This would have been the moment in which I could have told him Victor was my mate, but I didn’t want to just burst it out, not just yet. So I waved off his comment and directed his attention toward the m-mail device.
Kirril was naturally with him, and seemed quite suspicious of Victor. I couldn’t exactly blame him. The circumstances weren’t conducive to an excessive amount of trust. Nevertheless, I did feel somewhat slighted at his behavior, and was very relieved when he became a little more open-minded.
In the end, it was agreed that, since the hour was late, we’d go visit Vesper the next day. As I had suspected, Dineiro had grown quite close to the human slayer, so Kirril took advantage of the circumstances to drag him off, supposedly to rest.
Truth be told, it was Victor who had offered them a stay in his castle, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t tell how excited Kirril was to have Dineiro alone with him.
Igor departed to lead my friend and the slayer to their rooms, which left Victor and me alone once again. “Care to rest a bit, too?” the cat asked me. “Everything else can wait.”
I nodded. Why not? I would have preferred staying up a while longer to chat to Victor, but I had to admit I was tired. Besides, sleeping would make time pass a little faster, and while a part of me disliked that—after all, I could use these slumber-dedicated hours in far more lucrative ways—I looked forward to daylight. I wanted to see my mate’s real form, without the damn curse making him look like…well, like a pet.
“A little rest wouldn’t hurt,” I told him.
Just like before, I mounted him, in a completely platonic way, of course. He padded out of the laboratory and headed down the same corridor we’d come through. The castle seemed even larger than I’d originally thought, and as we entered a different wing, it struck me just how lonely Victor must have felt in this place. Even with Igor here, the building exuded an air of sadness and need that reached out to a part of me that I hadn’t even known existed.
We stopped in front of an imposing door that fortunately boasted the same feline-sized opening. Like before, we slid through the opening with me paying close attention so that I wouldn’t hit my head. Unsurprisingly, we ended up in a large, lavish bedroom. The huge four-poster looked like it could accommodate my entire village and still have enough space for Victor to sleep in. In that moment, I truly acknowledged the problem that my size would bring for us. Victor might have been a cat now, but his current body was likely far less intimidating that his human one would be.
Obviously, my mate guessed at least some of my thoughts. “Don’t worry about anything right now. Things will look better in the morning.” He pounced on the bed and dropped me on a fluffy pillow. “They always do.”
I relaxed on the soft surface, feeling a bit overwhelmed. “How can you know that?”
“I don’t,” Victor replied, as always sounding unbearably reasonable. It seemed like his default state, something that really didn’t surprise me, given that he was a scientist. “But there’s always a solution, and we will find it as long as we look for it hard enough.”
“You’re optimistic,” I randomly commented. “Wouldn’t it be more sensible to accept that things don’t always go our way?”
“Oh, they don’t,” Victor agreed. He grabbed the quilt with his mouth and gently pulled it over me, shielding me from the chill. “But it’s up to us to deal with circumstances that are less than favorable. Now, sleep, lovely Larue. I’ll watch over you.”
I still had countless things to ask him, but as he curled on the pillow next to me, I decided they could all wait. Using him as a pillow, I closed my eyes and fell asleep to the sound of his purring.
* * * *
I’d never been too much of a sleeper. I was a scientist, and I disliked the idea of wasting time. However, I also acknowledged the necessity of rest, and under normal circumstances, I slumbered regularly. After all, I did turn into a feline every night, and what else could a cat do but sleep? Honestly, if this castle had mice, I’d leave it up to the gargoyles to catch them.
Right now, however, no matter how much I tried, sleep simply wouldn’t come. I had too much to think about, and far too many puzzles to solve.
Soon Larue’s breath evened out, and as he slept, his small hand enclosed around my tail. He was truly lovely, but also exceedingly small. I could crush him even in my feline form, let alone in my human one.
I needed to think. What was the problem here? Size. I’d studied it many times, as I found it very odd that a man of normal height, with quite a muscular body and a generous package—right, okay, I wasn’t very modest—could shift into a smallish, if somewhat overweight feline. The specifics of the shape-changing process had puzzled me, more so since no one in my family suffered from this problem. My father had never fully shifted, and in any case, by the time I had to worry about it, he’d long ago become a man and not a beast. My brother was also a feline, but unlike mine, his bulk was somewhat more reasonable after his transformation.
Larue’s friend, Vesper, could help. It seemed that he was a rabbit-shifter, and if he had a human form, which seemed likely, I could attempt to figure out the process. But that aside, the two separate issues I needed to deal with, the curse and Larue’s size, were far more complex. Exactly how did true love break the enchantment in the first place?
Time simply flew by as I mused over this. Sooner than I expected, I felt dawn approach. Because of my little problem, I could tell when the sun set and when it came up before it happened. I felt it in every inch of my body, from my claws to the tips of my whiskers.
With a great deal of regret, I slipped away from Larue, freeing my tail from his grip. Ever since moving to the castle, I had never shifted in someone else’s presence, and I didn’t want to accidentally hurt him.
I half expected him to keep slumbering, but instead, his eyes shot open and he fixed on me. “What’s the matter?”
“The sun is coming up,” I said as I leapt off the bed. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you.”
He scoffed dismissively, waving my apology off. “So here’s where I get to see what you really look like. I feel like on winter solstice morning.”
“You exchange gifts that day?” I asked. The conversation seemed a little surreal, taking into account the fact that I was on the verge of changing from feline to human.
Larue nodded. “It’s also the day pixies often declare their interest in a mate.”
I wanted to ask just how many of his kind had done that for him during the past celebration, but I didn’t get the chance. Outside, the sun came out from under the veil of darkness. As the first rays filtered through the curtains over my windows, I felt the change flow over me.
One would think that after all these years, I would be used to it. To a certain extent, it was true. However, every time without fail, I tended to overthink it. I didn’t know how it was with natural shifters, but I always asked myself how it was possible for me to be a house cat one moment and a man the next. It didn’t even hurt, for crying out loud. I blinked, and suddenly, I was standing tall in my room, naked and very, very human.
Larue just stared open-mouthed at me. “I hope you’re not disappointed,” I said with a dose of amusement, mixed with concern.
“Not at all,” my mate replied in a dazed tone. “I’m just a little worried about that.”
He was eyeing my groin, and I realized with dismay that, just like every morning, I had an erection. No wonder Larue looked dismayed. In its current state, the damn thing was as big as his whole body.
My face flaming, I cleared my throat. “Let me put something on, and we’ll talk after.”
I turned away from the bed and went to my wardrobe, where I retrieved the first items I could put my hands on. I wasn’t embarrassed that he had seen me naked, but I needed to avoid it in the future, until we figured out how to solve the size problem between us.
As I pulled my breeches on, Larue surprised me by flying to my side. “I’m sorry,” he said as he hovered
in front of the wardrobe. “I made you feel self-conscious. It wasn’t my intention.”
“That’s not it.” The real problem was that now that my animal form no longer represented a problem, Larue’s beauty had a very real effect on me, and I didn’t want to scare him. I could imagine, with far too much ease, nightmarish images such as him kicked into a coma by my enthusiastic dick leaping into action. It should have been funny, and to a certain extent it was, but when he glanced at me with those eager eyes, I knew I had to protect him, even from myself. “It’s just hard…in more than one way.”
He nodded, looking a little sad. “I would be big if I could,” he replied, his tiny shoulders slumping.
The last thing I wanted was to make him even more frustrated and upset. As gently as I could, I passed a finger over his cheek. Touching him without hurting him wasn’t exactly easy, but I had experience in dealing with delicate things due to my science background. “Hey, don’t do that. I’m convinced all things happen for a reason. Remember what I told you last night. We can make it work if we try hard enough.”
In response, Larue flew over to sit onto my shoulder. “You’re right, of course. So, what do we do now? Do we get to see Vesper?”
“Not just yet,” I answered. “It’s early morning still, and the veil between words remains thin. We’ll have to wait for a few hours at least. In the meantime, what do you say I show you some of my inventions and we try to figure out if we can make any use of them?”
“Good plan.” Larue leaned against my ear and hummed thoughtfully. “You know, it occurs to me that if you and I are going to be together, I’ll have to stop being a normal pixie.”
I froze, for the first time realizing that I’d just assumed it would happen without computing what he’d have to give up. I’d kind of taken it for granted that he would agree to it, which was rude and selfish, especially since we’d only met the night before. We’d barely even had time to get to know each other as humanoid beings and accept our bond at a normal level.
“I’d love to say something comforting now, but I’m horrible at that sort of thing,” I admitted.
He released a soft laugh that oddly reminded me of the tinkling of bells. “That’s all right. Honesty is refreshing. Besides, I suspect both of us will have plenty of time to get used to each other.”
Larue probably had a point, but I didn’t mind. Good things were worth waiting for, and for me, finding my mate was definitely a good thing. From this point on, I just had to believe that it would all work out.
Chapter Five:
In Which a Villain Strikes and a Pixie Panics
I was a realistic pixie. As such, a few hours after dawn, I had already reached several important conclusions. First of all, Victor might not have been a pixie, but other than that and our huge size issue—the emphasis being on huge—he was exactly what I’d ever wanted in a man. Smart almost to a ridiculous extent, funny, appreciative of my own dry sense of humor, and also impossibly handsome, he took everything in stride and didn’t brood over his fate like others would have done in his situation. He didn’t curl into a corner and cry because he turned into an animal at night. He faced the problem head-on, and didn’t let anything bring him down.
This was quite fortunate, because my second conclusion pointed out just how difficult it would be for us to find a way to truly be together. Naturally, I had no plans to leave Victor, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t grasp the truth. Victor was a brilliant inventor, but none of the things he had crafted so far could be used to make me human sized.
It was on this unfortunate note that we met up with Dineiro and Kirril once more. Both of them looked far more relaxed than the day before, and I immediately guessed what had happened. “Hi, Dini,” I immediately greeted him. “You look much better.”
“Hey,” Dini said, blushing slightly. “Must be because I feel great.”
“I’m happy to hear that,” my mate replied. “I’m always pleased when my guests enjoy themselves in my home.”
It was quite unfortunate, but the morning didn’t continue on the same happy note. It seemed that Kirril remained unsettled about his horse. To my shame, I hadn’t given much thought to Magda. I did like the mare, but I’d been too focused on my own problems to focus on her.
The strangest thing was that I hadn’t even thought to ask who exactly had kidnapped me the night before. I found out now, when Igor summoned two odd looking gargoyles. One of them wept all the time, while the other kept crying, his tears falling to the floor and turning to dust.
Igor arched an inquiring brow at them. “Prince Kirril wanted to know where his mare is.”
“Oh, she’s perfectly safe,” the crying gargoyle replied. “And what a sweet thing she is. We took her to Lord Stiltskin.”
Predictably, chaos exploded. I was quite shocked to be in the presence of the famous spirit hunters who now didn’t look so scary after all. Once more, I had countless questions for my mate, such as who exactly was this mage Lord Stiltskin and why he’d decided to steal Magda as a gift for his child.
By this point, though, we were wasting time with an unnecessary argument. In the end, my mate offered to guide Kirril and Dineiro to the Stiltskin lands, even if he did warn them that this quest would be very dangerous.
While Igor went with the two of them to provide them with a breakfast and supplies, Victor and I left the main house and headed outside. For the first time, I saw the courtyard of the palace. It was almost unnecessarily spacious, and it boasted the seemingly omnipresent enigmatic statues, some of which appeared to move at times. Still, it had a sort of odd charm, and I thought that with a little effort, the castle would probably make a nice home.
I shook myself and forced my thoughts back to the matter at hand. “So…Lord Stiltskin. How exactly do you know him anyway?”
“Actually, he’s one of the possible culprits for the curse on me and my family,” my mate replied as he readied two horses for us to use. “Well, as you can imagine, he didn’t actually cast the spell, but my research pointed out that there’s some connection between his magic and the one holding my enchantment together.”
I gaped at him, unable to believe my ears. “Are you serious? And we’re heading into his territory?”
“We don’t have much choice, Larue. Kirril cares deeply for Magda. We can’t allow him to lose her.”
He was right, of course, but I still hated having so many people I cared about rush headfirst into danger. Alas, no one listened to me, and as soon as Kirril and Dineiro showed up, we mounted our horses and rode out of the palace courtyard.
We passed by a large canyon with a broken bridge that according to my mate was the way to Count Vlad’s home. I wanted to see Vesper, but finding Magda was more urgent, so we kept going, until we reached a dark forest. Ironically, we were following the same Rainbow Brick Road which had brought us here in the first place. A part of me was reassured by it, but the other wanted to run back to the safety of Victor’s castle. It didn’t help that the path split into a crossroads in front of the forest.
The woods seemed torn out of one of my kind’s spookiest tales, and I felt immediately apprehensive about going inside. Unfortunately, we couldn’t abandon our quest now, and most importantly, we had to save Magda. I held onto this thought as we rode into the forest, praying to the Goddess for protection.
Sadly, my anxiety proved to be justified. We’d only just stepped into the forest when I felt a strange surge of magic sweep over the area. The horses reared, and the one Kirril and Dineiro were riding dropped them. Victor managed to control ours, although the jostling did propel me off his shoulder. I steadied myself midair just in time to see the ground open, swallowing my two friends.
It all happened so fast that I couldn’t do anything about it. In mere seconds, they were gone, as if they’d never been there. “Back!” my mate shouted. “Go back.”
I was too frozen to move, but he grabbed me and rode out of the forest. The gargoyles who’d come with us as guides flew
out after us, looking quite frightened as well. The woods seemed to close in on us, hostile and threatening, and it was only when we finally escaped it that the tension began to fade. Naturally, this meant very little for me, as my mind kept replaying the moment I’d seen Dineiro die.
“He’s gone,” I whispered brokenly. “My friend is gone.”
“No, he’s not,” Victor answered. “Stiltskin is many things, but he’s not a murderer. I know that for a fact. He’s probably just transported them someplace.”
I gazed at him, a spark of hope bursting into my heart. “You mean they could still be alive?”
“It’s likely,” the crying gargoyle said, “although we can’t possibly know where they are. Oh, this is a disaster.”
“We need to get a message to Vlad. He and his harem can help us with this.”
Just as my mate said this, the road flashed under our feet, well, under the horse’s hooves, since Victor was riding and the rest of us flying. Yet another flash of magic blinded me, and this time, I could not hope to escape it.
I almost thought we’d been swallowed by another one of Stiltskin’s spells, but that wasn’t the case. Instead, when my vision cleared, I found myself still in my mate’s hold and now in front of yet another castle. A tall man with loose black hair stood in front of the gates, glaring. “Really, Victor? Really? Can’t I get even a few hours of rest?”
Still in shock, I stared as a flock of females rushed out of the house. One of them was holding Vesper in a tight, almost choking grip. The gargoyles were smart enough to fly away and make their escape, but Victor and I were stuck. I had a brief moment to wonder at how things could go so wrong so quickly before we were engulfed in an avalanche of women and a cloud of strong, dizzying perfume. Goddess Almighty, help me!
Chapter Six:
In Which Victor is Frustrated
Present day
I was close, so very close. I could feel it, sizzling under my fingertips, the intensity of it making me breathless. Just a little more, and I would…
Pixie of Frankenstein [A Tail Like No Other: Book Two] (Siren Publishing Everlasting Classic ManLove) Page 3