Page 16 of Outside the Veil
“Things?”
“I saw a…an animal in the tub instead of you.”
Finn’s forehead crinkled. “You’re a hard man to be angry with, but this has gone from amusing to three hairs short of infuriating.”
He grasped Diego by the upper arms and stood, lifting him to eye level. Diego’s feet dangled above the floor. “All the time I’ve spent hiding what I am and when I finally come out in the open to someone, he refuses to believe me.”
“Please put me down,” Diego whispered. “I’ll hurt us both when I seize.”
“You will not fall into a fit. I would feel it. The lightning sparks in your head well beforehand.” Finn carried him down the hall, set him on the sofa and pressed him back against the cushions. “Be still now. Watch.”
Diego couldn’t have torn his eyes away if his life depended on it. Finn stood before him, arms spread, full erection jutting I-beam straight from the tops of his thighs.
God, he’s beautiful. Even with all his ribs showing.
A soft prickling ran up Diego’s arms like ants with static-electric feet. For an instant, Finn’s skin glowed a soft blue white, and then he melted, his long body collapsing in on itself. His hair shortened and spread into black fur over his skin. The otter stood where Finn should have been. Another melting and an ebony crane replaced the otter. The crane clacked its beak and shifted to cormorant. Wolf, bear and coal-black stallion followed in lightning succession.
Diego’s head throbbed. An odd whimper came from far away, though the vibration in his throat indicated he was the source.
The horse stamped a hoof, shook his mane and melted into a huge, longhaired tomcat, its bushy tail twitching like an aggravated train signal.
“Well, my hero?” The cat spoke quite clearly in Finn’s voice. “Are you convinced? Or do I shift to sea dragon?”
The gift of speech refused to return. Diego could only stare open-mouthed. The cat padded over and leaped onto the sofa beside Diego to rub up against him, purring. Then it sat up on its haunches and changed again, expanding until Finn sat there.
“Diego?”
He shook his head, gasped for air when he finally recalled how to breathe and buried his head in his hands. Hallucinations. Dreams. He’d been asleep since the day Mitch left. Finn was merely a product of his heartsick imagination. Usually his dreams weren’t so crisp and clear, though, and Tia Carmen had met him. Perhaps she was an illusion as well. It all was.
“And even the dreams are dreams,” he whispered as the couch lurched under him.
“Enough, enough,” Finn murmured and slid a hand under Diego’s chin to lift his head.
He stroked his fingers back through Diego’s close-cropped hair and closed the distance between them. The touch of his lips sent a hard jolt from Diego’s heart to his sac, so soft, so gentle and yet insistent, full of heated promise. For a moment, he yielded, his lips moving in answer, aching to surrender to the need he felt in both of them.
This is wrong. So wrong.
“Finn…” he whispered against those sensual lips, and managed to pull back. “Why did you do that?”
Finn’s eyes searched his face. “You needed me to. Didn’t you?”
“I don’t think… I mean, we don’t even know each other…”
“Diego.” Finn’s smile became uncertain. “You’ve given me shelter. Fed me. Slept with me in your arms. Can you still call us strangers?”
“But it’s not right…to…to take advantage of you. In your situation. In mine.”Damn.This was coming out all wrong. “I’ma huge mess. I’m no good for anyone. Especially not right now. I’d just be using you because I hurt like hell.”
“And this is wrong?”
“Yes! Damn it, yes, it’s wrong! I can’t just sleep with you because you’re convenient.”And you’re not even human.
Finn drew back, eyes burning. For a moment, Diego feared he would start a shouting match. Instead, he shook his head and stumbled off to his room.
Diego wrapped his arms hard around himself, waiting for the seizure that never came. If it was all a dream, he still had to live in it. As long as he existed here, he had to accept the peculiar rules and realities handed to him. He couldn’t even say why he resisted so stubbornly. Throughout his childhood, he had wished so fervently for some hint of magic in the world he’d thought his heart would break. Now the evidence stood before him, a being who defied the laws of conventional physics, and he did all he could to reject the miracle.
Not to mention hurt the miracle’s feelings.
His legs still trembled but he rose and found Finn kneeling at the window, arms on the sill. He’d pulled the pajama bottoms back on, darker stripes decorating the black cotton where his hair had dripped. Diego leaned in the doorway, searching for the right thing to say.
