Page 5 of Pointy Ears and Purple Glitter
“Cluster Way.” Malik checked the piece of paper again. “It’s not Cloister, it’s Cluster. That must’ve been what the taxi driver assumed. And yes, there is a street called that down this way, but it’s full of warehouses, not houses, and most of those warehouses are abandoned and boarded up.”
“A bit like this place.” Tynan shivered, and as much as Malik wanted to keep talking to the intriguing man a bit longer, he knew that wasn’t fair.
“There are more businesses here than you might think in the light of day,” he said gently. “But look, town is just down that way. Five blocks. I can…” He glanced down at his bare chest and feet. “I was going to offer to escort you, but I’ll stand here and watch until you get to a better lit area – make sure you’re not followed again. You should find a cab once you hit the business district. Have you still got your wallet?”
Tynan tapped over his coat and eventually pulled out a coin purse. “Yes. Phew.” He reached into his other pocket and pulled out a phone. “That’s good. Right then.” He stuffed the items back into his pockets and then held out his hand. “Thank you. Honestly. I truly appreciate it, thank you for saving me.”
Paranormals rarely shook hands, but Malik knew it would be rude to refuse. Stepping closer, he slid his palm against Tynan’s, his breath hitching as their skin touched. His cock filled, and his rhino rumbled in pleasure. “You… You are…” he murmured when suddenly the air between them was filled with purple glitter. “What the…?”
“Oh, my goodness, I’m so sorry. Now you can see why my ears are still showing. I can’t even thank you without messing things up.” Before Malik had a chance to react, Tynan had dropped his hand, whirled around, and was running toward the lights of town. The raven, Sparky, clearly didn’t expect Tynan to move that quickly and took to the air, circling for a moment before flying alongside him.
Go after him!
But Malik stood his ground and shook his head.We can’t. Not yet. He’s…struggling. We…we have to trust he’ll hunt us out once he realizes what’s going on.
What if he doesn’t? We can’t lose him!
We won’t. If he truly doesn’t understand the connection, then I’ll… Then I’ll be doing a search for private investigators online. We’ll find him.
In the meantime, Malik kept his promise. Horny, chilly, his bare chest covered in specks of purple glitter, he stood and watched as his mate ran five blocks, finally disappearing into the relative safety of the business district lights.
Chapter Four
“I don’t understand what’s happening to me.” It was the next morning, and Tynan was frantically trying to clean up purple glitter from the kitchen counter. “I’m not even trying to use magic, and this stuff keeps appearing out of nowhere. This is worse than last night.”
“Don’t get that stuff on the fruitcake.” Sparky hopped across the counter, using his beak to slide the slice of cake Tynan had already cut for him away from the disaster area. “Glitter’s not good for birds.”
“It’s not good for me, either.” Giving up, Tynan leaned his elbows on the counter and rubbed his hands over his face. “I don’t understand. What’s going on? I’ve had barely any sleep…”
“Too busy dreaming about that hulky hero?” Sparky pecked at his cake. “He’s definitely worth dreaming about. Did you see those muscles? The way he manhandled those thugs?”
“No.” Tynan groaned. “All right, yes. But see, that goes to prove there’s something wrong with me. Every time I closed my eyes, all I could see was him.” He straightened and started pacing. “I’d finally drop off to sleep, because you know I walked a lot of miles last night, and then he’d be there, looming over me in my dreams and I…I…” No. There were some things that his raven friend didn’t need to know. “It was very disconcerting.”
“It was probably because he was a shifter. You don’t come across many of them in your day-to-day.” Sparky sounded very certain.
“I’ve come across them before. I’m sure I have. This purple rubbish never happened then. Oh, my goodness. Do you think me being on the Earth realm is infecting me somehow? Am I just going to fall to pieces every time I come across a shifter now?”Tynan was horrified. “I could never go out. I wouldn’t be able to work. I’d… I’d… Oh, my gods, this is terrible.”
“I’m pretty sure it’s not every shifter.” Sparky was wrestling with a cherry, getting it stuck on his beak, and then opening his beak so the piece fell in two on the counter. “Score.” He quickly ate them both, fluttering his wings. “Hmm, I love this stuff.”
“Excuse me. I thought we were talking about my problems. I can watch you eat fruitcake any day of the week.”
“Seriously, you need to find a friend with two legs.” Sparky smoothed down the feathers on one of his wings with his beak. Or he might have been cleaning his beak from cherry debris.
“Youhave two legs.”
“Meh, fine. A friend without wings. Someone like…your drool-worthy hero from last night, for example. Seriously, why weren’t you drooling over him? Did you see that chest?”
“I couldn’t miss it. He forgot his shirt.”
“He was rushing out to save you. You should’ve been drooling and offering to lay his eggs.”
“I’ve not had nearly enough coffee to deal with your nonsense this morning.” Tynan tentatively reached for his mug, checking inside for purple bits. Not that he thought his own magical glitter was going to do him any harm. Coffee safely poured, he peered at his companion.
“I don’t lay eggs, neither do most shifters.” He considered that statement for a moment. “Okay, maybe bird shifters do. I have no idea. Why would I go and talk to the shifter from last night?”
Sparky tilted his head, ruffling his feathers. “How old are you?”
“What’s that got to do with anything? Seriously, what?”
