew he wouldn't use his authority to deny me for no reason.

I continued to lie there, my hand stroking his side. Jason ran his hand along my hair. He'd braided it last night, under Alonzo's watchful eye, so that it wouldn't get tangled while I slept. He undid the tie at the bottom and began undoing the braid, spreading my hair across my shoulders. It had grown long enough to reach the bottom of my shoulder blades before it had stopped growing.

I sighed and Jason asked, "Is there something else that you want to ask?"

"Yes, Sir, but I'm afraid you'll get mad at me."

He adjusted my legs so that when he sat up, I was straddling him, and he could look me in the eye. "This sounds serious. I want to hear what you have to say. And I can't promise that I won't get angry until I know what you have to say, but I will promise you that I won't ever act on any anger toward you. You are far too precious to me."

"It's about clothes, Sir."

"What about them?" he asked.

"I wish you would pick out clothes for me, Sir, that were less... um... slutty." I blushed and buried my face in his chest. My next words came out as a mumble. "I'm sorry. I don't know a proper word for that, just the dirty one."

"I don't think they're slutty, Kieran. I think they're sexy."

I nodded. "So do I. That's why I don't want other guys seeing me in them, Sir. The clothes make them want to touch me."

Jason turned my face up to look at him. "Guys are going to want to touch you whether you're wearing those clothes or wearing a burlap bag or wearing nothing at all."

I whined, "I know that, Sir. I had a long talk with your uncle about it. But the clothes make other guys think they can touch me, and I don't want them to touch me. I just want you to touch me."

He wrapped his arms around my shoulders and held me tight. "So, it isn't that you're afraid the clothes tell people that you're gay, or that they make them want to look at you? It's just that you're afraid they think you're available."

"Yes, Sir. That's it exactly. I like you picking out my clothes. And I don't care if people know that I'm gay, but I don't want them to think they have a right to touch me."

Jason hugged me so tight I could barely breathe, and he planted kisses all over my face. "I have been waiting for you to make this breakthrough. Let's get up and get ready."

We got out of bed and did our morning routine. After our shower, Jason put me on the scales. He frowned and said, "You weigh only 110 pounds, Kieran. Alonzo is your height, and he weighs 125 pounds."

"Alonzo is a dancer, Sir, and I hardly ever get a chance to do any exercise. You don't let me go to the pool and we never have time to run anymore because you go to the gym with Erik."

He flexed and his biceps bulged. "Don't you like it?"

I sprang another boner, so it was really pointless to deny it. "Of course I do, but I don't have any way to exercise."

Jason took out his phone and started swiping and touching buttons. "And you won't eat properly unless I make you. But I'll take your word for it and we'll try it your way first. There's room in Alonzo's Dance Aerobics class, so I've signed you up. You'll be going with him starting tonight. And if you don't start to put on some weight, I'm going to have to put you on a meal plan."

I started to panic. "I can't dance, not in public. Please, Sir!"

Jason picked me up and carried me over to the bed. He sat down and held me on his lap. "My sweet, darling, Little Prince. This is not a performance class. It's an exercise class. Alonzo is probably the best dancer there. No one is going to judge you and no one is going to care. Most of them are overweight and out of shape men and women who are going to be far more embarrassed than you are."

I swallowed hard and said, "I'll try it, Sir."

He stroked my hair and said, "Alonzo will be there with you the whole time."

Then he stood me on the floor and stood up next to me. "I have a surprise for you."

He went to the closet and pulled down a box that said, Ravensley Fine Apparel on it. He put it down on the bed and began taking folded pieces of paper out. When he spread them on the bed they had life size drawings of different outfits on them. There were dozens. He chose one with a pair of dark violet shorts, a rainbow hued vee neck where the colors seemed to bleed into one another at the edges and a vest the same color as the shorts. He made sure no other pictures were touching it, then he pulled out his wand (something I almost never got to see him do) and he tapped the picture, saying "encantum dimitteatur."

Instantly, the picture transformed into the clothes it had depicted. Jason chose a violet thong for me to wear and then helped me with the clothes. The shorts clung to my butt, but the inseam was three inches long and tight enough that no one could see up the legs when I sat. And no one would be able to see my underwear. The vee neck shirt was made of silk, and it weighed almost nothing. The vest was a thicker material, like canvas, that would allow me to carry my cell phone in a pocket. The pants were so small however that they didn't have functional pockets.

Jason wouldn't let me look in the mirror until he finished my hair. Alonzo did it most days, but Tuesdays and Thursdays he had to be in class before me. When he finally finished, he led me over to the mirror and let me see. I was turning around, looking at my body from different angles. Everything looked sexy, but it was covered.

"Do you like it?" he asked.

I threw my arms around his neck and said, "Thank you, thank you, thank you! I love it, Sir. And I love you. You always seem to be able to anticipate my needs before I even articulate them. When did you order these, Sir?"

Jason kissed me gently and ran his hands down my back. "I ordered them at the same time that I ordered your suit for the wedding and all your pretty boy thongs... and your special outfit for the Heritage Dance in October."

"How did you know that I would beg you for new clothes, Sir?" I asked.

Jason smiled at me and said, "First of all, every pretty little twink loves getting new clothes. And second, I was waiting for you to get to this milestone."

I ran a hand down his muscular chest. "What milestone, Sir?"

Jason ran a finger down my smooth cheek and across my lips. Then he sighed. "The milestone is the breakthrough I was talking about before. The acceptance of yourself as gay. I know that you think you did before, but I suspect that you really just thought of yourself as being gay only for me. I needed you to accept yourself as the beautiful boy you are. Until you were able to admit to yourself that you were "pretty" or "sexy", you were denying yourself. I needed you to know that others saw you that way as well."

"I was always gay, Sir, but you've changed my sexuality in some way that I can't define."

Jason replied, "Maybe I did. Maybe that's what two people do when they're in love. I suspect that's true, because you have also changed mine."

"In what way, Sir?" I asked.

He kissed my nose. "I hope you can wait until I'm ready to explain. I want to have a talk with you, Erik and Alonzo sometime soon. But for now, I want to thank you for what you did for me earlier. I don't understand exactly what you did because I am not a mind mage, and I was asleep for everything that happened before we had sex, but we are becoming more and more each other's ideal complement every day. And every day, I am gaining new and deeper understanding of just what that means for us."

I pressed my cheek to his chest. "Did you really like it, Sir? I was afraid I was overstepping my role as your luantong."

Jason kissed my head. "You are growing into your role as my luantong. And yes I did very much like what you did. I feel more clarity today than I have in a while. More than that, the sex was... transcendent."

We went down to have breakfast and I didn't give Jason any trouble even though he made me eat a boiled egg in addition to my avocado toast. Like every Tuesday and Thursday, Jason walked me over to the art building and didn't leave me alone until Sally showed up. Then he kissed me goodbye, and on a whim, he kissed Sally's cheek too, which made her blush and start giggling. He gave David Campos a glare of warning on his way out.

Sally was exuberant. "You look absolutely fabulous, Kieran. It's somehow both gayer than the last outfit and less gay at the same time."

"I know. And the best part is that I told Jason I wanted him to change the clothes I was wearing, and he did it."

"I told you that you had that guy wrapped around your finger," she said.

Professor Gordan walked by and clapped a hand on my shoulder. "You're looking very nice today, Kieran."

Sally was still working on her picture of the three monkeys. She'd put a lot of other people in it, too. She'd made me a bunny boy and Alonzo a fox boy. She was a cat who was singing with the monkey band. I noticed that she'd added a halo to her picture.

"Are you an Angel, now? Or maybe an angel-cat?" I asked.

"No. That's the moon. I always feel special when the moon is out."

I waited for a moment when she wasn't drawing, and I poked her in the ribs. I whispered, "Are you a were... pussy?"

I expected her to call me a dirty boy, like she always did whenever I said something that she thought was dirty, even if I didn't understand why it was supposed to be so dirty. Instead, she got a distant look on her face and said, "Only in my dreams, Kieran."

I didn't know what to say in response to that. I just looked closer at her picture. I was missing something, but I wasn't sure what it was. My eyes jumped from character to character. I didn't know all of them, but I knew several. Me, bunny boy. Alonzo, fox boy. Malachi (one of her friends she talked about, but I didn't know), puppy boy. Her and cat... boy?

"Did you draw yourself as a cat boy?" I asked quietly.

"It's my picture. I can draw what I want," she replied. Then she turned her back to me and didn't talk until the end of the class. As she was packing up her materials she said, "I sometimes think that what everyone can see isn't the real me."

There were other students around, so we didn't say anything else until after we'd shouldered past David, who was as persistent as ever, trying to stop me to talk, and went outside. We had to walk fast to get to the math building, but we managed to have a very quiet chat.

I said, "It's none of my business, but I'm curious because you got mad at me back in class and I wasn't sure why. I really like you and I don't like to do things that make you mad."

"I'm not mad, Kieran. I'm sad, more than that I'm jealous. You have everything I want, every single thing."

"I'm... sorry... um... I'll try not to have the things you want?"

She almost pushed me off the sidewalk. "Shut up! You know it's not your fault. I know it's not your fault. But you have a boyfriend who loves you and dotes on you and thinks the whole world revolves around you, and I am so happy for you... but I can't help but be jealous, too."

I pushed back against her with my hip and made her stumble a little too. "But you told me earlier that you didn't want the guys looking at you in a sexual way because you didn't have time for that stuff."

She gave me a look that said I was an idiot. "I lied to you. I don't like the way they look at me like I'm a... girl."

I stopped suddenly and said, "Are you saying you're not really a girl?"

"No. Of course I am a girl... or... not really. I mean, I look like a girl, but that's not who I am, not inside – at least not all the time."

I put my arm around her. I'd never comforted anyone like this before. It made me feel... super manly! In a totally gay twink sort of way, of course. "Then we should find you a girlfriend."

She threw her head back and shouted, "Aaargh!" Then she calmed down and said, "For a smart and sweet guy, you can be pretty dumb sometimes, Kieran. I don't want a girlfriend. I want a boyfriend. But I want a boyfriend who understands that sometimes I'm really a boy inside."

"So, you're not just a girl who thinks she's a..." she was glaring at me, so my mind ran at hyperspeed trying to get it right. "NO! You're not just a boy who looks like a girl on the outside. You're a gay boy who looks like a girl on the outside."

She sighed. "Maybe you're not so dumb after all, Kieran."

"And that's why you always draw gay boys because you're one too, only on the inside and not on the outside."

"Don't get too proud of yourself. It took you long enough to figure it out."

At that point we were at the math building and Meghan was waiting for me. Most importantly, Sally gave me a smile and wink before we parted. She wasn't mad at me anymore.

Meghan looked me over from head to toe. Then she growled, "Great! Now you really look like a princess."

I bumped my shoulder against her. "You said I looked like a princess before."

She shook her head and scoffed at me. "No, I didn't. I said you were a princess. You looked like a slutty little princess. Now you look like a proper princess. It's going to be even harder for me to keep the gay guys off you."

"I thought you were supposed to be protecting me."

She shrugged. "That too. Mostly I protect your virtue so Jason can keep you for himself. Every time a hot guy looks our way, I growl at them, so they get scared and piss their pants."

I laughed. "What if they're looking at you?"

She gave me a severe look and shook her head sadly. "Then I'd give them a growl that made them shit their pants. There's only one guy I'd consider switching teams for, and that's mostly because he's my best friend. I prefer sweet little girls with cute butts, so if it were dark and I was really horny, I'd probably give you a try."

Meghan's teasing never bothered me anymore, not since it had become friendly instead of mean. I bumped her hip with mine and said, "I am not a girl."

She shrugged. "One princess looks like another when the lights are out."

On the way up she growled at a couple of guys, and they scrambled out of the way. I whispered, "They weren't looking at me."

She shrugged again and then pushed me against the wall with her shoulder. "For all I know, they were going to start looking at you."

We found our way to the far side of the room where Meghan put herself between me and anyone who might want to talk to me. It was weird, but I think I felt safer with Meghan than I did with anyone else except Jason and Erik. No one, and I mean no one, was going to mess with her.

After the math lesson, Meghan walked me over to the Psychology building where I had permission to slip into the class and sit with Jason. It was an introductory class, so it was held in one of the big rooms that held a hundred people. I decided not to bother Jason this time, so I pulled out the smaller of my sketch books and I started drawing the professor. I thought he looked like a stereotype with his round glasses, thin build, and tweed jacket. He even had a bowtie. It was funny to me that the very same look was sexy on Sebastian, yet it made this professor seem so nerdy.

After class, Jason leaned over and said, "Don't let him see that."

"Why? It looks just like him."

"That's the problem. He thinks he's a foxy professor type and you've revealed him for what he is."

Jason and I had our literature class together and then we went back to the room. We ran into Erik and Alonzo on the way up so we all went in together. I started to take my shirt off, but Jason held up a hand. He and Erik whispered back and forth for a few seconds before Erik said, "Keep your clothes on. We have company coming. You boys go next door and get changed for your dance class. Micah will join you in a few minutes and we'll meet with Cameron over here."

Jason made me wait for a minute while he released another outfit from its picture on the fancy paper. It was an outfit I could use for yoga and for dance. I went next door with Alonzo to change. I was excited, despite the fact that I did not want to dance in front of other people. Alonzo had to help me with it, but it looked awesome.

I kept my thong on and then drew on a soft pair of silvery compression tights that hugged my butt and had a pouch in the front, so my dick wasn't squeezed. The pouch was an exact fit for me, so it didn't stick out far, but that was good. There was a tight blue muscle shirt that made me realize how thin I was, but it did cling to my torso and show off the fact that the muscles I did have were toned and fit. I had been on the swim team back in high school after all. And there was a baggier mesh shirt in the same silver as my tights. And last, but not least, there was a loose pair of exercise shorts that were the same blue as my muscle shirt. It looked sexy, but they still covered me up a little when I put them on over the tights.

Alonzo on the other hand wore a tee shirt with a large square cut neck that came down just far enough to leave his belly button exposed. It had no sleeves, and the arm holes were big enough to see his torso through. He didn't wear tights. He wore a pair of very short and very loose exercise shorts. The kind it used to embarrass me to wear.

He bent over in front of me and asked, "Can you see my straps?"

I laughed. "Of course not. You're not wearing a jock. If you were, I'd see your straps, but now I just see your naked butt."

He spun around and shook his hips. "Good!"

I said, "Everyone is going to think you aren't wearing any underwear."

Alonzo bopped my nose. "I. Don't. Care."

Neither of us had any homework so we were dancing in the room when Micah came in through the bathroom door from my room. We stopped dancing and Alonzo wrapped his arm around his friend. Then, true to his kind nature, he called me over and turned it into a three-way hug.

Micah was taller than either of us by a couple of inches. He had skin as dark as Alonzo's but with a different tint, maybe browner and less caramel. His hair was longer than mine, and he wore it in a ponytail. He wore a tight white shirt under a translucent mesh shirt with a golden sheen. His shorts were as revealing as Alonzo's, but they were tighter, more like my leggings. He wore several bracelets on his wrists, and he had a small wand sheathed at his waist. His nails were shiny, but whatever he was wearing was see through. And I could tell that he was wearing eyeliner. I assumed he was wearing mascara as well because his eyelashes were as long as Alonzo's. Everything about his appearance seemed designed to straddle the line between male and female.

I noticed that both Alonzo and Micah were wearing short necklaces with chunky links. Alonzo's was gold. It was the one he always wore, the one he'd told me meant that he belonged to Erik. Micah's was rose gold, although the color was shinier and less soft than Alonzo's.

Alonzo turned the music back on and the three of us started to dance.

Jason

When Cameron and Micah arrived, I sent Micah next door to spend some time with the boys. We'd told them to study but given the loud noise we heard when the bathroom door was open, it was clear that they were probably dancing in there. Alonzo liked to push buttons.

Cameron looked good. He was average in height, which made him a couple inches shorter than me and half a foot shorter than Erik. His hair was a deep coppery red and he had a lot of freckles. He was wearing jeans and a Severan College tee shirt. I wasn't attracted to alpha guys, but I had to admit that Cameron was a handsome young man.

Erik stretched out on the bed, so I gestured for Cameron to take a seat and I took the other. We looked at each other expectantly. Finally, Cameron broke the awkward silence. "So, Sebastian told me to ask you guys about being the dominant in a relationship with a submissive. He had me ask Elijah as well and we spent the weekend there, but I'm still not sure I get it."

I didn't know Elijah. He'd graduated from the Academy the year before I started, just like Sebastian and Nico. He seemed alright to me, and he treated his two boys with a firm but affectionate hand.

I offered him a bottle of water and then asked, "Are you a dom?"

He sighed. "I don't know. I have enjoyed all the attention Micah gives me and I do kind of like the feeling when I take control. But I'm afraid that I'm going to fuck it all up, that I'm going to do something wrong and... if I can't convince him to stay with me by this Sunday, then he's going to go right back to Remuel Adler."

Now that was a name I knew and disliked. He was an arrogant prick two years ahead of us at the Academy. He thought he was something special because his father was a war hero. He was a bully. He'd even tried to bully me, but I had just stared him down. I didn't care if his father had saved us all during the Millennium Uprising.

I nodded. "And that's bad for more reasons other than the fact that Remuel Adler is... Remuel Adler?"

Cameron sighed. "Oh yes. Remy always abused Micah at school. They're cousins. But once Remy was gone, I thought that we wouldn't hear from him again. Unfortunately, he came here with his dad and now he's back in Micah's life. He had him in cuffs and a neck collar and made him crawl around naked. He put a... a thing on Micah's dick so he couldn't cum. If Micah goes back to him, I'm going to kill him."

Erik clapped his hands together and said, "Then let's convince him to stay."

That's one of the things I loved about Erik. He didn't dither around. He made his mind up and then applied his amazing intellect to coming up with a plan. He didn't know about the darker underbelly of mage life, the kind of pit that people like Remy Adler crawled out of. I still owed Remy payback after what he did to my... well, not really a cousin, but my aunt's nephew on her husband's side. Ricky had been so emotionally scarred that it took Uncle Kamon a year to get him back to any sense of normalcy.

Still, I had to apply the brakes a little before we got too far ahead of ourselves. "We can't just attack Remuel Adler, no matter how much he deserves it. His father is a high ranking custos. If any assault were to be investigated, that would be the one. Let's focus on getting Micah to stay."

When Erik planned anything, it always sounded like he was making a list. He ticked points off on his fingers. "First, we take the boys to dinner in the Student Union. Second, we drive the boys off campus to the Dance Aerobics studio. Third, Jason and I take care of our own business. Cameron, are you free at that time to watch them?"

The redhead nodded and said, "I can take my Tabulum Arcanum and get some work done in the lobby."

Erik nodded then continued. "There's room at the back of the classroom. You should be able to sit there."

I added, "You can hit the instructor with a Compliance Charm, if she objects."

Cameron shook his head. "I don't like mind control spells, but I can use the Elocutio Maxima spell to make my arguments more persuasive."

Erik laughed and said, "Whatever you use, you'll be sitting in the room, supervising. Make sure you're ready with cool water for them to drink when they're done. Let them know that you're in charge and you're ready to take care of things. Lastly, we head to Ibis House so Kieran and I can work with Rakesh. If you can teleport Micah and yourself back to campus from there, then that would be great."

Cameron said, "That's not a problem. I can translocate both of us back. Oliver's dad gave him a rug with an arcane circle on it and I'm attuned to it."

Jason said, "Thank you. That will be easier than driving back and forth several times."

I nodded. "That's a good outline. Just remember that in every interaction, Cameron, you are the dominant partner. You are the erastes and Micah is your eramenos. Follow our lead. You need to be in charge, but to do it in an authoritative way rather than an authoritarian way."

Cameron was obviously running it through in his mind. Then he nodded and said, "I think I can do that."

Erik clapped him on the shoulder. "You're a dom, Cameron! You don't think you can do it; you know you can do it."

I was proud of Erik. He'd been cocky when I first met him, but he'd lacked confidence inside. Now he was projecting confidence onto others. I counted that as a success.

Kieran

When Micah joined our group, turning the pair of us into a trio of us, it doubled the fun. I hadn't known him before today, but soon we were laughing and dancing around like idiots. I'd tried to stand back and watch, but Alonzo had grabbed me from behind and made me dance with him. He was pressed tightly against my back with his arms around my shoulders. Not wanting to be left out, Micah had moved up to me and put his hands on Alonzo's shoulders so that they were dancing with me pressed between them.

I couldn't help but laugh at the ridiculousness of the situation. Micah turned my head and said, "There's the smile that I knew was hiding in there."

Then we separated and Alonzo started teaching us dance moves, kind of like you'd see in a chorus line. Micah had moved to the middle because he was the tallest and he could easily put his arms around both of us. Alonzo and I had our arms around Micah's waist and were kicking our legs into the air.

When the guys came in, we stopped and looked at them attentively. It was crowded in the room with all six of us, but our guys still managed to pull us into a hug and cover us with kisses.

Jason pulled me to one side and held me tight. He kissed my neck, making my knees go weak. Then he whispered, "It makes me very happy to see you full of joy like that. Are you happy right now?"

I nodded and held on to him tightly. "I am, Sir. I don't normally enjoy being around people I don't know, but Micah seems okay."

He kissed me again. "You're even more beautiful when you're happy."

The guys took us to dinner. It was just the Student Union, so it wasn't too fancy. Jason and Erik got pizza. It was their go to food on campus, but Jason took me over to the salad station. He ordered a large salad and had them put double the chicken breast on it. Micah and Cameron had gone to the sandwich station and gotten grilled turkey and cheese.

Alonzo allowed Erik to pull out his chair for him without making any sarcastic comments and I saw Cameron pull Micah's out for him as well. Jason pulled me onto his lap because we were sharing a salad. It was funny watching how different we were from one another. Micah was a very neat eater. His sandwich was greasy, so he cleaned his fingers on a napkin between each bite. Alonzo spent most of the time talking, keeping us all laughing. I knew Erik would eat at least half of his food anyway. Cameron kept one arm draped around Micah's shoulder while they ate, and Erik tried to do the same, but Alonzo was too active: talking with his hands, bouncing in his seat. Cameron didn't seem to mind getting grease on his face, and Erik didn't seem to mind getting grease all over his shirt.

However, Jason was special. He joined in the conversation, but he spent most of his time focused on me. He had the interesting habit of eating his salad with chopsticks. I thought it was strange the first time I saw it, but it worked, and he never made a mess. One of these days I was going to have to learn how to use them, but I hadn't had a chance because Jason always held me on his lap or right next to him and fed me.

He was pretty insistent, but after a while I held up a hand and said, "I can't eat anymore, Sir."

"Little Prince, you have to eat. I can't have you losing more weight."

I said, "Please, Sir. I'm already nervous about dancing in front of other people. My stomach is twisted in knots, and I don't want to get sick in front of everyone."

Jason put a hand on my forehead to check my temperature. Then he sighed. "I don't want you to get sick either. I'll let it slide, but you're going to have to eat something after your session with Rakesh."

I nodded and leaned back against his chest. Somehow, he worked around me. He pulled out some powders and mixed them into my glass of tea. I'd seen one of them often enough to recognize it. "That's for anxiety, isn't it, Sir?"

"Yes, it is," he said as he stirred some amber liquid from a vial into the cup as well.

He held it to my lips and said, "Drink."

I didn't argue with him. I just drank it as fast as I could. The taste wasn't bad, but it was both sour and medicinal. Almost immediately, a calming warmth began to spread through my body. Jason's potions worked faster than mundane medicine.

After dinner, we all piled into Jason's SUV. Micah and Cameron cuddled together on the seldom used third seat. Alonzo and I were in the middle, while Jason and Erik were in the front seats. Alonzo was really affectionate with me. He took my hand and held it the entire trip. I would never have imagined that I would be so comfortable holding anyone else's hand in public.

Jason dropped everyone but Erik off at the Aerobics studio. Alonzo was still holding my hand as we walked into the room. There were three other men there already. They were talking when we walked in and then the man with a military style haircut called out, in a very campy voice, "Oh my God! Two new homos for the class!"

He was loud and exuberant and almost too much for me to handle, but Alonzo seemed happy to see him. He waved the guys over and said, "Mike, Jordan, Jefferson, this Kieran, and back here we have Micah and his sexy ginger boyfriend, Cameron."

Alonzo looked at Cameron, Micah, and I, announcing, "Boys! This tall, rough looking guy in soldier drag and the swish in his walk is Mike."

He patted a slightly pudgy guy on his belly and said, "And this Teddy Bear is Jordan. He's a teacher at the local Severan high school."

Then he clapped a thin dark-skinned man on the shoulder and said, "And this dark and handsome man is Jefferson. His boyfriend is a cop and he's a kept man."

Jefferson shook his head and shook his fist at Alonzo in a clearly playful way. "I am NOT a kept man. I'm just in between jobs right now."

Cameron stepped in front of us and shook their hands. "Pleased to meet you. I'm Cameron."

He wrapped his arm around Micah's shoulders and said, "This beautiful boy here is mine."

Then he gestures at Alonzo and me. "And I'm keeping a close eye on these two for their boyfriends."

He was staking out his territory and letting them know that he was responsible for us. It always made me feel good to have someone stronger watching out for me. Cameron was quickly becoming another "safe person" to add to my growing list. As my empathic powers grew, I had an easier time telling who was a threat and who wasn't. I could tell immediately that Alonzo's friends were just what they seemed, three older gay guys who were excited to be able to look at us while we worked out but were completely without menace.

I let my barriers down so I could sample the emotional atmosphere in the room. Most of the people were indifferent to us. That was usually the case, which surprised me a little when I first discovered it. I'd always assumed that everyone was thinking about me and judging me. A few of the women were thinking that we were "cute". Some of them had bad feelings toward Mike, Jordan, and Jefferson. I started to isolate those emotions and noticed the usual prejudices that conservative straight people tend to gravitate to; they're predators, they're grooming innocent young people, they're corrupting us... thankfully it was all background noise, like they didn't really believe what they'd been told, but equally couldn't shake such deep-seated beliefs. The longer I kept my mind open, the sharper my senses became. As these surface thoughts started to fade, what had been a feeling became a certainty, and then the emotions turned into thoughts.

"All this work and I gained two pounds last week!"

"I am so tired. I should have gone straight home but then I'd just be listening to the kids argue and fight."

"I'd give up on this class if it weren't for her. I'd love to look like her. I'd love to be with her."

"Great, now there are six faggots in the class. At least there's one real man, even if he is young. Hard worker too. I wonder what he's working on back there. He'd be a great catch for my daughter Sue."

"Damn! It's Red Prime! Does Severan Team even know he's here?!"

I looked around, but I couldn't match faces to the thoughts. Someone was here spying. But they weren't spying on me, or they wouldn't have been surprised to see me. I decided to keep my mind open during the dance in hopes of figuring it out.

I looked at Alonzo and said, "Let's move to the back."

"Oh, no, no, no, no. We dance up front," Alonzo said. Then he whispered. "I need to dance right in front of Jordan because he says it gives him the will to continue. You can dance in front of Mike. He's a perfect gentleman. He'll enjoy the show, but he'd never dream of touching another man's boy. And that means that Jefferson can ogle Micah. He's in a relationship so he won't try anything that might make Cameron mad."

"Everyone will be looking at me, Alonzo."

Alonzo threw his arms around my neck and kissed me. "I'm sorry, Kieran. We'll go dance in the back."

"Sorry for being a bother," I said.

He kissed me again. "You are never a bother to me, Kieran. Just tell me what you need."

The three of us moved to the back so that we were right in front of Cameron. He'd just finished talking to the instructor before we got there, and I saw him resheathing his wand. I looked around to see if anyone had seen it. There was one woman who stood out. She was purposefully looking away, but she could see us out of the corner of her eye. She was taller than me, but only by a few inches. She was very muscular and had short hair. But the most pertinent fact for me was that her mind was tightly closed. She had a mental barrier, and it was firm and almost unnoticeable. I focused my mental eye, my anja chakra as Rakesh called it, on her while we danced. Either she didn't notice my touch, or she ignored it.

The instructor turned to look at us and said, "Hi! Welcome to the studio. I'm Gale and I'll be your instructor."

She held out her hand, so I took it and said, "I'm Kieran."

My barriers were down, so I'd gotten a jolt of emotion from her when we touched. She was feeling a sense of excitement over having new students in the class. I had the impression that it was genuine and not just due to the increase she would see in her paycheck.

She read the anxiety on my face, so she patted my hand and said, "Don't worry, honey. You'll be fine. Just do what your friend does if you get lost. I have a lot of beginners here, so I try to make it easy to follow along."

Then she shook Micah's hand and exchanged pleasantries with him while Alonzo gave me a hug and said, "I have wanted you to join this class with me for a long time, but I was afraid Jason wouldn't let you take a class off campus."

Then Gale moved to the front of the room and got everything started. I'm not sure that Cameron got much work done. His boyfriend was dancing in front of him, and Alonzo and I were on either side of him. He was in love with Micah, and Alonzo was the sexiest dancer I'd ever seen.

I hadn't wanted to do dance aerobics. It felt a little insulting when Jason had told me to do this class after I complained about not getting enough exercise. I'd assumed that it wasn't real exercise, probably because it was a common choice for women and dancing had always seemed silly and for showoffs. I'd never been so wrong. If you applied yourself, then this class was a serious workout. I was exhausted and I knew that my muscles would be sore tomorrow.

After our workout, we sat with Cameron in the Lobby. All three of us were soaked with sweat. I was distracted by thoughts of the spy and why my mind magery skills hadn't revealed anything, when Mike, Jordan, and Jefferson came over to say goodbye. Some of the women in class stopped by as well. And finally, Gale came by to see how our first class went. She gave Micah, Alonzo, and I a hug, but she shook Cameron's hand.

We didn't wait long before Jason and Erik came in. I ran over and wrapped my arms around him. Jason held me tight and inhaled deeply. I blushed and said, "Don't. I know that I stink."

Jason inhaled again and said, "You don't stink. That's the scent of honest jock sweat. You may have forgotten that I fell in love with a sexy jock, but I haven't. Did you know that it was your sweat that first let me know that we were complementary? It's got me so horny that I wish we were heading back to the dorm right now."

I leaned my head against him and replied, "So do I."

Wilma MacLaren

The Agency was going to have to replace me. I'd blown it tonight. I had been tasked with keeping an eye on Red Three, but I'd gotten too excited when Red Prime walked into the studio. My main task as far as he was concerned was to watch who tried to get close to him and read their minds. If they were angling to use him to get closer to Red Prime, I'd tag them with a code name and make a note that they should be investigated by the rest of the team. I'd already found one hunter, the instructor's boyfriend. Other than that, it was a boring job. It was a little more exciting when I had the chance to bump into everyone who spoke to anyone in Red Cadre and give them a quick mind probe. It was always easier to make first contact skin to skin.

The boss wasn't going to like it. I hadn't known that his talents had been fully awakened. No one on the campus team had noted it, and none of my surface scans of Red 3 had told me much. When he was here, he was usually flirting with the three older gay guys, or he was dancing. And when he danced, his mind filled with music, like he was singing along. I was afraid to do a deep scan for two reasons. The reason I didn't mind admitting was that one of the mind mages on campus could potentially detect my intrusion. The other reason was that Red 3 had a lot of power. If he detected me, I wasn't sure what he would do and whether I would survive.

When he heard my thoughts, I saw the reflection of them in his mind. I slammed down my barriers quickly, but I didn't have time to pull a mental glamor over them which, to anyone but the most experienced intruder, would only show them inane surface thoughts. I'd even constructed a mental chameleon field which, when deployed, would make it seem like I was interested in the pretty Latino boy, Red 3. But there was no chance to use it.

I had to file my report and prepare for a change in assignment. There were only three of us, aside from the boss, with awakened mind powers, and one of the other two would have to take over for me. Today was the first time I sensed Red Prime's connection to Red 3 within his consciousness. Red 3 was too close to Red Prime for me to keep watching him now that Red Prime had felt me in his mind. I'd be constantly running the risk of Red Prime discovering me through his natural rapport with Red 3. One of our other agents had seen the two of them walking hand in hand on campus.

And who were the other two? Obviously, they were mages of some sort. Both of them had wands. I tagged the redheaded newcomer Red 5 and his boyfriend Red 6. Maybe they would need retagging when we determined how close they were to Red Prime. And last, but not least, I made a note that somehow Red 4 had developed barriers. So, he was a mind mage too. He'd been completely mundane the first time we saw him. Something had changed.

Everyone on the team who was associated with Project M knew about the supernatural world. But only the mind mages on the team knew why we were focusing on Red Prime. The mundane agents didn't ask because they'd been bound by the boss to ask no questions. Their loyalties had been shifted to the Order of Thera without them even knowing the name.

Project M was a secret program within the Department of Homeland Security created by government agents who were able to see through the velamen arcanum, but it had been infiltrated by mages from its inception and its reports were scrubbed of any really useful information about us. We mostly included information on vampires and the occasional rotten apples among the versipelles. But that wasn't the only secret. Even the other mages in the Conclave didn't know that Team Severan was under our control. It wasn't time yet for anyone outside the group to know that we may have found the excitorgenius. Under the leadership of the Order of Thera, the mindmages would become an equal power within the Conclave.

Erik

Kali training today went well, really well. Joining the intermediate class was great for me because it allowed me to train and then go to see Rakesh for lessons in mind magery. And Keith Aquino, the teacher's son, worked this shift with his father so we could still spar. I decided to practice for the first half of the lesson without using my combat prescience so that I could focus on my skill. Then in the second half I would take advantage of my mind mage talents to see what I could do with them.

I had to be careful not to overtax myself like last time. Rakesh had given me a brief lesson on meditation, and he assured me that I would find it less taxing if I engaged the ability from a meditative state.

We started with unarmed attacks. This was an area of strength for me since I was already a boxer and I'd been good enough to earn awards in my weight category back in high school. I knew how to move my feet to avoid a punch, I knew how to block, and I knew how to punch. Then Keith taught me a couple of new moves and we practiced, beginning in slow motion, and then gradually increasing speed.

After I landed yet another solid punch on Keith's chest, he motioned for a break. "You pick up new strikes easily and your punches are like lightning."

I shrugged. "Champion boxer. What can I say? It's the weapons that slow me down."

He smiled at me and said, "Good! Because I need a break."

We pulled out our training bastons. They had a solid core, but they were covered by firm padding. About the size of short swords, they were supposed to be swung fast. The problem I had, which I displayed right from the beginning, was that boxing instincts drove me to try and block with my forearms. And it hurt, despite the padding, and despite the body armor. If I did that with a real weapon when unarmored I could get seriously hurt.

We started slowly, purposefully swinging our bastons against one another. And then we picked up speed. When Keith swung at my face, I lifted my forearm to block, and the stick slammed into my arm. The same thing happened again. And again. After Keith ruthlessly slammed his baston into my forearm a third time, I called for a break. Shaking my head, I said, "That hurts!"

Keith laughed. "And it's going to keep on hurting until you learn to parry with the baston instead of your arm. That's why you have two bastones."

We returned to sparring and started slow again. I made the effort to use my baston instead of my arm. And it was easy at first. When we picked up speed, Keith slipped past my defenses and struck me hard on the chest.

"Damn! I can't move the baston fast enough to block," I said.

That's when I heard Justin Aquino, the owner and Keith's father, say, "That's because Keith is feinting you. He's moving in a predictable direction and then changing it at the last minute. You're an intermediate student and he's using an advanced technique."

Keith shrugged. "He's got a much longer reach and he hits like a sledgehammer. And he's fast on his feet. We're wasting our time with intermediary skills."

Justin stood back and gestured for us to get ready. I used the time to focus my mind and take a few deep breaths until I could feel the energy beginning to flow. I quietly chanted, "Om Namah Shivaya."

I could feel the energy flowing along the nodes in my body, bringing them all into synchronicity. Then I closed my eyes and willed that strange sense into being. When I opened my eyes, I could see the nimbus surrounding each figure, potential future movements expressed as ghostly images. The effect was blurred, except on Keith. I tested it and found that whichever person I concentrated on, the prescient images around them were sharpened, while those on the other people became indistinct.

We started sparring slowly. I was able to easily move the bastons to parry. And then we picked up speed. So long as Keith kept his strikes unambiguous, I was able to parry them handily. Once he began to feint, I had to watch the prescient image to see where the blow was going to land. When that happened, I could still block him easily.

We fell into a pattern of striking and blocking, neither of us landing a blow. Then I noticed that there was an opening in his defenses whenever he went to strike. I shifted my block to just one of the bastons and slammed the other through the hole in his defense, striking his side. Now that I was splitting my attention between striking and blocking, Keith hit me a few times, but I was sure that I had hit him just as often.

When it came to speed, we were evenly matched. Where I had the advantage was in reach and in strength. It was easier for me to step back out of the arc of his swing and still attack, than it was for him. And when I landed a blow, it struck hard.

As the speed of our attacks increased, students began to pause their fights to watch ours. Justin was keeping them back out of reach of our strikes, but he too was transfixed. Keith landed a series of rapid strikes that made it through my defenses. And they would have been very painful without the armor I was wearing, but then I landed a solid blow to his abdomen, throwing him off balance long enough for me to strike him rapidly, once on each arm and then solidly against his chest.

"STOP!" Justin called. There was no trace of anger on his face. He was just being the cautious instructor.

The crowd of students erupted in shouting and cheering. Keith had one hand on his side, and he was breathing hard. His eyes were wide, and he was smiling as he gasped, "You were like a man possessed. If Dad hadn't called the match, you would have beaten me."

Justin said, "Extraordinary, Erik. You looked like you'd reached a state of oneness between mind and body. That's not an easy thing to do."

My vision was returning to normal. I felt fatigued, but I had no headache. It was barely worse than a full workout session would have been. My breathing and heartbeat were slowly approaching their resting state.

Then Justin pulled his son in for a hug. "You did great, Son. You showed amazing expertise. There's no topping that performance today. Why don't you two get changed while I get the rest of these guys back to work.

I put an arm around Keith's shoulders, and he leaned against me as we walked toward the locker room. "You beat the crap out of my ribs. I should make you carry me."

We were already in the hallway, so I put a hand under his legs and picked him up in a cradle carry and took him into the locker room. He wasn't as small and light as Alonzo, but he was six inches shorter than me and a lot less weighty.

He was laughing when I put him down, but I could tell that I had landed some solid blows. We removed our body armor. I put mine in my bag, but Keith put his in the closet. That was one of the advantages of being the owner's son. Then we took off our practice uniforms. I was a little sore, but Keith had some red marks that were sure to turn into bruises.

I caught his eye and said, "Ouch. Those look painful. I didn't mean to hit you so hard."

He stretched and touched them gently. "Oh yeah. They hurt like hell. Somehow you seemed to either hit me in the joints of the armor or in a more vulnerable spot every time."

I gave him a weak smile and replied, "Sorry. I probably couldn't do that again if I tried. We can call it beginner's luck."

The fact was that I could probably do it again. My prescience had not only let me know where the openings in his defense were, but also where he would be most vulnerable. I was fascinated by this ability, and I planned on talking to Rakesh about it in detail.

Keith laughed. "Beginner's luck, my ass. You're a natural."

He put his arm around my shoulder in a comradely way, and he held it there until it became a little uncomfortable. Then he abruptly turned, stood on his toes, and wrapped his arms around me. Before I knew it, his lips were locked on mine. I'd like to say that he was kissing me, but I was kissing him back. I wrapped my arms around his waist and lifted him up, so he was level with me. He locked his legs around my waist and pressed his rock-hard ass against my erection.

Our naked bodies were sweaty from the workout. Our chests were sliding against one another, and the scent of his body was filling my nostrils. He moaned, "Fuck me, Erik."

It was like a bucket of cold water had washed down my spine. I came to my senses and put him down. I looked into his deep brown eyes and sighed. "I can't. I have a boyfriend."

His hand rubbed my cock through my briefs. "So do I. He won't care."

I moved his hand away from my dick and said, "I don't know how Alonzo feels about it, and I won't do anything without talking to him."

He shrugged and gave me a smile. "I shouldn't have pushed it. Fighting makes me horny. The harder the fight, the hornier I get. And I could see – and feel – that it does the same to you. Besides, I think you're sexy as hell!"

He was a sexy guy himself. He was just under six feet tall, with a trim build covered with firm muscle; his handsome face was surrounded dark brown hair in a very stylish short cut; his brown eyes were ever so slightly slanted; and his skin was lighter than Alonzo's, but darker than Jason's, with the same almost tawny undertone. I may have mentioned that I have a bit of an obsession for boys with brown skin, especially Alonzo's rich caramel color. It was probably because I'd been born and raised in the Upper Peninsula, and all the guys were as white as I was.

I took hold of his shoulders and looked into his eyes. It was the most intimate gesture I could allow myself without breaking down and taking Keith up on his offer. "You're damn sexy, yourself, but I'm trying to be good. You go shower. I'm going to get dressed and shower later, back in my room."

He grabbed his towel and bodywash. Then he walked slowly away without covering up. I texted Jason to let him know I was ready, got dressed and went outside to wait for him. He drove us to the aerobics studio to pick up Cameron and the boys. On the way there I said, "My sparring partner came on to me today."

Jason smiled and said, "If you want me to say something relevant, you'll have to give me some more details."

"He kissed me in the locker room."

Jason sighed. "It was just a kiss?"

I admitted, "I kissed him back."

"Did you like it?" he asked.

I exhaled sharply. "I did. He's sexy; he's built; he's funny. I didn't do anything, though."

"Except for kissing him back," Jason pointed out.

"Yeah, but he wanted me to fuck him," I said.

Jason turned his head to one side. "Did you want to fuck him?"

I nodded. "Hell, yes, I did. I got super horny during the match and when he pushed his butt against my cock, it was all I could do not to throw him down on the floor and pound his ass hard. But I didn't because I love Alonzo and I need to be faithful to him."

Jason shrugged and replied, "Ask Alonzo."

"Would you do that to Kieran?" I asked.

He shook his head. "No. Kieran and Alonzo are different people. Kieran would be crushed. He's fragile and still working things out in his head. Alonzo is more adventurous. He may find it exciting to engage in three-way sex."

I was getting horny talking about it. Jason was always so calm, so cool, so collected. He might be able to resist these things, but I needed to keep firm rules for myself to follow or I'd be cheating on my boy left right and center. I had worked so hard not to even think along those lines since Alonzo and I had gotten together. I'd managed to keep my attention solely on Alonzo, so far.

I asked, "Have you ever thought about it? Having sex with someone other than Kieran, I mean?"

He replied, "Other than a little kissing and light frottage with you, you mean?"

"Yeah. Other than that." Jason and I had made out a little in the shower. Once at the Butternut Ranch Resort and once in the gym back on campus. Both times had ended in a slow handjob. But the boys thought it was sexy to see us kiss.

Jason smiled at me and replied, "I thought about it a lot at the beginning of the year. At first I'd planned on having several obedient lovers for my freshman year, but things changed and so did my plans."

"What happened," I asked.

"I fell in love with one of them and grew too fond of the other two to want to do such a thing."

Fuck! He was talking about me and Alonzo. He never said anything or did anything to make me suspect, other than inviting us over for a sex party right after meeting us. He'd been very interested in our sexual history, and he'd tried to take control of Alonzo with his subtle hints and innuendo. I'd been eager to follow the suggestions he made so I didn't notice at the time.

I gave him a questioning look. "Do you still think about it?"

He shook his head. "Not the obedient part, no. You're my equal, Erik, and I wouldn't change that for anything. You've been teaching me as much as I've been teaching you. And Alonzo will never be truly obedient, although he likes to play the game."

"Do you think Kieran would be up for it?" I asked, more from curiosity than anything else.

Jason was silent for a minute or so. He seemed deep in thought. Finally, he responded, "With you and Alonzo, maybe. Twice now he has dreamed of the two of you with us. He claims that it's a vision; and for all I know, it may be. Clairsentience is one of his talents, according to Rakesh. He may very well be seeing the future."

"What about you?" I asked.

"I think if the time were right, and it were the two of you, maybe. But neither you nor I will mention it to them. If this is destiny, as Kieran hints, then it will happen."

With that awkward, but arousing conversation behind us, we drove in silence to the studio.

Jason

That conversation with Erik had been strange but not unexpected. The fact was that most gay guys our age weren't monogamous the way Kieran and I were. But then again, my tastes were somewhat unique. And I had allowed myself to become tantrically entangled. Thinking of being with someone else didn't really excite me the way it used to. I have a reputation for being kind of cold and distant. Even my parents thought so. But that was just the outside. On the inside, I was a romantic, and Kieran had hit me like a ton of bricks. I couldn't imagine not being with him. I thought about him all day every day. He distracted me in class. I earned a 93% on a calculus test. I'd never gotten a grade that low in math.

And somehow Erik and Alonzo were tied to Kieran and I. It was frustrating that I couldn't understand it yet. Erik and I had kissed, and we'd even masturbated one another. And I enjoyed it. That first time, I'd almost been testing myself. Could I feel something for anyone other than Kieran? The answer was yes. I didn't really feel like doing anything more with him, but maybe that was because we were both so clearly tops. But Alonzo was another story. It was impossible for me to look at him and not get aroused, especially when he and Kieran were kissing.

The other day I'd told Erik that he was my chosen brother. That was true, as far as it went, but that term could also be used by male lovers to refer to one another. In which sense had I meant it? I'd been wrestling with the idea. Did I want Erik as my brother, or did I want him as my comaritus, my co-husband? When I pictured Kieran in Erik's arms it didn't excite me, not really, but it didn't make me feel anger like it did with anyone else. I'd have to think more deeply about it.

When we pulled up to the studio and went inside, Cameron and the boys were waiting. When Kieran saw me, he broke out in that smile of his that made the whole world light up. He ran over and threw his arms around me, and I hugged him tight. He looked good tonight. He didn't seem anxious at all. I took a good whiff of his hair. He smelled great. I liked him all sweaty like he was now. He was the most incredibly beautiful guy I'd ever seen, but his scent reminded me that he was a boy. We chatted about it and I told him how proud I was of him.

We escorted Cameron and the boys out to my SUV and got them safely strapped inside. Then it was off to Ibis House. I didn't have to pay attention to the road because the mentalium in my car had learned the path. It was an ingenious device that could drive the car on its own and could learn the area well enough to find its way. It had been a gift from my cousin Amalthea Zahn, daughter of my mother's older sister, Eleanor, and Marius Zahn. Both of them were artificer mages who lived in Chicago, and she and I had been close as kids. She'd brought her husband and the gift to my graduation.

Erik turned around and said, "Cameron, since Micah's in the class with Alonzo and Kieran now, can you watch over them on Tuesdays and Thursdays?"

Cameron laughed. "You don't trust them?"

I could have turned around because the mentalium could handle it, but, in case any mundanes might notice, I preferred to make it look like I was driving. I looked in the mirror and said, "We trust the boys. We don't trust other people around our boys."

"Sure. I definitely want to keep watching Micah dance."

We chatted for a minute or so about nothing in particular, and then Kieran, in a typically Kieran way, said something that changed the entire conversation.

"There was a mind mage watching us in the dance studio and she used the same name as the other guys at the resort, Red Prime."

Alonzo was the first to react. He put an arm around Kieran and said, "Oh, Honey, what else did she say... or think?"

Kieran responded, "She closed her barriers after that. It was the muscular woman who always stands in the back."

Alonzo sighed dramatically. "Wilma McSomethingorother. And I thought she was interested in me for my manly charms. I didn't know she was scoping out my magic."

"Joke if you want Alonzo, but this is serious. Why would a mind mage be spying on Kieran and Alonzo, and Micah too for all I know?" Erik asked.

I sighed heavily, but less dramatically than Alonzo. "We have to figure this out. I don't know much about mind mages. They're part of magical society and they join the claustra like other mages. Since very few of them can manipulate the numina flow the way hermetic mages can, they tend to form their own subculture within mage society."

Cameron chimed in. "But so do the Sons of Mithras and the Daughters of Hecate, not to mention more bizarre groups like the Lantern Society."

I shook my head vigorously. "No. I think it's more than that. Modern magical society can be traced to the Hermetic Order. Mind mages once had their own society that was a rival to ours and just as secretive. Something happened and it reduced their numbers drastically. History tells us that, but not the reason why. The Hermetic Order took them in, but they've always been a separate group within our order."

Erik said, "Two questions. What is a claustra? And should I ask Rakesh?"

I laughed. "Sorry. I get carried away. A claustrum is a mage lodge, a well-secured building where mages can meet in secrecy and safety. More than one claustrum, in the plural, is claustra. You can ask Rakesh, but he may not tell you anything. Like I said. They're a secretive bunch. And if they're watching Kieran, it's because he's a mind mage, too. Sorry, Alonzo, if she was watching you, it was probably because she was hoping you would provide her with information about Kieran."

Alonzo sat up straighter in his seat. "I'd know if she'd been reading my mind, wouldn't I?"

Kieran said, "Not if she was just reading your surface thoughts. That's what I was doing to her before she raised her barriers."

There wasn't more time to keep discussing this because we'd arrived at Ibis House.

Erik

We began the session with some yoga stretches and exercises. My muscles were sore, but Rakesh insisted that these particular exercises helped to clear the channels and increase the flow of energy. And I did feel more relaxed and less exhausted when I had finished.

I needed to speak to Rakesh about my combat prescience, so I was glad when he decided to work with me. Kieran was beginning his focus work with Silvan. Reaching a meditative state had proven easy for me. I hadn't expected that because it felt too much like woo-woo nonsense to me, but Rakesh said that I had a very focused mind. Soon he and I were in a light rapport where we could each hear the other's thoughts.

"Why am I unable to initiate rapport? I always have to wait for you to do it," I thought.

"Mind magery is different from other magical arts. Training merely allows you to use your innate talents. Telepathy is not your strongest talent, so it may be more of a struggle for you. Your primary talents are telekinetic and clairsentient, with a moderate talent for psychometabolics."

"And psychometabolics would be what?"

"Psychometabolics is the talent of using your mind to control the flow of energy through your body, to heal or to enhance your physical body. That's what we'll be concentrating on."

We worked through some more focus exercises and then he observed while I engaged my prescience. Finally, he showed me a technique for banishing fatigue and pain. He spoke in my mind. "This talent is very useful, but it uses a lot of energy and is only effective for a short time."

"So, you're saying not to over rely on it," I thought.

He chuckled both audibly and mentally. "That's right. Otherwise, you'll have a terrible crash, a migraine, exhaustion, and other effects."

I used the talent to ease a cramp in my lower back. Rakesh nodded and left me to practice. In a few minutes, he brought Kieran over and said, "Kieran needs to see if he can initiate a rapport with you while I examine Silvan's technique.

I hadn't had a chance to Rakesh about my combat prescience. It would have to wait for another day.

Kieran

After our beginning yoga session, I entered rapport with Silvan. It was becoming easier as I got to know him better, and he stopped resisting me once he realized that had no sexual interest in Rakesh. We were practicing a fast rapport technique that allowed us to share large amounts of information in an instant so we could absorb it later.

Rakesh stopped by and asked us to use my clairsentience to view the gazebo in the backyard while Silvan and I were still in rapport. It was harder than doing it alone, especially since Silvan's clairsentience was intermittent and I was trying to shift his perception as well. It would have been easy to use my own power to see the gazebo and then let him see it through the link, but that wasn't the point of this exercise. I felt the inertia of his mind as I tried to focus on the gazebo. There was something there, like a hard lump in his mind. It felt like that opaque sphere was anchoring his mind in space. I touched it with my mind and felt its smooth surface. I pressed and Silvan recoiled in pain. I surrounded it with my mind and stroked it gently, like I was teasing it open. Suddenly, it blossomed like a flower, beautiful petals opening to reveal an iridescent light within.

Then Silvan's focus shifted, and we were watching the gazebo. "I did it!" he cried in my mind. "The more I tried to force it, the harder it became but then it just... you made it happen! How did you do that?"

I felt that he was right, but I had no idea how I'd done it. We returned our vision to the yoga room, and I looked questioningly at Rakesh. "Did I do that, sir? Did I make him use his clairsentience? What does it mean?"

"I think that you may have, Kieran. I need to observe you again in action before I can be sure. Is it okay if we talk later once I have something valid to say?"

I nodded yes and then Rakesh took me over to Erik to try and initiate a rapport with him. Before he left, he said, "I have to go examine Silvan's mind while his talent is open. If you have difficulty, ask Zoe or Bernice."

I took a seat on the mat, facing him. I waved. "Hi again, sir."

Erik smiled back at me. "Hi, again, Kieran."

We both entered a state of meditative focus and then I moved my thoughts toward him. Something was holding me back. Bernice and Zoe were doing their own meditation exercises not too far from us. Zoe looked in our direction and got up with a smile on her face. She put her hands on my shoulders and said, "Baby doll, you have got to get some skin-on-skin contact if you want to enter a newbie's mind for the first time. You know that."

I did know it, but I was nervous about doing it. There were reasons my mind was resisting rapport with Erik. But he looked at me with his ice blue eyes and I could see that he was desperate to learn. I reached out and took hold of his hands. They were rough and calloused, probably from all the weight training, and they were large enough to fully enclose my own. It was better, but still not good enough. I sighed and then said, "I have to get closer."

I moved forward and straddled his legs. I pressed my chest against his broader and stronger torso and wrapped my arms around him to touch his spine. We were staring into one another's eyes. We swallowed in unison like we both knew what was coming. One more point of contact. Our lips met and then... our minds flowed into one another at the edges of our consciousness. I had to keep the deeper levels of my mind isolated. I was embarrassed that he might see that I had very strong feelings for him, feelings that I shouldn't have because I already had a boyfriend. I couldn't bear it if he thought I was the kind of boy who felt sexual things about a guy who wasn't his boyfriend and was the best friend of my boyfriend and he was my best friend's boyfriend who I would never betray... I knew that this was what Doctor Kamon had been talking about, but I still wasn't ready to deal with it, especially not in front of so many people. But I couldn't stop thinking... no, not just thinking, over-thinking. Clearly my avoidance of the issue was starting to be a problem.

With my head pressed against Erik's chest, I could smell his sweat from his earlier work out. Like always his scent burrowed into my brain. It was masculine and heavy, similar in many ways to Jason's, but different in others. Both were arousing, but Jason's seemed spicier than Erik's and Erik's a little muskier. But underlying both was the same subtle fragrance. And that was when I realized that Erik was using Jason's special cologne.

And Erik could see what I'd been hiding. He was the only other man who affected me the same way Jason did. It had happened after I'd cleared his channels that time on the bed. Ever since then, being around Erik had aroused me. It was bad enough that my dick got hard whenever I smelled Erik or let myself see him as a man instead of my best friend's man, but I could feel my hole begin to twitch. It was my body that was the traitor.

And then I could feel that Erik was also excited, confused, aroused, and disappointed in himself. Instinctively, my mind reached out for Jason, and it found him. He was sitting in another lounge, squeezed into an overstuffed chair with Alonzo on his lap. I'd drawn both of them into the fringes of our rapport.

"I'm sorry, Sir," I thought to Jason.

He was calm and steady like he always was. He thought back to me. "It's okay. Just do what you need to do. I won't be jealous."

I couldn't bring myself to kick Jason and Alonzo out of our rapport, so they remained connected lightly at the edge of our consciousness. Erik and I could have stopped touching lips, but neither of us wanted to. He was as aroused as I was. Our minds blended and I could feel Erik's love, not only for Alonzo, but also Jason and me. And I could admit my own feelings for Erik. I was completely in love with Jason, but I had accepted that I loved Alonzo. That hadn't felt like a betrayal of Jason or Erik because my feelings for Alonzo had been so different from my feelings for Jason. But with Erik they were similar, probably because both Erik and Jason were dominant men.

Erik and I explored the upper reaches of our minds, sinking to the level where communication didn't need words, and memories could be exchanged. I experienced his uncomfortable coming out. Tired of being constantly harassed about what girls he liked in school, he'd snapped and told his grandparents that he wasn't interested in any of the girls at school, but there were several boys he was into. It had caused a rift that hadn't healed until the end of his junior year. His parents had accepted him with their words, but he still felt they were silently judging him.

Erik experienced my loneliness and withdrawal during school. Under his more objective gaze, I was brought face to face with the fact that Steven Groth had tried everything short of grabbing me and kissing me to get my attention. And that my cousin Dylan had tried to reach out to me in his own way. Even when he had been unkind to me, deep inside I had known, but refused to admit, that it was his older brother Donny speaking through him. And he was shocked and horrified at my memories of my Uncle Craig, not at his yelling and bullying, but at the way he'd watched me constantly when I could see him only out of the corner of my eye. One side effect of me closing off my sexual response in my youth was that I hadn't recognized the expression on his face, but Erik did. And judging from my memories, so did my cousin Donny.

And we saw happy moments too. I experienced Erik's pride in winning the state boxing award and also in coming in first in the state and then fifth in the nation in the engineering competition. I also encountered the joy he had when spending time with his two sisters and brother. And Erik brought happy memories of my own to mind, like the time my art teacher in middle school had convinced me to enter some of my art in the competition at the county fair, and I'd won a first-place ribbon. And the time that my art was printed on the inside cover of the yearbook. Even those few days when I'd broken down and shown Dylan my sketches and he'd told me how good they were. We'd been friends until Donny had broken us up by teasing Dylan until he lashed out at me.

When we ended the rapport, we knew each other intimately. In fact, I knew him better than I knew Jason, because Jason was so secretive. Erik felt it too. We remained tenuously connected throughout our cooldown stretches. And when we finished, Erik wrapped his arm around me, and I leaned into him. He was more than a foot taller than me.

He hugged me tight and said, "You know that I love you, Kieran. After what we just experienced, I felt like I needed to say it."

I wrapped my arm around his waist and replied, "I was afraid to admit what I was feeling before because it felt like a betrayal of Jason. But now that we've felt the support from Jason through our link, I can admit that I love you too, Erik."

We found Jason and Alonzo in one of the lounges. They were sitting together in a chair, Alonzo sitting on Jason's lap. It didn't bother me. I loved Alonzo and I wanted Jason to love him as well. When they saw our approach, they rose and joined us. I was surprised to see Jason and Erik exchange a brief kiss in the lounge where anyone could see, but no one really seemed to be paying us much attention. At least not physically. I had closed my mind at the end of our training session. I'd had my barriers down for too long to be comfortable with them down now, in this room, with this many people I didn't know very well.

Alonzo and I wrapped our arms around each other and then our men put their arms around us both. We stayed that way for a minute or so and then we went back home.

Alonzo

I didn't have anything to do at Ibis House. I liked everyone I'd met here, but they were all doing homework or studying. Jason and I were alone in the forward lounge. I turned on the radio and noticed that he was as bored as I was. I'd never seen Jason just sitting around relaxing. I was the same way. I hated it unless I was cuddling with Kieran at the time. I danced over to Jason and held out my hand. "Dance with me, Tio. I'm bored."

Jason put his wand away and took my hand. He gave me a half smile and said, "When you dance with me, I lead."

Jason knew what he was doing on the dance floor. He looked good. And when he moved behind me and wrapped his arms around me, it felt like I was enclosed in a prison of wiry muscles. He hadn't been lying either. He moved the way he wanted to move. I decided to tease him by pushing my butt back against him, but he didn't recoil like I expected. He moved one hand down to my abdomen and pulled me tighter against him while he rubbed my belly. I was hard, and so was he.

"I didn't know I had that effect on you, Tio," I whispered.

Jason moved his mouth next to my ear and whispered back, "Yes, you did. You were trying to get me aroused because you thought it would embarrass me, but it didn't. I'm not embarrassed that I get excited when I see or touch a pretty boy."

Then he turned me around and pulled me close to his chest and we danced that way until others started coming into the room.

"DANCE PARTY!" yelled Seth Gray who came over and wrapped his arms around both of us. "Can I cut in?"

Jason shook his head. "Alonzo is under my supervision right now and I don't want to let him get manhandled by anyone else."

Seth smacked both of us on the butt and said, "Who said I wanted to dance with him?"

Then he walked off to join his friends. Several other residents started dancing and the formerly empty lounge had become more crowded. There wasn't room for too many dancers to be on the floor at the same time, so Jason led me off the dance floor. He sat down in an overstuffed chair and pulled me onto his lap.

Jason turned to a young woman I didn't know who was sitting on the sofa near our chair. "Did the music attract a crowd?"

She shook her head and grinned. "Kind of. A bunch of us just finished our study session, and we decided to come down and take a look."

I glared at Jason and then stuck my hand out and said, "Hello. I'm pleased to meet you. My name is Alonzo."

She shook my hand and replied, "I'm Dorothy Primrose."

Jason laughed. "Alonzo is upset because I didn't introduce him. I forgot for a moment that I wasn't holding my boy Kieran on my lap. Kieran doesn't like me to put him in the center of attention, but Alonzo loves it."

Dorothy chuckled and gave me a wink. "I'll bet you get lots of attention, as handsome as you are... um... wait a minute. Are you the boy who disrupted Clarissa's ritual back at the beginning of the year, took control of it and used it to make a wish?"

I was blushing like Kieran. I did not want that to be the thing people remembered me for. Without context the story made me seem like a petulant, greedy brat. And there was no way to provide context. Everyone but me was forgetting what had happened because I reshaped reality. Even Erik didn't remember that he'd been five and half feet tall before I made him grow eleven inches. It was strange how some things had changed, and others hadn't. I remembered that he had won a state featherweight teen boxing award. He'd come in third. Now all the records said that it was a state light heavyweight award, still third place. But his car hadn't changed. He'd driven down here from the Upper Peninsula in a Kia and that fact remained the same, despite the fact that he had to put the seat all the way back and slouch with his legs splayed out around the steering column. Maybe it was the fact that he could drive it that prevented it from changing. All his clothes that he'd brought with him on the other hand had grown. He'd originally worn medium tees that hung loose on him, but those same shirts were now XXL Tall in size and they fit like a second skin over his powerful frame. I'd done that. I hadn't meant to, but I couldn't deny that I was proud of it.

Suddenly, Kieran was there with us, his mind drawing Jason and I into the connection he had forged with Erik. I could feel the love, but also the guilt. I could feel Jason talking to Kieran, but I couldn't make out the words. Erik thought to me, "I'm not really attracted to Kieran. I mean... I am attracted, but it's physical, not love."

I gave a mental snort, "You can't lie to me, papi. I love him, too. It's okay."

Erik and Kieran went deeper into their connection; Jason and I were still present mentally, but only at the fringes. We could feel their emotions but couldn't sense anything more. Their closeness may have spurred a similar situation between Jason and I. Or maybe it was the scent of Jason's cologne mixing with his natural odor. In either case, I turned in Jason's lap so that I could press my cheek against his chest. It wasn't as broad and as hard as Erik's, but it was still intoxicatingly masculine and powerful. Jason ran one hand down my cheek and then down my neck, my side, all the way to my bottom, which he stroked gently while we sat there.

I was always hard around Jason, but I was painfully hard right now. And I wasn't the only one. I could feel Jason's erection pressing into me. I whispered, "Are you thinking about Kieran, Tio?"

Jason kissed my forehead. "I am always thinking about my luantong, but he is not the only one I'm thinking about."

I laughed quietly. "I didn't think my charms worked on you."

"How could they not? I am deeply aroused by you, by your physical beauty, but also by your voice, your wit, and your sense of humor."

I snuggled in close to him and he held me tight. It wasn't exactly sexual, but it was intensely erotic. We watched people dancing and occasionally someone came by and spoke to Jason or me. We remained there until Kieran and Erik rejoined us. Jason and I got up when we saw them come into the room. I felt guilty. In fact, I was a little worried that Kieran would think I was trying to steal his man. But he was smiling when he came walking over with his hand around Erik's waist.

I was filled with all kinds of dirty thoughts seeing them together. I wondered what it would be like for Kieran and I to be with Erik, or with Jason... or maybe all four of us together. We'd all been in bed together before, but we'd been two couples. I wondered what it would be like if we went further than that, if we became a... was quadrouple a word?

Kieran and I hugged, and we were still hugging when Erik and Jason kissed ever so briefly before they enfolded both of us in their arms. We stood there like that for too short a time. I was enjoying the moment, but I couldn't help wondering why we were embracing like this in front of all these mages. Had Jason engineered this scene? And if so, what message was he trying to send?

Then we broke apart and went home.

Reggie Delmar

I sat in the lounge trying hard not to let anger eat me alive. I wanted Alonzo so badly that I could taste it. It was bad enough that he was so unbelievably beautiful, and I had to see him trying so hard to contain himself in our vocals class. His slender body moved from side to side enticingly, no matter how hard he tried to stop it. But it was so much worse that; I had to hear him sing, with his perfect pitch and his voice that seemed to resonate through my very soul.

He and I were both music majors. I was a year ahead of him in education, but he was in a whole other league when it came to talent. I have been writing songs since high school, and I thought I was pretty good, but now all I could hear was Alonzo's voice singing them. He and I were meant to be together.

At first, I'd felt guilty. I'd tried to use logic to counteract those feelings. I'd told myself that it wasn't really a violation of our friendship. It was all just a dream, and Alonzo wouldn't have had sex with me, not even in a dream, unless he wanted to do it. But after seeing him tonight, cuddling with Jason, sitting on his lap, I didn't feel guilt anymore. I would continue meeting him in the dreamscape.

The spell I used was called Ductio in Somnum. It allowed me to construct a dream and draw another sleeper inside it. The spell was tricky. It required a lot of preparation, and it wouldn't work if the target were awake or if they were already involved in a vivid dream that held their attention. I could do the spell again, but it was very fatiguing, and I'd probably have to wait for another night.

I had a backup plan that I was working on. I'd created a simulacrum of Alonzo that I could call forth at will. It was physically perfect now that I had managed to get ahold of some of his hair, but the personality was still off. It looked like him. It sounded like him, sadly without his perfect pitch, but it didn't act like him. It was like a shallow imitation.

I was going to find some way to make Alonzo mine. I didn't think I was powerful enough to bind him, like I had the leader of his band. He didn't know what he was doing when it came to magic, but he was a lot more powerful than me. I'd heard stories that he'd managed to warp reality without a ritual and without a circle of mages to help him.

Besides, I wanted him to want me.

But maybe I could do something to get Erik out of the picture. I could bind him more easily than Alonzo. I could make him fall in love with someone else. I could even make him hate Alonzo. Since hate and love were opposite emotions, it was easy to flip one to the other through the lex de symmetria. Alonzo wouldn't have the knowledge to recognize the binding for what it was, and Jason was an alchemist. I didn't know much about alchemy beyond the basics. My talents lay in enchantments and effigia, the art of shaping solid objects out of numina and giving it solid form. The only real concern I had was Kieran. I had no idea what a trained mind mage could do.

Rakesh Mishra

I'd seen it. I didn't know what Kieran saw from his perspective. Mental perception was idiosyncratic, each person seeing things in the way their mind most easily interpreted it. From my perspective, I saw Silvan struggling to engage his latent clairsentience. Kieran reached out and surrounded Silvan's talent. He didn't force it open. He somehow teased it open. It had opened once before when he worked with Kieran, and maybe it would close again, but, if the scant records we had were true, it would eventually open for good.

I had to use my psychometabolism talent to slow down my heart rate and my breathing. It all made sense. Silvan's awakening clairsentience, the sudden onset of Erik's powers, it all pointed to one thing. I had found the one we'd been looking for. Kieran was an excitorgenius. I had to report this to the Invisible College, the Adrshy Sabha.

Kieran

"Are you sure you don't want me to shower first, Sir?" I asked Jason.

He pulled me closer and inhaled deeply. "Not a chance. Your body's scent is like an aphrodisiac to me."

He kissed my neck and then pulled me up to cradle me in his arms. I could feel the warmth of his body through the cloth of his shirt. I reached up and undid the buttons one by one. He carried me over and placed me down on the bed. Then he pulled his shirt off, allowing me to ogle his sexy body. If Jason walked around in his underwear all the time like I did, I would do nothing but stare all day.

Jason saw me looking and he pulled his trousers down slowly, until he stood there in his briefs, his erection trying desperately to break out of its cotton prison. He assumed a power pose with his legs spread, his hands on his hips and his muscles flexed. "Do you like what you see, Little Prince?"

I nodded and licked my lips. "Yes, Sir. Can't you tell?"

The pouch of my thong was soaked with precum, and my dick was pressing against the fabric. Jason slid his briefs down and his eight inches jutted out at a right angle from his body. He was already dripping, and my mouth started to water as he climbed into bed next to me.

He brushed my lips gently with his own and then ran a hand down my torso. "I love how soft and smooth your skin is, Kieran, and the feel of your firm muscle beneath them."

"They aren't big like yours, Sir," I replied with a blush.

Jason ran a hand across my chest. "No, they're not. Your body is slender, and your muscles are not bulky, but they are very well toned from years of swimming, diving, and running. Now you are adding dance and yoga."

I nodded and said, "It will be enough, Sir. I should be able to get the exercise I need and keep myself toned for you."

Jason turned my head and stared into my eyes. "Is it really, Kieran? Tell me the truth. You must never lie to me."

I sighed and then let it out. "I miss swimming and diving, Sir. And running."

He grew distant for a moment, then nodded. "Then I will make that happen. You can go to the pool on campus with Alonzo or Sally, but I have to know where you are at all times. And we will find time to go running again. It may mean getting up earlier, but we'll do it."

I threw my arms around his neck and kissed him. "Thank you, Sir!"

Jason pulled me over, so we were lying side by side, facing one another. He brushed the hair off my face. "When you need something, or you want something, I need you to tell me. I will make the final decision, and you will accept it, but I will never deny you something unless it's necessary."

He kissed me again, this time with more passion than tenderness. His lips crushed mine and his fingers brushed against my hole, making me shudder with anticipation. I tried to focus entirely on Jason and me, but the connection between Erik and I was still there in the background.

Jason must have sensed my distraction. He said, "Your body is here, but your mind seems to be elsewhere."

I started to tremble. "I'm sorry, Sir. I think I'm still connected to Erik because of our rapport earlier this evening."

Jason said, "Invite them in, but only in mind, for now."

Erik

I was reclining naked on the bed while Alonzo sat on my cock and ran his fingers across my chest. I wasn't inside him. My cock was flat on my abs, and he was rubbing the crack of his ass back and forth across me, like a handjob, but so much better. "I love your chest hair, papi. It's like you're mi chango caliente."

I smacked his eyes hard. "Did you just call me a monkey?"

He laughed that musical laugh of his. "I called you a horny monkey."

I rolled over so that he was beneath me and held his hands over his head. "That's what I thought."

"Mi chango guapisimo! Mi hombre peludo!"

I kissed him and then said, "I thought you liked my chest hair."

He giggled as I kissed his neck. He cried, "I do. I love it. That's why I said you were a sexy monkey!"

I let go of his hands and ran my fingers down his smooth torso. He was built like a dancer, with a firm layer of muscle under his smooth caramel skin. I bit one of his nipples gently, making him squeal. He called out, "Fine. No more chango! I'll go back to vikingo!"

I bit his other nipple and said, "Good! I think I like that better than monkey."

I was just nudging Alonzo's legs apart and reaching for a lube sphere when I felt Kieran in my mind. From the look on Alonzo's face, Kieran was in his mind as well. In the background I could also feel Jason. The conversation took place mostly in the mind.

Kieran said, "Jason wanted me to ask if you wanted to join us in rapport tonight... when we... you know... when we make love."

I looked at Alonzo and he replied verbally and mentally, "Let's do it, Erik."

I gave my agreement, and we came together.

Kieran

I brought us only into the lightest level of rapport. We could sense one another's emotions; we could feel the physical sensations going through the others' bodies; and we could exchange thoughts voluntarily. Jason began rubbing his own precum into my butt, caressing his finger gently around the ring as he did, making me moan with pleasure. Erik was fingering Alonzo's butt, scooping the magical lube out and rubbing it around Alonzo's ring.

I suppose it was natural that Alonzo and I should find a deeper rapport because we were similar in our sexuality. We shared the powerful sensations of pleasure radiating outward from our sphincters and shooting through our bodies. I wanted so badly to push Jason and Erik together the same way Alonzo and I had joined, but that was going to have to come from them. They were close, but not quite there. Instead of the four circles of our being interlocked as one, while each retaining its distinctness. It was like Alonzo and I were joined together in the center while Erik and Jason were each joined with both of us, but they were merely touching. I knew we'd get there in time.

My body responded easily to Jason's touch. The Unguent of Li Pei affected me and Alonzo in the same way. Both our anuses had grown much more sensitive, as sensitive as our penises. Sometimes I felt that I could cum just from Jason's touch. Alonzo's body reacted the same way. Thanks to the rapport we'd established, we were able to synchronize our actions. Erik entered Alonzo at the same moment Jason entered me.

We moaned in unison and lifted our hips to welcome our lovers' cocks. Jason never failed to make me feel full. He was perfect for me, just the right size, just as I knew how perfect I was for him. I could feel my outer hole clamping down on the root of his cock, just forward of his balls, while my inner hole clamped tight around the shaft just below the head.

I could also sense just how much fuller Alonzo felt with Erik's massive cock inside him. When Erik penetrated Alonzo there was so much more pain than there was when Jason penetrated me. But that was alright because Alonzo enjoyed the pain. No, that wasn't correct. We both liked the pain of penetration, that sharp feeling that centered our entire being and focused all our attention on our asses. Since Alonzo's tolerance – no, his love – of that pain exceeded my own, Erik was perfect for him in the way that Jason was perfect for me.

When the pleasure began to build in our prostates, it was followed by a pressure building in our taints and spreading across our bodies. We both felt the sensation, like tiny electrical currents running along our skins. And then we came in unison. The currents flowed outward from our taints and covered us completely, only to come crashing back down on our cocks. We sprayed simultaneously, and at that same exact moment, our men came, triggered by the sensation in our bodies that they could also feel through the rapport.

When Jason and I came during rapport our pleasure doubled. It was almost like adding another two participants had doubled it again. Jason stoked my back gently and said, "Thank you, Kieran."

"Thank you for what, Sir?"

He kissed me on my sweaty forehead and replied, "You have made me very happy. I am so deeply in love with you that my entire soul is filled with my love. And you have taken a step that I could not. I wanted to believe your visions, but they made no sense to me until you forged that link. I don't understand it yet, but we are connected to Erik and Alonzo in a deep and important way. Two mages and two mind mages. One mage represents the physical and the other the spiritual. One mind mage represents the physical and the other the spiritual. And both couples are joined in a configuration I can't quite see. It's new and its non-binary nature is... puzzling, but intriguing."

I snuggled against him and ran my hands across his chest. "And I love you deeply, zhangfu."

We remained in a light rapport as we drifted off into sleep.

College Magic Cycle Characters

Mages

·        Alonzo Santiago Ramos. An 18-year-old Latino American boy from El Paso, Texas. A cute bottom and foundling mage. He's powerful, but untrained. He begins the story with a height of 68 inches and a weight of 150 pounds. He has deep olive or very light brown skin, amber eyes, and long black hair. He's a singer and a dancer. He's a little flighty and very flirty. When his powers awakened, he accidentally cast a spell that cursed his roommate Erik. He loves hardcore BDSM porn but is discovering that he doesn't like it in real life. He and Erik are suitemates with Jason and Kieran.

·        Bernice Hartman. A 21-year-old junior mind-mage who lives at Ibis House. She's in a relationship with Zoe Smith. She's a tall woman, about six feet in height with dark auburn hair, fair skin, and brown eyes.

·        Cameron Campbell. Formerly one of the twink trio along with Micah Blum and Oliver Rankin, he is now considered a twunk. He is five ten and weighs 165 pounds. He's lean but muscular and is a member of the Severan College soccer team. He has bright red hair, fair skin and a lot of dark freckles. He is the boyfriend of Micah Blume.

·        Clarissa Spencer. RA for the supernatural girls in the dorm. She works for Professor Sybil Thorne, the local representative of the Conclave.

·        Cornelius Montrose. The 70-year-old Dean of Severan College. He is a wise and experienced mage from one of the fifty families. He doesn't get involved in Conclave politics, leaving that sort of thing to Professor Sybil Thorne.

·        Dorothy Primrose. A 22-year-old senior who lives at Ibis House.

·        Kamon Zhang. Jason's maternal uncle, a mage and psychologist who is helping Kieran to come to terms with his trauma, and his true nature.

·        Elijah Jackson. A 24-year-old graduate student who went to the Academy with Sebastian and Nico. He's a graduate student in the history program and he mentors struggling African American students and he tutors student athletes. He is 74 inches tall and weighs 275 pounds of mostly muscle. He's built like a massive rectangle. His skin is dark brown, almost black and he wears his hair in long dreadlocks. He's a powerful transmuter mage. He understands mechanics and electronics better than any of the other mages except for Erik Rucker. He has become friends with Kyle. He has two live in boyfriends, Kendal and Tristan.

·        Erik Rucker. A 19-year-old from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. At the start of the story, he stood 66 inches tall and weighed about 140 pounds. After being cursed by his roommate he grew to be 77 inches tall and weigh 250 pounds. He was overshadowed by the fictional Einar Ironblood until the curse was lifted. He's in love with his roommate Alonzo and worries that Alonzo doesn't love him the same way. He was mundane until the curse awakened a latent talent for mind magery. Unlike Kieran, his talents seem to involve moving things with his mind.

·        Felicia Gladstone. A 38-year-old mage who manages Ibis House. She's also an assistant principal at the local high school. She has a nine-year-old daughter Selena who attends the local K-8 school.

·        Jason Lee. A 19-year-old (about 6 months older than Kieran) Chinese American college freshman with golden brown skin, brown almond shaped eyes and collar length black hair. He is already an accomplished alchemist. He is a dominant, looking for a submissive boy. He finds what he's looking for in Kieran Morgan. He takes charge of Kieran and begins training him as a submissive. He gives Kieran alchemical elixirs that change his body, and he uses psychology to lead him to embrace his innate submissiveness. He has allowed himself to fall into tantric entanglement with Kieran, bringing them even closer. He believes that Kieran is his complement, the other half of his soul. Jason and Kieran are the suitemates of Alonzo and Erik.

·        Kieran Finley Morgan. An 18-year-old boy with pale skin, golden-red hair, and green eyes. At the beginning of the story, he is deeply closeted (he is unaware that said closet had glass doors everyone could see through) and stands at 72 inches and 180 pounds of muscle. He was a high school athlete who was on the diving team, the swim team, and the track team. Jason took charge of him shortly after they moved into the dorm and began training him to let his inner submissive out. Jason gives him alchemical elixirs that are changing him physically. He sometimes struggles with the idea that he's losing himself inside Jason, but he can't go long without his lover's touch. Kieran is somewhat naive. During the story he loses height, mass, and penis size. Jason says that he's not doing it, but Kieran is sure that he is. After being raped by Kyle Mason, he suffers psychological trauma and only his relationship with Jason gives stability to his life. He and Jason are suitemates with Alonzo and Erik. He has an artistic soul. Jason has decided that Kieran will change majors to Art. Kieran is a foundling mind mage with powers of telepathy and clairsentience.

·        Kyle Mason. A 19-year-old college freshman from Kentucky. He's recently developed his latent mind mage powers, but they're weak. Kyle begins the story as a high school athlete who's let himself go a little. He's 74" tall and 250 pounds. He has a muscular build with a layer of fat and a small gut. He has brown hair and brown eyes. He's a closeted gay man and a homophobe. He has a history of beating on gay acting guys who get him aroused. During the New Student Mixer, he raped Kieran Morgan. When he got back to his room, he beat on his smaller roommate Simon until he orgasmed in his pants. In return for these acts, Domenic Chase enslaved him and is turning him into a hot jock bitch. His life has become a prolonged slave training session. He begins to show remorse and even to accept his sexuality but tries to find a way out of his magical enslavement.

·        Micah Blum. An 18-year-old mage boy who rooms with Darren. He used to spend most of his time with his two friends Oliver and Cameron. They were in a polyamorous relationship. Micah is a little afraid of Darren because he's afraid of werewolves. Once he was in an abusive relationship with his older cousin Remuel Adler, but now Micah has chosen Cameron Campbell as his boyfriend.

·        Mordecai Adler. A 50-year-old mage who is a high-ranking member of the custodes and of the American FBI. He's a powerfully built man with dark olive skin tone and black hair that is just beginning to turn gray at the temples.

·        Oliver Rankin. A freshman mage (18 years old), one of the twink trio along with Micah Blum and Cameron Campbell. He describes himself as a rude, arrogant (because he is smarter than everyone around him) and unable to quickly read social cues. He's befriended Kyle Mason and works with him in science lab.

·        Rakesh Mishra. A 23-year-old graduate student of Indian American heritage. He's working on his MS in Psychology. He's a mind mage and a yogi master. He is one of Kieran's trainers. He lives off campus in Ibis House.

·        Reggie Delmar. A 20-year-old sophomore music student who likes Alonzo. They share a music class. He's a mage, but not a songmage. He lives off campus in Ibis House. He has light brown skin and very curly black hair. He looks like he has some African American ancestry.

·        Remy (Remuel) Adler. Micah's 20-year-old cousin, a low-ranking member of the custodes who lives with his father Mordecai and keeps his official records. He was Micah's lover at the Academy and has recently taken Micah as his slave.

·        Sebastian Trent. A 24-year-old graduate student. He's the RA for his floor and he helps Professor Thorne to wrangle the mage and supernatural scholars on campus. His female counterpart is Clarissa Spencer. Sebastian is 70 inches tall and weighs 160 pounds. He has light brown hair and brown eyes. He was a little overwhelmed with the fallout from Alonzo's spell and Kieran's rape, so he allowed Domenic the leeway he needed to enslave Kyle. Now there's nothing he can do about it. Sebastian is bisexual but prefers men. He has older men on campus who blow him in exchange for favors. He seems to have a lot of influence on campus for a grad student. He is dating Ethan Lowry but feels guilty about the age difference.

·        Seth Gray. A junior who is majoring in classics. He and his sister are twins, with long brown hair and light gray eyes. Both are tall and slender, but not overly thin. The two of them are the best alchemists at Severan college except for Jason. They came from Santa Fe New Mexico. The Grays are among the 50 families who run mage society.

·        Silvan Reynard. A sophomore mind mage who lives at Ibis House. He's 5 foot 8 inches tall, blond and slender with an almost elfin shape to his face despite being human. (The Reynards are said to have been fey touched for generations). He is in love with Rakesh Mishra. He and Kieran are in the same beginning yoga/mind magery classes.

·        Tristan Navarro. A 21-year-old senior seeking a degree in English Literature. He's filipino with medium beige skin, black hair, and dark eyes. He stands 66 inches tall and weighs 150 pounds. He likes short shorts and tight tee shirts. He's Elijah Jackson's lover and lives with him and Kendal. He calls Elijah daddy and Kendal brother. He has written two volumes in a series of mm romance novels about mages called Wands of Love and he intends to keep writing. He kept his own name and keeps his own finances, but he's no less devoted to Elijah than Kendal is.

·        Zoe Smith. A 20-year-old Sophomore mind mage who lives at Ibis House. She is an African American woman, about five foot eight inches tall, with a curvy shape, a broad smile and short black hair in tight curls.

Mundanes (or Unknown)

·        Justin Aquino. The forty-five-year-old owner of the Kali studio in town. He's a Filipino American veteran. He retired from the military after twenty-five years and now owns a kali martial arts studio.

·        Keith Aquino. 20-year-old college sophomore. He's five foot eleven inches tall and with brown hair and light beige skin. His eyes are hazel. His parents are Justin and Margorie Aquino. He's a military brat studying math. He's also an intermediate level practitioner of kali. He really likes Erik. He has two younger sisters, Denise (17) and Tiffany (15).

·        Kendal Jackson. A 23-year-old college dropout. He's five foot three inches tall and weighs about 115 pounds. He has pale blond hair, heterochromatic eyes (one blue and one green), and extremely fair skin. He lives with Elijah Jackson and is one of his lovers. He hated college and dropped out. He stays home and keeps house for Elijah Jackson. He likes to wear women's clothing but identifies as a boy. He changed his last name and signed power of attorney to make Elijah control over his affairs. He's very submissive. He calls Elijah daddy and Tristan brother.

·        Larry Gordan. Kieran's Art professor. He reminds Kieran of his Uncle Craig, and arouses him, a fact that disturbs Kieran but seemed unsurprising to Jason. He tried to put the moves on Kieran after his first class but backed off apologetically when he found out that he was Jason's boy. He is a mentor to Kieran.

·        Peter Gantz. Alonzo's Vocals professor. A heavyset man in his middle years. He likes Alonzo but more in an avuncular way.

Skinchangers, Non-Werewolves

·        David Campos. (Da VEED) A handsome man Blatino freshman of Domenican ancestry. He's from Philadelphia. He has dark olive skin tone, black hair that looks feathery, and piercing brown eyes. He is a were-raptor who can assume two non-human forms. He can become a raptor that resembles a large golden eagle or a hybrid form that is bipedal with sharp claws on the end of feathered arms. He is an alpha, but the were-raptors don't follow a pack structure like the were-wolves do.

Places

·        Alchemy House. A large house in Severan purchased by Jason's father for use as an alchemy lab to make weapons and potions for the Severan Council. Jason has convinced his father to sell him the house instead of turning it over to the Conclave. The house was owned by a mage and has too many magical enhancements to be sold to mundanes. It has magical protections and wards, but the Lee family is paying for more to be added.

·        Baylor Hall. A dorm building at Severan College which is used to house the mages and lupipelles (werewolves) on campus. The third floor is use by male supernaturals and the fourth by female supernaturals. The muripelles (wererats) refuse to use this dorm and they stay elsewhere on campus. The dorm has a dining hall on the first floor.

·        Ibis House. A large house in town that is used by the mages as off-campus residence. It's shielded by the velamen arcanum and mundanes tend to ignore it. It's been modified by magic over the decades and has a lot of magical features and defenses. There's a magic circle to make translocation spells easier to use. It's owned and operated by the Ibis Foundation, a mage NGO that maintains Ibis House facilities near mundane universities in many towns.

·        Numina Flux Zone (NFZ). This area of southeastern Ohio is a weak spot between the worlds. Magic rituals are easier to perform here, and a higher-than-average number of people born in the region have mage talent, although most of them are never identified or trained. The realms of faerie, umbra, outland, spirit, underworld, astral, dream, and light are easily accessed from this zone. Other realms may or may not be easier to reach from here than from elsewhere. A similar, but smaller zone surrounds the Sagacia Academy and the Ossuarium in the Bayou of Louisiana.

·        Severan College. A fictional private college in fictional Severan Ohio. It was founded by the mage Aurelius Severan, originally to provide mundane college degrees to young mages. To accomplish this goal, mundane professors needed to be hired. Over time, the magical nature of the school became hidden behind a layer of mundane scholars and professors. The college sits near dead center of the numina flux zone that marks a weak spot between the worlds.

·        Severan House. The oldest building on campus, it was originally the home of Aurelius Severan, the mage who founded the college. Severan House contains offices, a museum, and several mage-only facilities, including a magic circle in the basement to make translocation spells more accurate. Students living at Ibis House and mages visiting from other towns and states use this circle to arrive in Severan.