just about stopped at the streak of blood above his eye, and what looked like a tear in his wing. They hurt his wing! Kee’s normally pacifist heart wanted to rip someone else’s fingers off.
Staying out of reach, Kee flew around the fighting men, his dust streaming behind him like a comet. All I need is a tutu and a wand and I’d look just like Tinkerbell’s brother. Dian was immune to his dust, but the others weren’t. As he flew, he willed his dust to fall and settle, making sure a big clump of it rested on Burton’s head. Shrink. Shrink them all. Make them no more than six inches tall.
It was funny – sort of. Kee was still really upset to see his mate was hurt, but watching Dian throw a punch, and the guy he was aiming for just shrink in front of his eyes. Dian almost fell over when his punch had no where to go.
“Kee? Kee, where are you?” Dian looked around as Kee did a quick tally up – five men, all six inches tall. That’ll teach you to hurt my mate. Settling well away from the attackers, Kee willed himself to shift back to his regular size.
“Hey babe,” he said, brushing a few sprinkles of dust he’d caught off his hands. “Cam’s probably on his way with backup, and yeah, I found a new use for that sprinkle shit. Seems no one mentioned a mated pixie could use it for themselves.”
It must be stress, Kee thought as the huge gargoyle started laughing.
/~/~/~/~/
Gargoyles, by nature, weren’t overly vicious beasts. They might give the impression they’d rather everyone around them was dead, or would at least leave them alone, but they generally had a peaceful heart. Having to fight off men he’d worked with went against everything Dian believed in, especially when he knew his opponents were only following orders. That Kee was able to resolve the situation and stop the fight, without hurting anyone was simply incredible.
The tables had definitely turned. Cam turned up with Rocky and Mal just after Dian had scooped up his captives. Mal suggested throwing them in a fruit bowl with steep enough sides they couldn’t get out. The five men who were originally the aggressors were now being stared at like fish in a fishbowl.
“What gave you the right to come here, break sanctuary laws, and try and take me and my mate away?” Kee was angrier than Dian had ever seen him. “I’m a person, asshole. I have rights,” he slapped his chest. “You ordered the attack on an innocent man in his own home and one of your men tore my mate’s wing. He was bleeding!”
‘Was’ being the operative word. Dian had shifted back as soon as Cam and the others appeared. His wing still twinged in his back though, and he’d have to shift again soon to make sure it set correctly, but Kee wasn’t in the mood to hear that Dian was actually all right.
Burton seemed to have lost his bluster from before – being six inches tall would do that to a person. “The council is the highest authority among paranormals everywhere,” he said woodenly. “Mated pixies are so incredibly rare, it’s lucky to see one in a generation. They have immense powers our kind struggle to fight against… obviously.” He scowled and the glow of pride Dian felt for his mate increased.
“Those same powers in the wrong hands can cause immeasurable damage to hundreds, sometimes thousands of people…” Burton went on.
“Lie.” Rocky put up his hand and pointed at Burton. “Get your facts straight, asshole, or I’ll have you for lunch. I’m getting peckish. You can’t say pixies are rare one minute, and then say they can cause damage and harm to hundreds or thousands of people the next. At most, maybe a dozen people might go missing or get hurt before the council is called in. Besides, the damage isn’t done by the pixies themselves, is it?”
“No, it’s done by the assholes who forget that pixies have rights, the same as any other paranormal,” Cam snapped. He was leaning against the kitchen counter, his arms crossed. “The council is very good at forgetting individuals have rights.”
“Burton,” Dian cut in quickly. He was well aware of how Cam’s rights had been violated when he’d worked as an enforcer, and how easily he’d been discarded by his bosses on the council when things went to shit. “How the hell did you know so much