The Phoenix Key 2 "Deliver Me"

\"The Phoenix Key\"

Deliver Me

By: Delilah deSora

Pagan_nyght@yahoo.com



Chapter 2



**



Deliver me courage to guide me

Deliver me strength from inside me



**



\"Oh, do tell, my dear.\"



Trey stiffened and turned his head, desperately trying to make out the dark figure standing like a shadow alongside one of the trees. The Tsar glared at him and he immediately released the woman’s arm, stepping away from her. He winced as a quiver ran through him in response to the knowledge that he’d done something to earn his master\'s anger.



\"Ivan . . .\"



Emerald eyes flashed a warning at him and his mouth snapped shut as he bowed his head submissively. Ivan moved away from the tree, his swaying gait bringing him up next his slave and neatly cutting the red haired man off from the strange woman.



\"Who are you?\" The Tsar asked, moving to circle about her.



The woman followed his movements, keeping him at a distance. Trey ached to help her, though he did not know why. Perhaps it was because her quest of the apples reminded him of his own quest. Besides, he was well aware of how frightening Ivan could be once the man had decided to make you his prey.



\"I am no one, my lord.\" She whispered, nearly tripping as her attempt to escape Ivan brought a tree in her path.



Ivan snorted. \"I think, my dear, you are very much someone and I will not ask you again.\"



Blue eyes glanced beseechingly at him and Trey drew breath to help her but when his master gave him another warning glare Trey released the breath and the moment passed. As much as he wanted to help her he was not willing to risk Ivan’s rage over it, especially after his last folly with the dagger. If she wanted help, she was going to have to prove she was no danger on her own.



The woman finally sighed in defeat. \"My name is Maryushka.\"



Ivan backed away from her a bit, relieving some of his overbearing presence. \"And what family do you come from, Maryushka?\" He asked.



\"I have no family, my lord. They are all dead.\"



Ivan smiled very faintly. \"Then I must admit it intrigues me as to how an orphan girl found her way into my orchard.\"



Maryushka straightened, staring up at the tall man firmly. \"I am afraid I can not say.\"



Ivan’s hand came out so fast the woman didn’t have time to pull away before he had captured a slender wrist and dragged her small frame up against him. Maryushka gasped and tried to pull away but Ivan would not relent.



Ivan leaned over her as though to whisper words for her ears only, though Trey could hear his voice quite clearly. \"Then let me tell you a secret, my dear. You reek of magic.\"



The woman’s breath caught in her throat before she suddenly collapsed. Ivan let her fall and she huddled in a spill of white fabric at his feet, sobbing. The Tsar moved away from her and Trey stood his ground as his master approached him. The black haired man gave him a mixed look before turning to stare back at the weeping woman.



\"Why are you here?\" He demanded.



\"I told you, my lord, I am hungry and I must seek out magical fruit.\"



Trey saw a delicate frown paint its way across Ivan’s face. \"A curse is on you then?\"



Maryushka shook her head. \"A spell.\"



Ivan snorted and turned, his cold fingers finding Trey’s arm and pulling him along roughly. \"I have no interest in it. Leave my palace or die here, it is your choice.\"



Trey let his master drag him along a few feet before he dared to whisper a plea into the Tsar’s ear. \"Can you not help her?\"



Ivan froze and glared down at him. \"It was her own folly to have such a spell laid upon her, let her pay her penance. I care not about her. Why, do you?\" The last was hissed with such rage that Trey wanted to deny it for he knew what angered his master so.



Carefully he pressed himself against the taller man’s body, tucking his head under the Tsar’s chin and licking at the exposed flesh of his master’s neck. \"Please, master,\" he whispered, \"She does not seem the type to deserve such a fate. You know magic, you can help her.\"



Ivan stood stiffly, unmoved by Trey’s plea. \"You know her so well do you?\" He asked his voice cloaked in layers of meaning.



Trey felt the fire of his anger flicker and he pushed himself away from the black haired Tsar. \"Do not say such things of me!\" he shouted, \"You know they are not true!\"



Ivan pursed his lips and looked away for a moment. \"I know,\" he finally admitted quietly. Turning back he held out his hand and Trey took it, allowing himself to be drawn into a tight embrace. Ivan rested his chin on the crown of his head and he closed his eyes, listening to the heartbeat under the cool silk of the Tsar’s shirt. \"Forgive me, my firebird,\" Ivan whispered, brushing a kiss over his hair, \"I am tired and the dealings of my court make me overly suspicious. I see plots even where there are none.\"



Trey opened his eyes. \"I could never let anyone touch me like that but you, Ivan.\" He said, blushing slightly. />
/>


Ivan chuckled and kissed him firmly before pulling back slightly. \"Not even the lovely Maryushka?\"



Trey pulled the taller man down to steal another kiss. \"Not even Maryushka.\" He promised against Ivan’s lips.



The black haired man sighed, tossing a heavy spill of loose black hair over his shoulder and glancing back at the way they had come. \"I do not want to be involved in this, Trey,\" he said warily, \"She tastes of old magic. Powerful magic. I do not like it.\"



Trey bit his lip. \"But we can’t leave her like that.\" He insisted.



Ivan snorted. \"You don’t even know what afflicts her. Perhaps it is a spell to make her appear beautiful.\"



\"A woman wouldn’t cry over such a spell.\"



The Tsar sighed and shook his head. \"I will speak with her, assuming she is still here when I return.\"



Trey stumbled as Ivan started walking and hurried to catch up with him. \"Return? We aren’t going to leave her alone are we?\"



Ivan gave him a stern look. \"I am taking you back to the room. If she is still here when I come back to relock the door then I shall see if I can unweave the spell on her, assuming it wasn’t a deserved fate.\"



\"But . . .\" Trey protested.



Ivan stopped and grabbed his chin, forcing his head back roughly. \"You will stay in the room.\" He repeated firmly. \"I will not have my firebird in danger and there is always danger when people with spells upon them show up unexpectedly. Besides,\" a predatory smile crept over Ivan’s pale lips as his thumb caressed under Trey’s jaw, making the man want to melt as his master stroked the strangely erogenous zone, \"I do expect payment for my efforts and, since I rather doubt our dear Maryushka has the means to pay me, I plan on taking my payment from your hide, slave.\"



Trey’s breaths came in hitched gasps as he leaned into the caress, feeling his body tighten with every slow pass of Ivan’s thumb over the skin of his jaw. \"As you wish, master.\" He breathed.



Ivan’s hand slid down to trace the ruby collar Trey wore, drawing an audible moan from the man as the action reminded him of his status and what he’d been trained to do for the men that owned him.



The hand began to trace the low opening of his tunic and Trey mentally cursed the soft fabric that hide the rest of his body from his master’s touch. Ivan smirked and slid his arm around Trey’s waist, pulling them together so that their bodies touched. Trey groaned against the dark blue fabric of his master’s shirt and wrapped his arms around the slight frame as he rubbed his cheek against the silk, trying to cover himself in his master’s scent. All thoughts of Maryushka and her plight were driven from his mind as Ivan’s knee parted his legs and a muscled thigh rubbed against the front of his linen pants. A sob escaped him and he clutched handfuls of the silk tunic, trying to draw his master closer to him in an unconscious need to have his master in him.



\"Please, master.\" He whispered, his cheeks burning with desire.



Ivan chuckled softly and kissed him, tongue probing at Trey’s perpetually chapped lips until they obediently opened for it. Trey melted as the skilled member traced along the ridges of his mouth and slid over his own tongue. Ivan tasted of wine and Trey savored it.



When Trey’s knees would have given out Ivan pulled back and stared down at him with emerald eyes that gazed at him in unsated lust. \"Come, my firebird.\" He called, and Trey followed close behind him as they exited the orchard. Ivan paused at the door to call a simple spell that would keep those without any magic knowledge from entering or leaving. It was not the normal spell he used to lock the door but as Trey watched him go through the motions he was grateful to find it required a much shorter time to cast than the original.



He burned with desire and when the fire within his veins started to lessen his master would press him against the wall and tease him back to desperate wanting so that by the time the steel key Ivan carried with him on a chain about his neck had given them access to the inner rooms of the tsar\'s suite Trey was practically mad with the need to be touched. Ivan shoved him down roughly on the bed, covering the larger body with his own and making his slave cry out in frustration as his clothes constricted him and weakened the burning feeling of Ivan’s cold hands on his heated body.



His fingers began to pull at the ties holding his shirt closed and he nearly had it undone before Ivan snarled at him and caught his wrists, pinning them to the bed.



\"I did not tell you to undress, slave.\" Ivan hissed, placing a sharp bite on Trey’s shoulder.



Trey trembled under his master’s grasp. His blood was on fire and he needed Ivan to cool it. Part of his mind remembered a time when he could have just thrown off his master and done what his body wanted. Ivan was taller than he but Trey was far stronger. He could never have stood up to his slave in a physical fight but still Ivan held the upper hand.



Trey could never have formed the will to fight against the men who owned him. Years ago the will to physically overpower someone had been beaten out of him. Even when he had been tortured and humiliated by Vislav and Dedumil he had never fought back with physical strength. He simply couldn’t get the thought past the wall of fear and pain Dedumil had built within his. That remembered pain kept him docile at the hands of men physically weaker than him.



So it was that Trey lay trapped with his wrists pinned by a man he could have easily held off as Ivan lapped at the red mark his teeth had made, watching as the magic in Trey’s blood healed the wound before it even bled. Another tremor ran through the slave and Ivan smirked as he rubbed sensually against the trapped man, making him mew in pleasure.



\"You have been a naughty slave, haven’t you?\" He asked, pressing his hips down to grind himself against his slave’s desire. Trey sobbed and tried to push up against his master but Ivan forced his hips back down with a warning look. \"Answer me!\" He snapped.



\"Yes, master.\" Trey hissed out from between clenched teeth.



Ivan quieted and amused himself by licking at the exposed skin of his slave’s chest until his firebird granted him a continuous song of cries and begs. When he was satisfied with the song he pulled himself up from the bed and stared down at the writhing slave there. Trey’s fingers dug into the formerly pristine cloth but he dared not remove it. Ivan watched in satisfaction as the slave stared up at him, begging with his eyes. The black haired Tsar bent over the bed to press a soft kiss on his slave’s lips.



\"Now you may undress.\" He whispered.



Trey gave a broken sob as Ivan’s long fingers slowly unlaced the rest of his shirt. Pulling it from the waist of the leather pants Ivan urged the larger man into a sitting position so that he could drag the shirt over his head. Before Trey could remove his arms Ivan twisted the shirt sharply, making the man cry out in surprise as his wrists were tangled in the cloth at the base of his spine. Ivan smirked as he pushed the man back and straddled his waist.



Trey hissed and arched against him, seeking more contact. Ivan laughed and bent to lap at the hollow of his slave’s throat. When he td thd the length of a collarbone Trey keened and gave another buck.



\"Gods, stop teasing me and get on with it!\" The red haired man snarled.



\"Are you rushing me?\" Ivan asked lightly, flicking a dark nipple with his nails and making the man underneath him yelp in pain.



\"I’m not a toy!\" Trey protested through gritted teeth as Ivan’s hands pinched at sensitive flesh.



Ivan chuckled and bit at the apple of his throat. \"Of course you are. You’re my toy. I can do whatever I like with you. Isn’t that right?\" He asked, sitting up and reaching back to cup the source of his slave’s discomfort.



Red curls spilled across the nearly black furs as Trey gasped for breath. \"Ivan,\" he pleaded breathlessly, \"master . . . please.\"



\"No.\" Ivan replied, climbing off the bed and standing. \"I want to hear more of your song when I return, my firebird.\" He said as he backed away, straightening his clothes. Golden eyes stared up at him in disbelief.



\"Oh? What’s wrong love? Aren’t you worried about little Maryushka all alone in the world? Didn’t you tell me to hurry?\" He bent over the bed, smiling wickedly, \"This is a trap of your own making my rash phoenix, now you must suffer in it.\" He ran his tongue over panting lips and he spared a dark smile before turning his back on the bed, leaving Trey speechless and unable to protest being locked back up in his cage.



Ivan paused long enough to retrieve a full-length tunic. He shed the blue shirt and pulled the crimson one on, adjusting it to cover himself and the obvious bulge his prized phoenix had left him with. Glancing in the mirror to make sure he was decent before he stormed from the room, determito eto end the foolishness with this Maryushka and send the woman on her way.