Page 14 of Chosen Spirits (The Bartender Mage #4)

Rickert answered as soon as he knocked on the door, sliding it open wide and gesturing for him to enter. Tucker entered his friend's two-bedroom apartment, the monochromatic marble decor offset by vibrantly colored oil paintings.

"Make yourself at home!" Rickert said, though Tucker was already kicking off his shoes. "You want me to go ahead and order the pizzas?"

"Yes, please. I'm starving." Tucker padded barefoot across the polished granite flooring to put the beers in the adjoining kitchen fridge, nudging aside a stack of prepared protein-dense meals to make room for them. "Thin-crust meat lovers, for me!"

"Two of them, then, I'm on it."

Grabbing a couple of beers, he popped the caps off using the magnetic bottle opener that was on the fridge.

Licking the overflowing foam that started pouring down their necks, Tucker returned to the living room, settling himself on the center of the chaise sofa and putting Rickert's beer on the coffee table.

As he drank from his own bottle, he looked his gargoyle friend over while he tapped out the pizza order on his phone.

Rickert was currently in his stone form, his body made up of jet black obsidian set through with luminous veins, along with some recently added lustrous moonstone stripes that arced across his body like a tiger's.

He wore nothing more than a simple speedo, a white spandex number that hugged his package neatly.

"How's the wing?"

"Still feels fine." Rickert set his phone on an end table, then laid himself on the chaise, the better to accommodate his wings and tail.

"I got the go-ahead from the doctor today for flying, she said there's nothing wrong that she can find.

Bro, I was seriously worried I'd be out of commission for weeks, but Leif's potion did the trick. I owe the little man something nice. "

"A crushing hug and something sparkly would probably work." Tucker saw him nod, tapping the side of his head as if committing it to memory. "What about your burns? Did you want help again with the spackle poultice?"

"Nah, the worst of it has already regenerated.

Instead, I was given some medicated skin cream for my hide.

Are you okay with helping me with that?" Rickert looked at him slyly, doing a slow stretch of his arms above his head, grunting as he flexed his muscular chest. "You'd have to put your hands all over my body and really work the lotion in, dunno if that's something you'd be interested in doing. "

"I reckon I can suffer through it," Tucker drawled, putting his drink down. "Did you want to do it now, before dinner?"

"Yeah, no point in putting it off." Rickert looked around the room, regarding the sofa and the floor thoughtfully before shaking his head and swinging himself up to his feet in a flash of limbs. Grabbing his own beer, he led the way across the room. "My bed will have the most room, come on."

Tucker followed him into his bedroom, seeing him set his beer on a dresser before dipping into his master bathroom.

As he heard the sounds of several cabinets being opened and closed, he took a moment to check his hands and nails, but his post-work shower seemed to have done its job, eliminating any caked-in grime.

Rickert soon returned with a squeeze bottle and an oversized beach towel.

As his friend laid the towel over the bed's black comforter, Tucker took off his shirt and set it off to the side.

"Here," Rickert said, handing him the medicated cream. "Before I shift, though, check this out."

Putting his thumbs into the front of his speedo, he made sure he had Tucker's attention, then lowered them down abruptly, letting his cock spring free. Tucker burst out laughing.

"You didn't!"

"I did!" Rickert did a few hip thrusts, causing his blue moonstone cock to flop around, a vivid contrast against the black that made up the majority of his hide.

"Jamie convinced me not to do the nipples, saying it'd detract from my pec lines, but I finally metabolized enough gemstone to do this last change. What do you think?"

"I think it's a shame that it'll only really be visible when you're naked in your stone form," Tucker said, unable to look away from the veiny, shimmering member. "But I know of at least one gay club where you'd be a big hit beneath the UV lights."

"Yeah, you think so? I might force you to take me there." Rickert fingered his speedo, then eventually undid the clasp in the back. He let them fall to the ground, stepping out of them before beginning his metamorphosis.

Rickert's stone body slowly converted into flesh, and Tucker heard him hiss sharply as he did so. From head to tail-tip, his leathery red hide was mottled with inflamed patches where the acidic burns hadn't yet healed despite his regenerative abilities.

"Ouch," Tucker said. "I can see why you've been avoiding your flesh form."

"Yeah, but I can't finish healing unless I spend time in it.

" Rickert grabbed his beer off the dresser, gave it a swirl, then put it against his maw, chugging it in one go before tossing the bottle aside.

Rickert then climbed up onto his bed, laying himself down cautiously on the towel.

He spread his wings out to either side, where they hung limply.

"Hopefully the cream will help with that. "

Tucker hiked his kilt up above his knees, joining Rickert on the bed. He figured he'd best start at the top, so moved around Rickert's wing and set himself beside his friend's head. After double-checking that the cream was safe to apply barehanded, he started on the scalp.

"This is fine? Not painful?"

"Nah, bro, it feels nice and cool. Keep going."

Leaving his snout for later, Tucker proceeded to work his way down Rickert's body. The shoulders and hips especially seemed to have taken the brunt of it, so he made sure to handle those areas more thoroughly, keeping his nose open for any scent of discomfort .

"Hey, thanks for this. I mean it. There's a lot of areas I wouldn't have been able to reach on my own."

Tucker prodded Rickert between the wings, tapping him on his spine with his fingertips. "I know. You should stretch more."

"You always say that. I've been doing better!"

"You have. Maybe when you can touch your hands behind your back, I'll stop teasing you about it."

"Low blow, bro. Most guys don't have all this muscle in the way, and I'm a gargoyle. My back is built differently."

Tucker got off of the bed to move around to his other side, giving him a better vantage to medicate his other hip.

"I know, your shoulders are more forward than a human's, I'm taking that into account.

I'm saying it's a good goal to shoot for, and I'm confident you can reach it.

You really have made a lot of progress the last few months, and I'm proud of you. "

Rickert didn't respond, but he smelled pleased. Companionable silence descended as Tucker spent a number of minutes treating first one wing, then the other.

"You know, for next time, you could see if one of your dates could do this for you. I'm sure you could lay it on thick, asking them politely to help you out with your combat wounds, maybe offer a massage in return?"

"That's not a bad idea! But this doesn't seem like a first date kind of thing, and by the time I find someone else to do it for me, I think this'll all be healed. Guess I just gotta settle for the hands of my best bro!"

Tucker wiggled his shoulders, trying not to sound too pleased. "Whenever you need them, they're yours. So nobody since Kayla, I take it? Sorry, pardner."

"We had a great time while it lasted, but no way was I gonna gripe about her moving, not when she got accepted into her dream graduate program. All I can say is, good for her. Yeah, it's total ass, but that's the way it goes sometimes."

"Speaking of asses, you've got some burns on yours."

Rickert lifted his head, giving him a self-satisfied grin. "Go on, bro, I don't mind. I know you've been hoping you'd get to play with my cheeks."

"If you didn't have these burns…"

"Burns or no burns, bro, you'd jump at the chance if I offered. I know you're hard-up for me, it's okay." Rickert laid his head back down, then used his tail to prod at Tucker's front, where his cloth kilt was prominently lifted. "Yeah, I thought so. Are you going commando?"

Tucker swallowed, then started putting the lotion on his friend's rounded buttocks. He kept it strictly to where there was inflammation, which was mostly around the outer edges. Free reign or not, Tucker wasn't about to take advantage of their friendship.

"It's more comfortable this way, at least as long as I'm not running and flopping around, and it's one less piece of clothing to discard while shifting.

I'm thinking about trading in my boots for some quick-remove sandals, but on the other hand, I like not worrying about twisting my ankle on loose rocks. "

"I'd stick with the boots. And hey, while you're back there, how's my ass, huh? From a gay man's perspective."

"A gay man, huh?" Gladly giving in to temptation, he hefted both cheeks, taking a tantalizing peek as he parted them that had his hard cock throbbing. "You do have a nice ass, especially with your tail as an added factor. It's more slim than I personally prefer—"

"Oh, yeah, I've heard you say you like 'em thicker, huh? I think we have that in common." Rickert started flicking his tail around.

"—but it's still top notch. You don't skip out on your glutes, and your hard work is obvious. Oh, wait. Damn, Rickert, your tail . I didn't notice it before, since the top side is fine, but the entire underside…"

"Yeah, I had to use it for leverage to escape the fish's mouth."

"I'll get it next. Put your legs together."