Like a Spell 2: Gay Male Fantasy Erotica

By Jennifer Levine

For the Like a Spell anthology, we asked writers to challenge the traditional tropes and send us something new—original stories of magic users, interesting twists on the typical sorcerers and mages. The response was overwhelming and exciting, and we decided to publish four separate anthologies, using the theme of classical elements (earth, air, fire, and water) as the focus for each collection.

For the fire anthology, we’ve focused on stories portraying the love between men. When we thought fire, we thought of the passion and heat of men, the all-encompassing flames of their desires. We thought of the fire gods Ra and Vulcan, Agni and Xiuhtecuhtli. We thought about strength, ferocity, and power.

In “Passage, Performance, Passion,” Avery Vanderlyle explores what would happen if a Changeling wizard recruited an ordinary—but awfully cute—mortal male to participate in a sex ritual. The Changeling, Raavi, just wants to open a portal to find a gift his parents left him, but if he needs to get naked in a cave with a human in order to do so, who is he to argue?

In J. C. Williams’s “Here There Be Dragons,” we get a peek into David Maurey’s birthday celebration. David is a bit traditional and easily embarrassed, but that hasn’t stopped Callum from lovingly torturing him in front of all the other dragon handlers. The festivities continue at home, as Callum makes sure David’s birthday is one to remember.

In “The Best Part of the Power,” Ellis Sandry tells the story of two professors who geek out together and end up, well, a little more intimate than two respectable colleagues ought to be. Arin is young and freshly hired on to the faculty for his expertise in cultural thermatology, and Professor Brook is an experienced archaeologist, a member of the old guard. Arin has fantasized about the older professor, but he doesn’t actually think anything will come of it... until it does.

In “The Blood of the Mage,” Rhidian Brenig Jones reimagines the classic orphan-with-magic trope and turns it on its head. Yes, Leonas is an orphan, down on his luck, with no immediate future prospects, and yes, he has magical abilities that he’s been trying to hide. But when he meets Aleris, a startlingly handsome mage who looks much younger than he really is, Leonas learns that becoming a mage is a lot less about sitting in stuffy rooms bent over tomes and a lot more about mastering his body and harnessing his sexual energies for use elsewhere.

Lucien Grey shows us a lonelier side of a mage’s life in “The Prince’s Mage.” Phryne is blind, but he doesn’t need eyesight to see the beauty in Lysander, third in line to the throne and chained in a dungeon since adolescence. Phryne knows how to keep the demon inside Prince Lysander at bay, but when someone places a target on Lysander’s back, it’s the demon itself that Phryne needs to talk to in order to get some answers.

Finally, in “Fervidus,” Welton B. Marsland introduces us to Dunstan, a crotchety old wizard who’s too smart for his own good. When he finds out his apartment is under new management, he thinks nothing of it. But then the new landlord shows up to collect the rent, and Dunstan recognizes Martin Greenman, an “annoying little git” from his army days. Then he hears shocking noises from the landlord’s unit—right above his—and realizes that not only are they sex noises, but, worse, he’s... strangely intrigued by them.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Circlet Press
• Release date: Jan 11, 2018
• ISBN: 9781613901649

Book preview

cover.jpg

LIKE A SPELL: FIRE

Gay Male Fantasy Erotica

Jennifer Levine, Editor, Avery Vanderlyle, J.C. Williams, Ellis Sandry, Rhidian Brenig Jones, Lucien Grey, and Welton B. Marsland

CIRCLET PRESS, INC.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Copyright Info

Introduction: by Jennifer Levine

Passage, Performance, Passion: by Avery Vanderlyle

Here There Be Dragons: by J.C. Williams

The Best Part of the Power: by Ellis Sandry

The Blood of the Mage: by Rhidian Brenig Jones

The Prince’s Mage: by Lucien Grey

Fervidus: by Welton B. Marsland

Contributors

Circlet Press, Erotica for Geeks

More Gay Erotic Literature from Circlet Press

Become a Patron: of Circlet Press

COPYRIGHT INFO

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Like a Spell: Fire (Volume 2)

Copyright © 2017 Circlet Press, Inc.

Cover photograph © Irina Kharchenko | Dreamstime.com

ISBN 978-1-61390-164-9 ebook

Published by Circlet Press, Inc.

39 Hurlbut Street

Cambridge, MA 02138

http://www.circlet.com/

This electronic version was produced using Pronoun.

License Notes**

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INTRODUCTION

~

BY JENNIFER LEVINE

MAGIC HAS CAPTIVATED THE HUMAN imagination for centuries, and magic users, especially, continue to pique our interest. When you think of a wizard, do you think of Merlin? Dumbledore? When you think of witches, do you think of The Wicked Witch of the West? Baba Yaga? What about mages? Necromancers?

No matter what (or who) you think of when you think of magic, there’s more to the magical arts than love charms and an old, bearded wizard hunched over dusty books. For the Like a Spell anthology, we asked writers to challenge the traditional tropes and send us something new—original stories of magic users, interesting twists on the typical sorcerers and mages. The response was overwhelming and exciting, and we decided to publish four separate anthologies, using the theme of classical elements (earth, air, fire, and water) as the focus for each collection.

For the fire anthology, we’ve focused on stories portraying the love between men. When we thought fire, we thought of the passion and heat of men, the all-encompassing flames of their desires. We thought of the fire gods Ra and Vulcan, Agni and Xiuhtecuhtli. We thought about strength, ferocity, and power.

In Passage, Performance, Passion, Avery Vanderlyle explores what would happen if a Changeling wizard recruited an ordinary—but awfully cute—mortal male to participate in a sex ritual. The Changeling, Raavi, just wants to open a portal to find a gift his parents left him, but if he needs to get naked in a cave with a human in order to do so, who is he to argue?

In J.C. Williams’s Here There Be Dragons, we get a peek into David Maurey’s birthday celebration. David is a bit traditional and easily embarrassed, but that hasn’t stopped Callum from lovingly torturing him in front of all the other dragon handlers. The festivities continue at home, as Callum makes sure David’s birthday is one to remember.

In The Best Part of the Power, Ellis Sandry tells the story of two professors who geek out together and end up, well, a little more intimate than two respectable colleagues ought to be. Arin is young and freshly hired on to the faculty for expertise in cultural thermatology, and Professor Brook is an experienced archaeologist, a member of the old guard. Arin has fantasized about the older professor, but doesn’t actually think anything will come of it... until it does.

In The Blood of the Mage, Rhidian Brenig Jones reimagines the classic orphan-with-magic trope and turns it on its head. Yes, Leonas is an orphan, down on his luck, with no immediate future prospects, and yes, he has magical abilities that he’s been trying to hide. But when he meets Aleris, a startlingly handsome mage who looks much younger than he really is, Leonas learns that becoming a mage is a lot less about sitting in stuffy rooms bent over tomes and a lot more about mastering his body and harnessing his sexual energies for use elsewhere.

Lucien Grey shows us a lonelier side of a mage’s life in The Prince’s Mage. Phryne is blind, but he doesn’t need eyesight to see the beauty in Lysander, third in line to the throne and chained in a dungeon since adolescence. Phryne knows how to keep the demon inside Prince Lysander at bay, but when someone places a target on Lysander’s back, it’s the demon itself that Phryne needs to talk to in order to get some answers.

Finally, in Fervidus, Welton B. Marsland introduces us to Dunstan, a crotchety old wizard who’s too smart for his own good. When he finds out his apartment is under new management, he thinks nothing of it. But then the new landlord shows up to collect the rent, and Dunstan recognizes Martin Greenman, an annoying little git from his army days. Then he hears shocking noises from the landlord’s unit—right above his—and realizes that not only are they sex noises, but, worse, he’s... strangely intrigued by them.

I hope these stories will enchant you the way they enchanted me. When you’re done with these, check out the other elements that make up the Like a Spell series: earth (F/F stories), air (M/F stories), and water (orgy stories).

Jennifer Levine

October 2017

PASSAGE, PERFORMANCE, PASSION

~

BY AVERY VANDERLYLE

You must be a pretty bad wizard.

That was when I knew I’d lost control of the conversation.

I’m a perfectly fine wizard. I’m just not very good at explaining—

Jonah raised an eyebrow.

Let me try this again. I took a deep breath. Blood-locked extraplanar portals must be decrypted with resonant magic. This is accomplished by combining essential energies via a ritualized coupling that—

Now I was sure I knew what his eyes glazed over meant. I stopped again. I needed to explain as if he were an infant. This was why I hated dealing with humans.

My name is Raavi, and I’m a Changeling. If you’ve read any fairy tales, or old ballads, you’d have heard of the Fay, at least. Fairies?

When he nodded, I continued. In those stories, Changelings were Fay babies switched with human ones. Kidnapping human babies is barbaric; no one decent does it anymore. But Fay children that don’t fit are still sent to live in human lands and still called Changelings.

Jonah nodded again. He was an ordinary looking male, with brown hair, slightly tanned skin, brown eyes with flecks of green in them. He was slightly taller than me, but I was short for a Changeling male. I didn’t know what the metal barbell through his right eyebrow signified, or if the tattooed string of characters down the side of his neck was worth inquiring about. His outfit consisted of blue jeans and a faded blue hooded sweatshirt.

Okay, I got that much. Let’s skip ahead to the part where we have to have sex.

The mystical journeys I’d undertaken to reach the level of power where I could seek him out were beyond his comprehension anyway.

My parents left a gift for me. Think infant, Raavi. But it’s hidden. After a great deal of research, I learned that to access it, I need to combine my energy with someone else’s. Someone with a certain frequency, if you will.

He was following me now. The green flecks in his eyes seemed to catch the light, and his lips curved into a smile.

So we use sex to combine the energy? I got that, bro. He jerked his head upward and to the left. I got a place right up there. The smile widened. And nothing else going on ‘til six.

He meant to do it now? The shock must have shown on my face. No, no. It’s a ritual! Don’t you understand? It has to be done at a certain time and place. In a certain way.

When I’d first greeted him, I’d asked Jonah his profession, to which he’d replied, I make beats, you know—hip-hop. I DJ. I’m on the street team for a couple of clubs. I cam sometimes, stuff like that. He’d shrugged. I get by.

Maybe his forthrightness had been inspired by the confusion on my face. I’d barely understood every other word.

When I still didn’t respond, he’d countered a bit testily. Why, I bet you do something fancy, huh?

That’s when I told him I was a wizard.

He was thinking now. I was fascinated by the minute twitches at the corners of his eyes and the way his lips pressed together. A muscle in his neck spasmed, and the tattoo rippled. I wanted to see all of it.

Fay—and Changelings—do have sexual impulses, but I’d rarely been bothered by them. We’d already established that I needed to have sex with him for the ritual, though. No harm in enjoying it.

What was he thinking? If he asked for money, I could negotiate.

So it needs, like, candles and crystals and shit? In a cave?

Caves are traditional. And relatively inaccessible.

Ha! I knew it! He grinned, hands tossed out toward me, long fingers splayed. A gesture of triumph.

Lucky guess, I huffed. And crystals, yes. But no candles. Flashlights or lamps are fine.

Hmm. He was thinking again. When does this have to be?

Full moon. That’s Tuesday night. Ideally between 11 PM and 2 AM.

Okay, cool. Another flick of those long, sensual fingers. Can I see it?

The cave?

Yeah. His eyes narrowed as he considered. We could have a dress rehearsal. So we’d have everything plotted out.

That’s not a bad idea. Rehearsing before a ritual was common. This infant was smarter than I’d thought.

Great. Let’s go. His arms swept open in an elaborate after you gesture. I had a vision of them closing around me, his embrace steadying, warm....

I shook my head sharply. The ritual had to be performed precisely. That was priority number one.

He was still waiting for me, eyebrows rumpled quizzically.

It’s five miles west of town. How are you going to get there?

How’d you get here? Did you teleport or something?

Technically, I built a portal to an Other world, then from there I built another portal to the alley