Playing With Fire

by Sean Michael

  Sartis seemed to melt, cuddling into the furs, eyes closed. Furn stroked the dark hair, humming. "That's right. Sleep."

  He added his own touch, the tender feelings returning full force. He let them push the anger and fear and desire for revenge away and curled around Sartis, holding his arm out for Furn to join them. Together they cradled Sartis, the thin hands reaching to tangle in his hair. He smiled, cuddling in, comfortable and quiet.

  He could sort out this whole Zujan/Sartis/faeries thing in the morning.

  ***

  The bar'cha were calling him.

  He could hear them -- crying and begging, threatening and hissing and promising. They needed him and they would wait forever, waiting until he couldn't bear the noise or the room and then...

  He slid from the bed, pulling the cloth from the door and staring out at the colors, the heat.

  *Come out.*

  *We miss you.*

  *We're so hungry.*

  *Please, love. Please, come out.*

  He whimpered, shook his head.

  "Zujan! I mean Sartis. What are you doing?" Wintras called him from the bed.

  "They... They want me..." He stroked the door.

  "Furn and I want you. And we'll keep you warm. We won't try to eat you."

  He turned, blinking at Wintras' open arms. "You look warm."

  "I am. Come back to bed." The bar'cha fussed, but he nodded, hurried over and pushed into those arms. So warm. So good. Wintras held him close. "Those faeries are evil, Sartis. Stay away from them."

  "I try." He sighed, happy and warm, held.

  "I would have thought it was easy -- they hurt you, make you cold." Wintras fingers slid along his skin.

  "They talk to me. They lie. They make promises."

  "But if you know they lie, why do you believe their promises?"

  "They... They are the oldest thing I know. Like family. They get inside me..." He didn't know how to explain it.

  "I want to be inside you," Wintras murmured, one hand sliding down to his bottom.

  He blinked up. "I haven't ever..."

  "Has Zujan ever?" The long fingers moved along his crease, the touch light and teasing.

  "No. They wouldn't let anyone inside. Never. Only them." He pressed closer, shivering, rubbing.

  "I want to be inside you," Wintras repeated, midnight eyes looking into his own as the very tip of one finger slid into him. He squeezed, the sensation foreign, interesting. Wintras moaned softly. "Oh... yes." The finger wiggled and pulled away before nudging him again.

  "I... I feel you..." His heart was pounding furiously.

  "I hope so." Wintras smiled at him, finger pushing in a little and then a little more.

  "I..." He couldn't catch his breath, didn't know what to do.

  Wintras brought their mouths together, lips sliding over his as that finger moved slowly in and out of him. The kiss distracted him, relaxed him, the action familiar and warm. Wintras' tongue teased along his, sliding, twisting, dancing, the finger inside him an echo. He forgot to be frightened, arms sliding around the warm shoulders, body moving. Wintras hummed into his mouth, making the kiss vibrate between them. Giggling and moaning, he looked into midnight blue eyes, fascinated.

  A second finger teased around the edges of where the first disappeared inside him and something slick slid from the top of his crease down his body to coat his skin, those fingers. He squeaked, but the oil eased the way, the touch setting a fire within him. Those eyes held his, heated and dark and that second finger pushed, pushed, entering him, stretching him.

  "Oh... Hot." He swallowed, thighs parting.

  "So hot." In and in and then suddenly pleasure so sharp it was almost pain. Oh. He jerked, eyes rolling, energy spiking within him.

  "Yeah," whispered Wintras, bringing their mouths together once more as those fingers pushed inside him again.

  He cried out, searching for those dark eyes, half-panicked, half-lost in sensation. They were there for him, watching him, holding him as that bright spark lit along his spine again and again, Wintras' fingers so undeniable inside him. "I. I. Help me. Please..."

  "Sh... I have you, Sartis." Wintras' fingers parted inside him, stretching him. He gasped, hips moving instinctively. Wintras moaned and more oil slid over his skin, Wintras' fingers sliding easier. His skin tingled, his body aching, alive. "Now I know where your fire comes from. So hot inside."

  He smiled, unexpectedly pleased, leaning into Wintras' warmth. He couldn't believe it when Wintras pushed another finger into him. How could three of those long fingers fit inside him and yet, they did, stretching him to fit. Wintras' blue eyes never stopped watching him.

  "Full..." His body didn't know what to do, where to move.

  "Not quite yet." Wintras smiled, fingers sliding in and out, finding that place again, the one that made everything flare uncontrollably inside him. His cry was torn from him, fingers tightening. Wintras licked at his lips, nose sliding on his skin. The touch so deep inside him was slow and careful, Wintras' free hand pushing between them and teasing across the tip of his prick.

  Seed poured from him, drawn up by that touch.

  "Oh. Sartis... Your face." Wintras looked as if he were about to cry.

  "I..." He ducked his head, hiding in his hair, shivering. He was little and pale and scared, his light taken by the bar'cha.

  "Oh, please don't hide from me. I want to see your face. You were transformed. So... I don't know how to say it."

  He blinked up. "Not ugly?"

  "Ugly? You? No! Never. But especially not right now." Wintras' fingers slid over his face, smelling like his come, like his musk. He moaned, face following the touches.

  "So soft," murmured Wintras, eyes following the gentle fingers.

  "Oh..." His eyes closed and he melted, moaning low. Lips followed fingers as Wintras rolled him onto his back. He went easily, moaning at the warmth of the furs behind him, the body above him.

  "I want you," Wintras told him, hands sliding on his body.

  "You do?" He shivered, moved.

  "Uh-huh. And you're all open and ready for me." One long finger teased along his crack again.

  "Will you hurt me?"

  Wintras shook his head and then stopped. "Maybe just for a moment at the very first."

  He distantly remembered Zujan telling someone that, and meaning it, so he nodded. "Will you stop if I ask?"

  Wintras groaned softly but nodded. Furn's fingers slid over him, face nuzzling his shoulder. "If you want him to stop he can take me instead."

  He smiled over at Furn, kissing. "Good morning."

  Furn smiled, stroked his hair. "Good morning."

  Wintras pushed his legs open and settled between them, skin so warm, hot to the touch. His eyes were dragged from Furn, Wintras capturing his attention. The dark blue gazed at him, hot and possessive. Wintras pressed a familiar pot of oil into his hands. "Make me slick."

  He dipped his fingers in the oil, wetting them, then reaching down and stroking the heavy cock, petting the soft skin. Wintras moaned, the sound soft, low and needy. "Sartis. Want you."

  He slid his fingers over the tip of the hard cock, sliding over the wet heat. Another moan was his reward, Wintras' eyes lost in pleasure. Oh, that was pretty. He kept touching, stroking, looking for more. Wintras' hips moved, pushing the hot shaft into his hand. Furn's hand joined his, both of them stroking, touching.

  Wintras gasped and moaned and finally pulled away from their touches. "Inside you. I want to be inside you."

  He had almost hoped Wintras would forget. Almost. Furn helped him settle, legs spread and Wintras settled close, guiding the long prick to his entrance. He took a deep breath, watching, eyes wide. Wintras' cock pushed, those dark eyes turning to him as it breached him.

  Oh, big. So big. He blinked, gasping, trying to decide whether to pull away. Wintras was still moving, pushing in and pushing in and pushing in. He moaned, stretching, eyes wide. "Full..."

  "So tight," murmured Wintras in re
ply, still moving. Finally Wintras was still, cock buried deep inside him. It burned, the stretch a dull ache, a pressure beyond anything he'd imagined.

  "I have to move," murmured Wintras, bending to lick at his lips, at the inside of his mouth.

  He gasped, reached up, trembling fingers tangling in the gold hair. Wintras made a purring noise and the thick heat inside him moved, sliding almost all the way out before slowly pushing back in again. The breath pushed out of him, legs moving restlessly, the burn easing into a heat.

  Wintras continued to lap at his lips, to rub their noses together. The thick shaft slid across that place inside him, sparking his entire body. He was making little noises, the pressure inside him pushing them right out.

  "Hot. Tight." Wintras' eyes were so dark, the words whispers.

  "Yes. Yes, hot..." He twisted, hips bucking, heat building inside him, hotter even than the bar'cha. Wintras nodded and moaned, moving with him, hardness pushing into that spot over and over again.

  "I... I..." He turned to Furn, breath catching in his chest. "I feel."

  Furn nodded. "Yes. Yes, feel."

  Wintras moved faster. "Hot. So hot inside you."

  The room spun, the sound of moans and heartbeats stunning him, amazing.

  "Take his cock, Furn," moaned Wintras, hips moving hard and fast.

  Furn ducked down, sucking him into tight heat, tongue moving over his flesh and he cried out, bucking, need pouring from him. Wintras shouted as his body went tight around the heat inside him, jerking and then filling him with even more heat. Oh. Oh, so much. So big. So hot. Furn's mouth slid away and Wintras collapsed onto him, body covering him. He closed his eyes, panting, holding on.

  Wintras licked lazily at his skin. "Mmm... I've been inside you now, Sartis."

  "They will be angry at you now." He cuddled, enjoying the touches.

  "Who?" Wintras seemed genuinely baffled.

  "The bar'cha. They want me."

  "They can't have you -- you're mine."

  "Yours?" He blinked up, surprised.

  Wintras nodded, gathering him close. "Yeah. Yeah, I think so."

  "Oh." He smiled, he'd always been someone's and Wintras was warm.

  He glanced toward the door. They just couldn't have him back.

  Chapter Nine

  Wintras laid in bed, idly stroking Zujan's skin. Sartis' skin. Or whoever the sorcerer really was. He didn't quite understand it, how Zujan could be some sort of being made by the faeries who took over Sartis. Because Sartis was Zujan and Zujan was Sartis, but more.

  It was going to give him a headache. And so were his zigzagging emotions.

  Though to be honest, it was getting harder and harder to feel anything but need and want and... love for the pale boy in his arms. Oh, he still considered Sartis to be his, but it wasn't a master/slave thing anymore. No it was a possessive, no one else can touch or have Sartis unless he allowed it thing. Wintras had never felt that way over anyone before. And especially not someone he hated as much as he had hated Zujan.

  He distracted himself by watching Furn move about the room, cleaning and pottering, setting everything to rights. It was Furn's obvious love for Zujan, more than anyone else's, that had made him reconsider. Well that and the pull he felt for Zujan.

  He looked back down, fingers sliding through the white streaks in Sartis' hair. And damn it all to the seventh gate, the sorcerer needed a single name! "Furn, quit your stalling and go get us some food. The door will let you back in, I assure you."

  Furn blinked over, eyes wide. "Stalling, my Lord?"

  "The place can't get cleaner, we're hungry and you can't stay in here forever. Now go and get us something to break our fast with." He'd offer to walk out with Furn, but he was comfortable where he was and the louder those damned faeries got, the more loathe he was to leave Zujan alone.

  "Yes, my Lord." Furn nodded, opening the door. Sartis, Zujan, whoever he was, cried out, pressed against him.

  He held the small body close, wrapping around Zujan. "I have you and I won't let them get you. Hurry, Furn, get that door closed!"

  The door slammed shut and the thin body in his arms shuddered, relaxing. "Oh. Better."

  "There has to be a way we can kill them." There had to be, because their effect on Zujan seemed to be getting worse.

  "If you kill me, they'll go, find someone else."

  "I'm trying to save you, not kill you!" For some reason Zujan's death wish made him very angry. "How come you can't control them anymore?"

  "I never could. They did. There's something about you? I don't know."

  "But you treated them like pets! I saw you with them." He'd had a horrified fascination with them from the start, but now they repulsed him, now that he knew.

  "Not me." Zujan... No, Sartis shook his head, the silver shining in the firelight. "Zujan. Not me."

  Wintras was hopelessly confused again. "What happened to Zujan then? Why did they leave him... you... frozen like that?"

  "Zujan... slipped away. I... I woke up. My Lady Mother called me; she was so loud."

  "Is that the lady you were talking about earlier? The one who you said put the spells on the room to protect you? The one who liked me?"

  "Yes. Yes, they burned her, but she... infused herself into the stones, the walls. For me."

  Wintras shuddered at the thought of letting those things take him like that. "She must have really loved you."

  "Yes. Yes, she did. I can almost hear her, here." Sartis nuzzled, face peaceful. "You make Zujan distant, so far away."

  "Good. I don't like him." Sartis he liked though. A lot.

  "I don't either. He hurt people."

  "That still doesn't help us figure out how to get rid of the life-sucking faeries."

  "Maybe she knows."

  "Yeah, maybe she does, but she's not exactly talking, Sartis." At least he hoped she wasn't. He wasn't exactly sure he wanted to meet a ghost.

  Sartis chuckled, snuggling in. "No, not exactly. I will just stay in here. Live in here."

  Wintras nodded. "Yes, I will let you do that." He wasn't quite willing to surrender his power yet. Such as it was.

  "Good." Sartis drew the blankets tighter around them, cool skin sliding against him.

  "You're always so cold," he pointed out.

  "You make me warm inside."

  "Outside, too." He slid his hand slowly along Zujan's side, the skin warming beneath his fingers. "But everyone else says you suck their heat out."

  "I do. You're different. You keep them away."

  "Maybe I just don't like them more than anyone else."

  "They don't burn you, though..."

  "No, they don't." They just dissolved into sparks and disappeared. There didn't ever seem to be any less of them though.

  "Maybe if I stay in here forever, they'll go away."

  "Maybe." He didn't think so though, they seemed to get angrier every single day.

  The soft lips brushed his jaw, then Sartis stood, one of the furs draped around the thin body as the bookshelves were searched.

  "Have you read all these?" Wintras asked, curious. He could read, but he didn't do it very often. His tutor had always liked doing it though.

  "Yes. When I've read them all I sne... I get more."

  "Why would you have to sneak around to get more?" Surely Sartis had the run of the place -- it had been his.

  "I..." Sartis grinned, scooted closer. "I can get away and they don't know I'm gone."

  "Oh?"

  Sartis nodded, then slid behind a tapestry and disappeared. He blinked and jumped out of bed, lifting the tapestry to find a hall hidden behind it. Laughing a little he headed down it, whispering Sartis' name. Sartis' giggle echoed, the hint of motion up ahead. Chuckling, he followed, liking this playful man more and more.

  He turned a corner, then Sartis pushed into his arms, kissing him playfully and taking off once more. Grinning, he sped up, giving chase, getting into the spirit of it. Sartis was surprisingly quick and knew the compl
icated twists and turns, leading him deeper into the maze. It was dark, but not musty or damp and with his hands held out and following Sartis' noises, he didn't get hurt. It did occur to him though that if Sartis stopped making noises he could be lost in here.