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        Jaden wasn't sure how long he had slept, but the room was dark save for the thick red candles flickering by the windows, undoubtedly lit by a servant while the two keys dozed softly among the pillows. Asha's face was smooth in rest, his pale lashes fluttering, disturbed by Jaden's movement.

Something had woke Jaden.

        Jaden's sleepy gaze went to the wide dark windows, were a cold draft breathed softly and chilled the bare skin of his chest, making him shiver.  He stood slowly, leaving Asha to rub at his eyes, and fastened the windows shut, the flames of the red candles becoming still, the taunting breeze shut away behind the glass. There was a dim reflection of Jaden's tired face in the dark window. Jaden took a moment to look at himself, wondering when he had ever looked so sad. If maybe, he had ever know sadness before at all until now. The room lay behind him, like the dark side of a mirror, the dim side of his own world.

        Even the candle flames seemed without warmth, shadows of fire, illuminating his own spiritless face. Jaden's eyes shifted off his own reflection to the room beyond. A world of flicker and dark, hiding anything it wished.

        Jaden eyes narrowed.   

        There was a vague silhouette standing motionless in the shadows by the far doorway.

        Jaden swung around, his violet eyes wide in surprise. There was a something there. Watching him.

        A figure stepped forward, a shadow among many suddenly in motion, moving like it was made of the dark around it and Jaden felt the small of his back press into the cold stone of the window's sill as he backed away in fright. But as it drew closer to the light, it shed the dark that cloaked it and a soft glimmer shone.

~Armor?~ Jaden's frenzied mind realized.

        It was for one moment, an apparition, his Master come back for him, and Jaden felt such pure joy he made small sound, making Asha look up in surprise from the pillows. But then the figure came closer, into the circle of the wavering candle light, fading the magic, showing just a man, and Jaden felt his joy shift swiftly to shock.        

        This was not his Master but someone much younger, dressed in the serpent and vine armor of his Master's army. The candle light shone on the silver plated armor softly, framing the man in a gauzy glow, making him unreal and his silence more disturbing. Long red hair hung straight down his shoulders, woven in intricate braids at his temples. His gaze caught Jaden like a steel trap and Jaden could not help but stare back.

        Cold green eyes on a pale white face. This man was not his Master. His Master could never look so cold.  But his Master was gone now.

        Jaden realized with a deep sick feeling just who this man might be.

~There will be another...~ Asha had told him.

        He looked swiftly to Asha who was also staring up at the man in awe.  To Jaden's horror, the man spoke. It was a soft voice but it carried.

        "What is this?" He was looking back and forth between them both, so cold and pale. The tall man was angry.

        "M--Master?" Jaden managed. Asha stood slowly, his eyes on the floor.

        The man's eye's locked onto him again and then he said his name so strangely, in two syllables: ~Ja..den.~  Like the start of an incantation, his gaze ran over him, devouring the sight of him. Jaden wanted to run and hide from it.

        The tall man nodded, his unwavering green gaze going to Asha and down  to the gray mark of the Key on the skin of Asha's hip. He then shocked Jaden by grabbing Asha by the wrist. "What are you doing here?" The new Master demanded in a low hiss. Asha trembled, his wrist pulled higher than he could comfortably stand, his other hand pulling at the trapped wrist that was clutched in the painful grip. "Oh please!"

        "Who owns you?" The man asked. Asha looked confused long enough for the tall man to shake him hard. "What is his name?"

        Asha blinked back his fear, his gaze flickering towards Jaden and then away. "R-Reeven." The boy breathed, his wrist twisting in the man's gloved hand.

        The man made a sound of disgust, lowering Asha's wrist so he could stand and not hang. "Lord Reeven." He spat the name like poison. "An old man, a derelict of his politics." His other gloved hand came out and took Asha's long pale pony tail, turning in over for examination. "Aren't you very young for dear old Reeven?"

        Asha numbly shook his head. "He is very kind--"

        The sound of the man's open hand striking Asha's face seemed not enough to send Asha crashing onto the floor. Jaden quickly came forward, his mouth falling open in shock. "Asha!"

        "Reeven and men like him will let this war go until the sun winks out because it makes them money." He unfastened his dark cloak and lay it carefully over his arm. He asked. "You betray both masters to serve yourselves?"

        Jaden blushed, thinking of Asha's mouth between his legs, sure that his guilt was open and readable on his face for his Master and all to see.

        "I thought my Key was better than the court Keys." The tall powerful body moved with the fluid movement of a predator, the weary strong movements, the silver armor glinting and flashing, mesmerized Jaden. Then the low voice came again, directed to the far off door. "Jayce?"

        The door opened and closed in the dim side of the room, emitting a shadow. It paused there, the door closed behind it.

        "Come here Jayce."

        Jaden felt his stomach tighten with cold. ~Jayce!~ He had heard all sorts of things about this court Key, why would his new Master bring another Key here? Jaden watched the Key take his time walking towards them, lingering by the dead flowers to smell them. He still held that sulky look Jaden remembered watching one of the few times his former master had brought him to the court. Still dressed in dark red, like his Queen seemed to favor.

        "Hello Jaden." Jayce said quite affably, tilting his head to the side and giving him a lopsided hint of a smirk.

        Jaden blinked. "H-Hello Jayce." He looked uncertainly to his new Master.    

        Jayce suddenly noticed Asha and smiled. "Well. Will there be enough wine for all of us?"

        Asha ignored the small wink Jayce gave him, holding his cheek where he had been struck.

        "What do you think of my new Cobalt Key?" The master asked Jayce while seating himself among the cushions. "Be honest."

        Jayce sighed, slowly walking up to Jaden, his gaze flickering over Jaden's body. " I think the Queen cheated you Lord Marcus."

        Jaden felt his eyes sting in a surprising wave of anger. But there is was, his Master's name. ~Marcus~

        "He is fine to look at," Jayce paused, and put a languid hand quite casually on Jaden's chest and pinched a nipple hard.

        Jaden hissed in surprise and jerked away from him, his arm going over his chest.

        "But he doesn't know a thing." Jayce sighed in mock sadness, his sullen blue gaze on Jaden.

        Asha spoke, surprising Jaden with his breathless voice. "Leave him alone Jayce." His pale green eyes went fearfully back to Marcus, forgetting himself in the small flare of indignant anger.

        Jayce considered Asha a moment. "My Lord?" He queried turning to Marcus. "Does it please you to learn secrets, do you enjoy them?"

        Jaden, confused, looked to Asha and saw he had paled considerably. Marcus nodded in a slow way, his long red hair sliding down one shoulder and Jaden realized the tall man was very drunk. "Tell me your secret Jayce."

        "Oh, it isn't mine my Lord." Jayce corrected, turning back to look at Asha.

        Jaden wondered if Jayce was speaking of Jayce's and Asha's ~lesson.~ Asha had confessed that Jayce had been the one to teach him how to use his mouth to do what he did. But Asha's eyes held real fear that Jaden doubted belonged to that time.

        "Please Ja-Jayce." Asha stammered, his voice very small. "You mustn't...you-you promised!"

        That was enough of a show that Marcus ever needed to agree. "Tell me."

        Jayce crossed his arms. "Take off that silver silk his master dresses him in." Jayce's honey hair and dark blue eyes shone bright in candlelight, his amusement sparkling. "You'll see easy enough."

        "My Master expects me back-" Asha stood and tried to hurry past them both to the far door but Marcus caught his wrist like a vise.   

        "Tell your Master that the Queen's champion desired your company and I am sure he will understand." Marcus paused. "If he has some problem tell him to take it up with ~me~."

        Asha, if possible, paled further.        

********

        The silver silk came down slowly, making Asha shift in shame. His body was lean,compact and so very white. He stood very still on top of the table Marcus had ordered him to stand on, his face pink as his hands trembled over his sex, trying to hide himself from the stares.

        Marcus shrugged. "He looks well enough, what of it?" He had ordered Jaden to pour him wine, and he was drinking it in long hard swallows. Jayce simply shrugged, his eyes bright with barely controlled laughter.

        "Turn around for the good Captain Asha, would you?"

        Jaden, who had moved as far as he could from Marcus after serving his wine, had tried to help them from shaming Asha by looking away, but he found himself looking up to see what Jayce was so intent on revealing to them. Asha's chest was heaving in anxiety, his pale green eyes glimmered near tears. "Pleas--"

        "Do it." Marcus growled, becoming impatient, his wine glass coming down in a hard click on the table beside him.

        Asha , with a resigned nervous swallow, let his hands fall to the sides and slowly began to turn. Jaden watched, curious despite his loyal thoughts, and was suddenly distracted by a flash of white that flickered behind Asha, it was long and sensuous but then suddenly gone. Jaden caught a glimpse of it from the other side of Asha's legs. But by then Asha had turned fully around and the mystery was a mystery no longer.

        It was a tail.

        A long white tail started at the base of his spine and twitched in agitation. It was like a snow white cat's tail.

        Jaden gasped in awe, shocked that his friend could keep this secret. "Asha!" He whispered forgetting himself.

        Asha was looking to the side and Jaden could see Asha was sad. "My master tells me to hide it or he will have it cut off." The white tail curled timidly around his legs.

        "How did you hide it?" Jaden could help but watch the sensuous tail as Asha showed him.

        "Quite easily really. " The tail, with a little flick, went forward between Asha's legs and wrapped around his thigh and calf. "When I wore clothes no one could see." Asha's face had stained red, with everyone in the room staring at him.

        "A mutant Key." Marcus mumbled as he stood. "I have heard of these things."

        Jaden saw Asha flinch when he said the words and he longed to comfort him but didn't dare.

        "Does your master make you drink cream from a dish?" Jayce asked.        

        Jaden couldn't stop himself from imagining Asha nude on his hands and knees, dipping his pink tongue into a bowl of fresh white cream.

        "Well mutant Key," Marcus began," I have an idea."

Jaden soon realized he was not the only one left with the image inspired by Jayce's little remark.

 **********

        Marcus nudged the blue glass bowl with his toe of his knee high shiny black boot. "Here kitty kitty."

        Jaden watched Asha as Asha kneeled on the floor, his wrists bound behind his back. His nude body was powder white and Jayce was busy rubbing a spicy oil that held small silvery flakes of glitter over Asha's pale skin. It made his skin glimmer in a silver sheen as his chest rose and fell in a breathless apprehension. Snow white thigh highs had been found and put on his lean defined legs, and to Jayce's insistence, a white leather collar with a small silver bell was placed around his neck. Asha waited on his knees, Jayce's hands on him, his long sleek tail lay miserably on the floor behind them. Asha's long pale hair lay in a ponytail behind his neck.

        Asha looked to the bowl and then up at Marcus It would be awkward moving forward like that on his knees, and Jaden felt for him, but really couldn't help staring either. Jayce knelt behind Asha and let his hand travel very low on Asha's flat stomach, smoothing the oil into his skin, then moving his hand down between Asha's thighs, and on the skin above the white thigh highs.

        Asha moaned helplessly, his eyes fluttering, his head falling back on Jayce's shoulder. Jaden watched Jayce's hand smooth the glittering oil between Asha's legs, making his sex lengthen, a glittery silver sheen of the oil on the silky skin of his sex. Asha's tail came up tentantively behind them both, back between Jayce's legs and brushed Jayce's shoulder with the white tip, then Jayce's face, along his cheek under Jayce's dancing blue eyes.

        Jaden realized he had begun breathing faster.

        "Here, kitty kitty." Marcus ordered. Jayce withdrew. Asha was so graceful even bound and as he neared the bowl on his knees, moaning softly at what Jayce had done to him, Marcus nudged it back further with his boot, making cream slosh over onto the golden floor. Asha made a soft sigh, his pale green eyes trembling, the skin of his hands turning a pink from the tight white leather binds that crisscrossed his wrists and up his forearms.

        Jaden knew he himself was pale but he grew gold in the sun, however, he knew Asha's porcelain skin would never bear it. His long white pony tail was coming loose behind his neck, stray pale strands fallen down into his face as he leaned forward, his lean graceful legs moving slowly, wary of Marcus and this new game. The snow white tail lay limp behind him, trailing behind him on the floor. Jaden wanted to touch it, the white fur looked very soft. Marcus had finally let Asha reach the bowl. Asha looked up at him, his tail raising and curling upwards in hesitate anticipation. "Spread your knees."

        Marcus watched Asha struggle to comply and shook his head. "Wider pet."

        Asha sighed again, spreading his knees very far apart in the white hose that ended mid-thigh, the pink stain on his face deepening when Jaden saw him realize how exposed he would be if he were to lean over.

"Drink."

        Looking down at the bowl and he leaned down slowly, his hands trapped behind his back, and carefully began to lap at the cream. Jaden watched his pink tongue dip into the white cream over and over again, the long tail lay close to the ground, curled slight upwards, flicking this way and that. Marcus walked behind him and knelt down, his black gloved hand startling on the pale flesh of Asha's thighs. He touched the inner thigh and then slid his hand between the parted legs. Asha gasped and made to straighten, but Marcus grabbed his tail and yanked it up, making Asha yelp in pain. Asha moaned softly into his bowl of cream as Marcus's hand felt his balls and stroked the length of his sex, the free half of his tortured tail whipping frantically in Marcus's grip.

        Marcus was attaching a chain to the white leather collar.

        Jaden bit at his lip.

        Jayce startled Jaden by snaking an arm across his chest from behind him.

"Come with me."

********** 

        Jayce felt himself smile sweetly at Jaden. The sweet smile generally brought others to apprehension or at best hostility but this Key was much different from the ones he knew of in the Queen's court. This Cobalt Key didn't play the same games, let alone know any of the same rules. The court Keys weren't allowed among the private Keys very often and Jayce was beginning to see why.

        "Pretty Jaden." Jayce began. "I've brought you a present." He gestured to the table Asha had been standing on.

        Jaden turned his head towards the table before he took his violet eyes off Jayce, and the small gesture of distrust made Jayce smile. "I only have your interests at heart Jaden, you can trust me." But gods was Jaden beautiful, black hair had always fascinated him, and that soft pink mouth, it looked as if Jaden wore paint, but Jayce could see that this close, Jaden didn't. But

        Jaden was looking at the strange tall and narrow bottle on the table, filled with a dark golden fluid.

"But what is it?" Jaden asked in a small voice, his gaze flickering from Jayce to beyond him, to Asha. Jayce didn't miss that look, this innocent little Key was getting curious.

        "Something that will help you please your new Master. The queen wanted you to have it."

        That was a lie. The Queen had about as much to do with that bottle as Jayce felt like helping Jaden. Jayce bit his tongue to keep from laughing. He had a tendency to laugh out loud when he was deceiving someone. "You'll find that if you take a small drink from that bottle, things will look differently to you."

        Jaden shifted, biting at his lower lip. "What do you mean?" 

        Jayce could see him wanting help, but he was hesitating. ~What has that Asha told him?~ Jayce wondered idly.

Asha. The kitten key.

        Jayce looked back at Asha lapping miserably at the bowl of cream and smirked. He had found out Asha's ~secret~ the day Asha, a private Key had parted his sweet legs and surrendered to Jayce behind the Queen's throne room. Jayce, despite himself, had been rather intrigued. He had heard bizarre rumors when he had arrived at the palace of such Keys. There was a creature, made Key, with wings tucked away somewhere on the palace grounds and even a Key that could change his appearance, like a lizard it's colours. Rumors. Or so he had thought. Maybe more of these strange Keys existed?

        Asha had begged and wept to him for it to remain a secret. Jayce had hurriedly agreed so that he could push Asha back and let this spoiled private Key show him if he had learned anything. It was strange but he sort of liked it. He could see Jaden's new Master did as well. ~ That precious private Key, Lord Reeven's own! Put on a chain and drinking from a bowl!~

        Jayce did laugh out loud then. He wondered about this Captain. Marcus.

        Another war machine shoved back into the decadent life of the court, expected to act like nothing but peace had ever existed. He was very different from the older diplomats or boring counsel members that fell asleep on Jayce after their clumsy touches and their quick finishes. Jayce had heard of this Captain mentioned many times around the Queen but never laid eyes on him until this night. He was as young as they claimed. Marcus, the boy hero. Marcus, the winner of wars. Marcus, winner of a Key.

This Cobalt Key.

        Some of the Keys were more special than others, the private Keys. Given a room of their own like a jeweled cage, tended to as if they were not the servants but the served. Jaden had never been passed to a guest like a cheap wine, or groped by the servants when no one was about to chastise them Jaden never woke in the morning unsure of what bed he would find himself in.  Jaden's virginity was like his beauty, it was a reward to Marcus, Jaden was a prize. Jayce felt himself frown. Jaden wasn't common. Jaden was special.

        Jayce suddenly realized that he hated him.

        Jayce drew close and spoke slowly. "Now when your new Master fucks you," Jayce began, his smile going thin and cold at Jaden's shocked look,"..don't you want to be a brave boy for your new Master and not cry?"

        Tears threatened at Jaden's smoky violet eyes but he worked hard to fight them, his thick black lashes fluttering against his cheeks. "Y-yes." Jaden seemed to know enough that he was being mocked.

        "Drink." Jayce pressed the cold glass lip of the bottle to Jaden's lips but Jaden still backed away.

        Jayce paused and brought to the bottle to his own and sipped a little of the fluid himself, the strong burn of it filling his mouth, a gentle pleasant burn down his throat and in his chest.  "You see? It is safe."

        Jaden considered the bottle after Jayce had drank it and nodded slowly, taking the tall narrow bottle from him. Jayce stopped Jaden when he thought Jaden had drank enough, too much was almost as bad as too little, and Jayce wanted this to be perfect.

            "What will happen now?" Jaden asked, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, his voice low and unsure.

            Jayce smiled. "Now, we wait."

To be continued....