Page 53 of Purrfectly Peculiar Pixie

“It comes in handy now and again.” Phlox grinned before laying his head back on my chest. There was no rise and fall, no breath to move my chest up and down.

“You are hungry. We should get up. It will be safe enough to leave by the time we are ready.” Phlox had food in his apartment on the second floor. Beyond the sports drink, I had little to offer my beloved. I should have planned better. Then again, the overriding thirst had made practical thinking nearly impossible.

“I’m okay for a little longer,” Phlox protested. “I’m good where we are.” As if to prove the point, he snuggled in deeper.

Blissful silence filled the air, but it was not a maintainable silence. Words needed to be spoken. They were words which should have been uttered before the sunrise.

“You’re thinking too hard, Leon.” Phlox tapped a finger against my temple. “I can practically hear the wheels in your brain cranking.”

“It is thanks to you that I am able to think again at all. The thirst was…all encompassing. It was becoming difficult to contemplate anything else.”

I got a whack on the chest for that comment. Phlox shook out his hand, lamenting his forgetful nature regarding the hardness of my body.

“You should have told me sooner. I can’t believe you placed your life in danger like that. Moron.” There was little heat or true anger. Fear was the overriding emotion haunting those crass words.

“I was unsure what your response would be.”

Phlox shot up, wings beating at warp speed. “You thought I’d let you die?”

“No,” I soothed. “I did not wish you to feel obligated. I could not fathom the idea of causing you harm—be that physical or emotional. I did not wish to place such a burden on you.”

Phlox’s wings slowed, a constant shimmer of dust falling around us and dissipating as it landed on the sheets. “And you thought I’d be okay with you dying? How is that logical? Did you not think that would hurt me worse?”

“I… As I said, practical thinking is difficult with the thirst riding you. Besides, I would not have died from lack of blood.”

“No?” One of Phlox’s eyebrows shot skyward. “What? You would have dwindled, fallen into a husked-out shell, barely alive and constantly in pain. You think that makes me feel better?”

When stated that way… “No.”

“Exactly. If this is the kind of nonsense you come up with when you’re hungry, then I’m definitely going to need to keep you fed.”

I stiffened, body going still. My reaction didn’t go unnoticed. Sitting and leaning against the wall, wings spread out, Phlox pulled the sheets closer, twisting the top blanket.

“It’s a lot to take in,” Phlox softly muttered. “I think I said that earlier this morning. It doesn’t seem as big and daunting as it did, but there’s a lot to work out. I’m not going to sit here and tell you I have all the answers, Leon. I don’t. I probably don’t even have half the answers. What I do know is that I can’t bear the idea of you suffering, especially when I can stop it. You told me I’m your beloved.” Phlox stared at me, eyes wide, pupils rimmed in brilliant yellow.

“You are,” I answered easily.

Phlox’s lips twisted. “And you’re positive?”

“I am.” I’d said this earlier in the morning but evidently it bore repeating. Maybe Phlox thought I’d changed my mind.

“But how do you know?” Phlox sounded more curious than upset.

“I cannot answer that. All I can say is that I am certain. I doubt Lucroy could explain it either. It was something he simply came to realize. I would wager my realization came quicker than Lucroy’s, but that could be because I understood the possibility more than Lucroy. When he met Peaches, it was widely thought pixie blood toxic to vampires.” I was grateful Lucroy found Peaches first and was strong enough to debunk the myth.

Phlox stared off into the distant room. “Pixies don’t really have beloved’s. Well, that’s not entirely true. Pixies bond, mostly with land or homes, but as you know, some bond with others. Phil’s an unusual home-and-hearth pixie in that he not only bonded with the house and land, but the occupants as well. Social pixies will sometimes bond with others, but it’s not common. Parsnip and Vander are more the exception than the rule.”

“And you are a nature pixie.” I wasn’t completely certain.

Phlox gave a slow nod. “I am. Although I’m not really that typical either.”

“Because of your shifter side?”

Phlox waved me off. “That too. But even without my Pallas’s cat, I wouldn’t be typical. My mom, Peroviskia, was a nature pixie. She had an affinity for the cold.” Phlox gave a wry grin. “It’s odd. Pixies love the heat, but not my mom and not me. I get it honestly from both sides.”

“Your mother has passed?” Pixies lived long lives and didn’t suffer illness like some other species. Given Phlox’s age, it seemed odd his mother was already gone.

Phlox’s eyes glowed and I realized they glistened with tears. The scent of salt water tickled my senses. “She was captured by an addicted ogre not long after I was born. The ogre placed her out in the heat thinking it would be a good environment for a pixie. For nearly any other, it would have been. Not my mother. She faded quickly. Too quickly to be rescued.”

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