Chapter 12
Shade


"What? Who has Dream?" I raised my head and looked around wildly as though this mysterious woman would be there, standing in front of us waving some strange implement and threatening to kidnap Rose from under my fingers. "About whom are you speaking Rose? If you tell me, I can help."

Rose lifted her head a fraction of an inch and then let it fall again. "No, no one can help us. She's taken everyone in and they all think she's great. She'll get us all." Rose sobbed then and threw herself into my lap where I held her in my arms and tried to give her what comfort I could.

"I see you have met already. This is perfect, although perhaps a better mood would have improved the situation." I looked up and into a strangers face. I was already on the defensive so my voice echoed my anger when I nearly shouted at the interloper.

"What do you want?" It came out a snarl, but his smile did not falter a bit.

"Hey, I'm not the target of your anger. I'm assuming you've heard about Rose's Mistress, Ariana. Well, while Ariana's little group of toys seem to think she is operating in secret, we do, in fact, have a damn good idea of the cruelties Ariana is perpetrating on her slaves. We also know that she is being very careful to give her little slaves no sign that she cares what happens to them. It's all part of her game."

I was distracted at that moment by a feeling of heat on my thighs and stomach. I looked down and realized that Rose had worked my shirt up and my zipper down. I was completely exposed from just below my ribcage down to the vee of my taut stretched pants. Rose was nuzzling her face into the bared flesh, and I remembered the way I had taken comfort and pleasure by doing the same thing to Bettie's inner thighs. I stretched a bit and shifted to better wrap Rose in the circle of my body. She sighed, comforted to some degree and began to suck on my thigh where it was just barely exposed by my pants.

I turned my attention back to the stranger who immediately began to speak again. "Because Ariana has been so careful to keep any sign of caring back from her slaves, and because she starves them for attention to make her every caress seem like so much more, she has made one small mistake. She has forgotten to swear them to slavery for any period of time. We suspect she has been hazing the rules in terms of asking their consent before beginning a session, but we have yet to be able to prove it." The stranger looked down and smiled as he watched Rose dig one hand into my pants and start pulling. I gasped as the heat of her breath worked its way slowly down my inner thigh at the same rate as my pants. A moment before the leather rolled past the lump of my hard-on the stranger interrupted Rose. His voice was as gentle as mine had been with caring and concern evident in the extreme.

"Rose, Roooose." He crooned softly to get her attention. "Honey it's Hades, I need to speak to you for just a moment ok?"

Rose looked behind her and saw Hades. I kept a hand resting lightly on her back so I could tell that when she realized who it was, her muscles relaxed a bit. I decided that was enough for me to trust him. She kept her hands locked around my pants, but nodded in his direction.

"Rose, we have decided Xeno is doing well enough to stay with us for the next day of his trial, and tomorrow he is going to be Master for a day. You have been elected as his slave; but we need your consent honey." Rose nodded emphatically and turned her face back to my stomach. I raised a hand to run my fingers through her hair, but Hades' voice interrupted me.

"Rose, I need you to slow down for just another minute. You can have all the fun you want without being his slave tomorrow." Here he shot me a look, half question have demand. I nodded. Satisfied he continued. "If you consent Rose, you will be his slave from sun rise tomorrow to sunrise the next day. I would say sunrise is about three hours from now. But Rose!" His voice became strident for a split second to arrest her motion as she again dove for my skin. "I need to hear you say it out loud Rose."

She mumbled something and he asked her to speak up. I felt her body tense for a moment and then she lifted her head by clenching her fingers in my pants and lifting her head. "Yes...please." Her voice was barely above a whisper, but the room had gone silent around us as our drama progressed. I hadn't realized anyone was aware of us until I heard Rose's voice slide through the air and up my spine. By the time I had finished hearing her she was already buried again in the gap between my pants and my stomach.

I looked at Hades who sighed and leaned back on his black denim clad haunches. He watched Rose speculatively for a moment and then dragged a hand through his long blue hair. "Ok, I will accept that." He looked me in the eye and gestured with his cigarette. "I need you to be careful though. She is already deeply in sub-space and it doesn't look like she wants to come out for a while. She needs some serious attention and love. Usually we try to hook up much happier less burdened subs for this portion of the testing, but nothing about your test has been standard so far. Needless to say you've been invited back for your fourth day and we are putting a lot of trust in you in order to speed your process. If you need to contact anyone tonight or, probably for the next couple of days, you can let myself, or Francis, or Bettie know. Or Devon if you spot him, but he's going to be running around a little like a chicken with its head cut off for the next few weeks. So will I actually, between him and Kali I've been relegated to chef and errand man for the duration." He sighed again and then chuckled, a deep happy laugh that brought a smile to my face. "It's a fine position for a top I'll tell you, but sometimes I wouldn't have it any other way. Don't forget that Xeno, there may seem to be paradoxes in every walk of life, but they are only paradoxical if you live by a dualistic philosophy, otherwise they are complimentary."

He leaned over Rose to stub out his cigarette and ran a hand lightly over her back as he sat back up. "I need to hear the OK from you too Xeno. Just like I said to Rose, you two can have all the fun you want tonight with no obligation for tomorrow. But I need to hear whether or not you are ready to take on the joy, and the burden of a complete slave, especially a wounded slave, for twenty four hours. You can break the contract by mutual agreement only, and you will be expected to care for her better than you would yourself. If you get hungry ask yourself when the last time she ate was, if you need a cigarette ask yourself if she has been showing signs of need. If you get thirsty you had better have already given her something to drink because she is female and aroused and deeply subby, so she is sweating and generating girl juices and probably losing more than a touch of saliva on your stomach, so she by her very nature needs more liquids than you do. If you need to go to the bathroom make sure she does as well, watch her for any signs of confusion or neglect or unhappiness. She has been mistreated so you are going to have your hands full."

"Now, don't think this means no sex or that you should in any way take your attention away. Right now she needs more attention and love than you can believe. And don't trick yourself into thinking you can love her enough to somehow make everything better by sunrise next. She is a strong girl, otherwise she wouldn't be here, but she has been brain fucked. You need to keep that in mind, otherwise you'll trick yourself into thinking the next hug will be the one that heals all wounds, and that way lays madness, co-dependence, and insanity. I could go on and on; but the short of it is if you start yourself on that kind of cycle you risk a lot more than you want to. She can take care of herself, and right now she is doing so by getting the snuggles and love she needs from a good and happy dominant personality, namely you. She has had her eye on you since Dream brought you in and for that alone I congratulate you. She has discerning taste." He loosed that infectious laugh for a moment and then got serious.

"OK, I need to hear it from you. Do you Xeno take Rose to be your slave from sunrise to sunrise beginning in approximately..." He consulted a pocket watch he pulled from the inner pocket of his leather jacket. "Three hours?"

I nodded mutely, half lost in the sensation of Rose's tongue working its way slowly across the rise of my right hip, and half awed by the continued reverence that went into the ceremony of a Master and Slave relationship every time. Hades just looked at me until I realized he had to hear me speak the words. Maybe they were recording everything in case of dispute or something. "Yes, I do." I looked down and cupped Rose's head in my hands. "I accept you, Rose, as my slave until the sun rises twice." Rose lifted her face from my crotch and smiled at me through tear streaked eye liner.

"Thank you Master." She whispered. Her eyes took on a pleading look and I nodded slightly. She again buried her face and began making my nerves dance.

Hades smiled and nodded. "I like that, nice improv there Xeno, I think you'll fit in just fine. Oh, before I go, you want anything? It looks like you may be there for a while." I thanked Hades and asked for a couple of water bottles and the loan of a pack of cigarettes. He disappeared for a split second and then reappeared tossing both requests to me before he wished me luck and then left, through the same door Devon had used.

The moment the door closed I swore under my breath. I realized I hadn't asked either for condoms, or if Rose was clean, Rose was barely verbal, and I was quickly approaching that state where I would no longer be able to ask. I reached for Rose to pull her up so I could ask, but I found I had my fingers tangled in her hair. I pulled, lightly at first and then harder. She moaned deep in her throat and her entire body squirmed against my lower legs. Instead of asking I pulled her to me and kissed her, hard. I molded my lips to her and sucked her breath into me, holding her tight and feeling her respond. I breathed air back into her lungs and she melted into my chest. I felt her hands still gripping my pants tighten even as her body slackened and tensed to press more urgently against my own. I ran a hand across her back, reveling in the feel of her skin, taut under her slip. I felt no tell tale lines and realized she was completely naked under the micro-thin layer of silk. My mind clawed and screamed for attention as my body followed its own prerogatives. I pulled my head back and gasped for breath. "Rose." My voice was hoarse with arousal and it was all I could do to reach for her chin rather than her hair. She was sucking my nipple through the tight mesh of my shirt and I slipped a finger under her chin and tugged. She whimpered and resisted.

I felt another pair of hands slide up the unprotected length of my back and twisted, caught between leaning into the further sensuous contact and the serious need to get the information I needed. Then I caught my breath as Bettie purred into my ear. "She's safe Xeno; I just wanted to make sure you cared enough to try to ask before I let you off the hook. Everyone in here is clean and safe for that matter. Enjoy yourself." She kissed the back of my neck and I felt her nipples drag across the mesh of my shirt. I felt the skin of her breasts press into my back as she wrapped her arms around me to run her fingers down the line where Rose's body and mine were attempting to merge into one. The realization that Bettie was, at the very least, topless, came at the same moment that I heard Rose utter a single triumphant cry and felt my pants give way. They tore from the base of the zipper almost all the way around until what I was wearing was more like leather stockings held up more by the merit of their tightness than anything that could be called pants.

Rose wasted no time making her way down my body, my hands were again tangled in her hair and instead of pulling I helped guide her until I felt her mouth, warm and wet around me. Bettie laughed low and quietly in my ear and then slipped her legs around my hips from behind. I was leaning back into the cradle of her body, cushioned on her breasts and thrilled by the feel of her hips undulating against my back. Rose moaned deep in her throat and my own moans rose to meet hers.

I slid my fingers through the loop on her collar and pulled, holding her head still while my hips bucked of their own accord. I could feel Rose riding my legs, rubbing her silk clad body against the leather in an attempt to gain relief or at least contact. I pulled on her collar, steadily but irresistibly until I felt her release me. The air was cold after the heat of her mouth, and she cried out and tried to nuzzle her way back into my crotch, but I pulled her to me for a kiss. "At sunrise you will be mine Rose, but until then you can have your way. What would you like?" I felt I had to ask. If for no other reason than to prolong the pleasure that I felt sure would be my last of the already long night.

"Please master," Rose's voice was an experience in the erotic. "Please, show me you trust me. Show me I'm safe. Let me taste you and then hold me. Just hold me and let me feel your heartbeat." I knew then that technicalities were just that. She had been mine from the moment I held her in my arms and didn't turn her away.

Bettie's voice cut through my thoughts, wild with arousal and something else I couldn't quite pinpoint. "She knows what she wants Xeno; don't take her only source of comfort away. And while you're in a giving mood, let me play too." She purred in my ear and that same tone crept back into her voice again. I realized what it was, submission. "Please." She breathed the word across my neck and I grabbed her hands as they slid across my chest.

"Rose, you are more than welcome. Bettie, by all means." And because I couldn't resist, I whispered to myself under my breath. "Xeno, welcome to paradise."



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