no I.D., pay for everything with cash, and live like a shifter. That’s it. Now, will you tell me what this mess can do?”
“No one knows the full extent of what that stuff can do.” Dian leaned back against the headboard and lifted his arm. Kee was happy to dive under it, although Dian’s chest muscles were hard on his face and his torso was quite deep so Kee was risking a cramp in his neck. But Dian’s deep voice could stir and soothe all at the same time.
“Anecdotally, I’ve heard pixie dust can heal wounds, give a person unimaginable strength, it causes people to become euphoric for hours. When added to spell work, it can persuade people, give them hallucinations – too much of it and you can have a puppet for at least a full day. Basically, with a two-ounce bag of the stuff you could pretty much take over a small country. It’ll do anything except replace a lost limb.”
“Great. So now I’m a walking drug manufacturer, all because we claimed each other.” Now his dad’s failure to even look for a fated mate made sense. He could’ve told me. Holding up his finger, the one still surrounded by dust, Kee asked, “What should we do with this? And more to the point, how do I stop from producing this shit? Am I going to have to wear masks now, to stop from spitting it out? Or diapers in case I fart pixie dust. Should I get gloves in case it starts trickling out from my fingers, or be dressed head to toe in a compression suit so I don’t leak anywhere? Damn, Dian. What am I going to do? We could end up with a town full of pixie enhanced happy people by the time I’ve done a single shift at the bar.”
Sliding out from holding him, Dian got out of bed, and went over to where his bag was still packed. Kee narrowed his eyes until he saw his mate pull out a small specimen jar. Walking back, Dian unscrewed the lid and held it out. “Let’s deal with your immediate problem first, shall we? Just wiggle your finger in there. It will come off.”
“Dealt with a lot of crazy pixies shedding dust before, have you?” Kee held his finger out, carefully putting it inside the jar. “Don’t get any on you. You could become a crazy gargoyle and go on a naked rampage down Main Street.”
“Gargoyles are impervious to magic, including your pixie dust,” Dian said, watching Kee’s finger closely. “There, I think you’ve got it all now. Let me get the lid on it.”
“Fine, you’ve got it confined, but now what? Are you going to flush it down the toilet?”
“No. It’s yours. We can…” Dian put the jar back in his bag. “When we go back to yours, you can find a space to stash it then.”
“Oh, goodie,” Kee said as Dian climbed back into bed. “Look, I really thought… I always imagined… when I found my mate the sex would be amazing, which it was,” he added quickly. “But then, the morning after, well… there’d be more cuddles, kisses, breakfast in bed maybe?”
“Actually, that’s a good idea.” Dian looked a bit rueful. “We need a plan. You clearly need to know more about the circumstances of when your pixie dust emerges and yeah, can we do that back at your unit?”
Kee nodded. “What about your partner, Eagle? Are you going to tell him?”
Dian winced – it wasn’t like a full-face wince, more like a tightening of those muscles under his jaw, but Kee saw it. “Eagle and I… we’re expected… the council expectation is that partners trust each other with every aspect of their life. It helps protect either partner from having to deal with the unexpected, like tracking down an ex or something like that. But this… you’re my mate and my number one mission now is to keep you safe and while I’m not saying we’ll never tell him, I’m saying it might be best if we kept it to ourselves right now.”
“Okay. So, breakfast? Kisses? Cuddles? Oh, crap.” Kee suddenly remembered something important. “How am I going to get home? I’ve only got my robe with me. I shifted into my fox form to run around here.”
“And I am so glad you did.” Dian’s voice dropped and Kee guessed breakfast had suddenly been moved to third on his list, not first. He was right.
Chapter Twelve
Kisses, a shared shower, breakfast,