Page 18

The pegasus fluttered its wings, preening, showing itself off in the sunlight.

Yes! Of course! it whinnied, though to Chloe, of course, it would have just sounded like a regular whinny. She still seemed to understand, however, laughing a little nervously as she crossed the deck.

“I’ve never really dealt with exotic animals before,” she said. “Well… an iguana one time. And a cockatoo. Someone brought in an ant-eater once! But never a pegasus.”

She reached out a hand, stroking it over the silvery-white hair on Ethan’s flank. A little fizzle of warmth ran through him at the contact. Her fingers gained confidence, stroking a little higher, until they reached the place where his wings sprouted from above his shoulder.

“Wow, so it just goes from hair to feathers here,” she murmured, seeming entranced.

“It’s seamless. The musculature must be completely different from a regular horse, of course…

but this is amazing! I’ve never seen anything like it before.

” She laughed again. “Well, obviously! Can you really fly with these?”

The pegasus let out an indignant snort. Of course we can!

“Okay, stupid question I guess,” Chloe laughed. “They’re definitely the hugest wings I’ve ever seen!”

Buoyed by her compliment – or what it took as a compliment – the pegasus swept them upward, showing off its full wingspan, allowing the sunlight to play through their pure white pinion feathers.

“Okay, okay!” Chloe giggled as she gazed up at them – Ethan’s heart soared as he realized that maybe she really was impressed by the pegasus’s showing off. “You’re magnificent! I admit it! I was totally wrong! I guess witches and ghosts and pegasi really are real after all.”

Chloe’s giddy laughter echoed around the garden, and Ethan would have done the same if he could have.

She believes us. Our mate believes us.

“How did you become a pegasus? How does the universe not collapse in on itself when you do that? Do you have magical powers? Are there others like you?” Chloe continued to shoot off rapid-fire questions, before catching herself.

“I mean. Um. You can’t talk right now – can you?

– and also you don’t have to answer everything if you don’t want to.

” She cleared her throat. “You can turn back at will, right? I didn’t just doom you to be a pegasus for a set amount of time? ”

Doomed?! I think you mean blessed! his pegasus screeched, but Ethan just gave it a mental slap upside the head and shifted back to his human form.

Chloe shook her head in amazement. “I don’t think I’m going to get sick of seeing that anytime soon. Oh, wow.” She reached out and touched his shoulder gently, the way she had touched the pegasus, as if to reassure herself that he was real in this form as well. He repressed a shiver.

She dropped her hand suddenly, as if thinking that it was inappropriate, and he wished more than anything that she would put it back.

As relieved as he was that she’d believed him and taken the news surprisingly well, he hoped that this wouldn’t make things strange for her.

It was a lot for her to take in, he knew.

“I can answer your questions now, if you’d like,” he said awkwardly, as Chloe nodded enthusiastically.

“Well, I’ve always been a pegasus. My parents are both pegasi, my brothers are pegasi, my grandparents…

well, you get the picture. I think there may have been a dragon in there a few generations back, but we don’t talk about that. ”

We certainly do not! his pegasus huffed, while Chloe’s eyes widened.

“Dragon…?” she murmured, before shaking her head. “Sure, why the hell not?”

“As far as the universe not collapsing in on itself goes… well, magic, I guess,” he said helplessly.

“I can’t really explain it. It just is .

And it’s not really something that shifters tend to advertise to the wider community, especially as far as opening it up to scientific research goes. Way too many things could go wrong.”

“Fair enough,” Chloe said. A thoughtful look came across her face. “You called yourself a shifter?”

Ethan nodded. “There’s all kinds of us. Pegasi, dragons, manticores, hellhounds – the list goes on. And that’s just the mythical kinds. There are plenty of shifters who turn into the kinds of animals you’d see at your vet clinic, or even things like spiders and insects.”

“That’s pretty cool,” Chloe said musingly. “Though I hope none of them ever seek out my services without me knowing that they’re a shifter first. I don’t even want to think about the legal or ethical issues that could come up.”

Ethan laughed. “Well, yes. Believe me, there’s a lot of discussion about this in the shifter community. Though I have to say, being a pegasus, it hasn’t been a problem for me – we’re not likely to accidentally end up at the vet’s office.”

“Uh, yeah, I guess no one’s gonna mistake you for a little lost stray and bring you in,” Chloe laughed. “But maybe I should start asking more questions before I use a thermometer in future…”

Ethan laughed – he couldn’t help himself at the sight of the grimace that crossed Chloe’s face.

He thought back through her questions. “We do have what you could call ‘magical powers’, I guess. It differs between shifter types, but pegasi have, well, I guess you could call them water-related powers – they can create storms, or bring water up from the earth.”

The last words came out a bit awkwardly – the pegasi in his family tended to be disconnected from their powers somewhat, being so integrated into the human world.

It was considered almost gauche to acknowledge anything that was mystical or interesting or different about pegasi, unless it could be used to make money – he was pretty sure his father was embarrassed by the idea of having magic powers.

Ethan had learned how to use his powers as a child just so he couldn’t accidentally cause any problems with them, but that was pretty much it.

Not that it was a good idea to mess about with the water content of the atmosphere too much, but he knew that deep down, his pegasus yearned to summon the forces of nature and bask in their glory.

As awkward as Ethan felt about his powers, however, Chloe didn’t seem to feel the same way – if anything, she looked impressed.

“You just get cooler and cooler,” she said. “While we’re at it, is there anything else you want to tell me? Is that whole thing where your skin feels like it’s electric because you’re a – a shifter?”

The mate bond. Now’s the perfect time to tell her.

He noticed, suddenly, that Chloe had been moving closer and closer to him throughout the conversation, and that she was now so close that they were almost touching. She looked up at him earnestly, leaning in toward him, lips slightly parted.

Amongst the gently drifting autumnal leaves, haloed by the setting sun as it dipped into the evening mist, she looked like nothing so much as an angel, ethereal and beautiful.

My angel. My mate.

Chloe rose up on her tiptoes, eyes closing, her hand reaching up to rest against his shoulder, and Ethan leaned in helplessly, drawn to her like a moth to a flame.

One kiss. Then I’ll tell her.

He closed his eyes, feeling the whisper of her breath against his face –

~Miss Chloe! Mr. Roan! There you are!~

Ethan leapt backward, his eyelids slamming open, his heart hammering against his sternum. Inside his head, his pegasus wailed and gnashed its teeth.

Chloe appeared to be undergoing a similar experience, if the hand placed over her heaving chest and the gasped-out Crap! were anything to go by.

“Curtis!” she exclaimed, still breathing heavily. “You scared me half to death!”

~I am terribly sorry,~ he said apologetically, standing on the spot on the deck where he’d apparently just magically appeared out of nowhere – just like ghosts tended to do, Ethan guessed. And always at the worst possible time. ~I didn’t mean to frighten anyone.~

Chloe turned to Ethan. “Does he just do that?”

He nodded. “Yeah. Sorry, I should’ve warned you.”

“No, no, it’s okay.” She turned back to Curtis, clearly struggling to keep the frustration from her face – had she been wanting to kiss him just as badly as Ethan had been wanting to kiss her, when they were unwittingly interrupted?

“What’s up, Curtis? Did you find anything useful? Do you know why you’re here?”

Curtis wrung his spectral hands together. ~I’m afraid not, Miss Chloe. Miss Margot did find some old maps, and it was all very interesting to see how things had changed, but I’m afraid that we are no closer to working out why I am here.~

He went on, ~Though we did at least solve one mystery.

Miss Chloe, it seems your business is on the land where I used to live, but my old house was knocked down many years ago and replaced with a new one.

I can only guess that that is why I was drawn to that place, but I fear the information will not help us further. ~

“My clinic is where your house used to be?” said Chloe thoughtfully. “That explains a lot. I’m sorry your house is gone, Curtis.”

~It’s not your fault,~ Curtis said. ~It happened long before you were born. Think no more upon it.~

His downcast expression changed to one of mild annoyance.

~After we looked at the maps, Miss Margot put on her moving picture box and showed me some pictures called ‘Survivor’, but I do not believe that any of those people would have actually survived in the wilderness.

I don’t understand why anyone would watch such things.

Are people in this time so bored that they must seek out unnecessary dangers? ~

“Well, I’m sorry that you didn’t get the answers you were looking for,” Ethan said honestly, as his heart more or less resumed its regular rhythm after Curtis’s surprise entrance.

He wasn’t quite sure how to respond to Curtis’s discovery of reality TV, and decided to just let it pass without comment.

“It feels a bit like we’re back at square one. ”

“I’m sorry too, Curtis,” Chloe said. “I was really hoping that this would be the breakthrough you were looking for.”

~Yes, I as well,~ Curtis said forlornly, and Ethan couldn’t help but feel sorry for him, despite all the trouble he’d caused. He really did look miserable.

Chloe shivered suddenly, and Ethan realized that the sun was just starting to sink below the horizon. He opened up his mouth, ready to suggest that they move inside and start up the fireplace, but Chloe spoke first.

“You know what, I think maybe we should call it a day,” Chloe said, though Ethan could hear the regret in her voice. “It’s been a really long and, uh, really eventful day, and I think maybe we should all just get some sleep so that we can approach this with fresh minds in the morning.”

Before Ethan could respond, she went on, “And… I’m going to head home now – I was supposed to spend today getting things ready so I can actually open the clinic on Monday. They still need doing, and then I… I think I’m going to have a shower and crash.”

As she spoke she pulled out her phone and brought up her Contacts list, then handed the phone over to Ethan. “If you give me your number, I’ll call you in the morning and we can work out what we’re going to do next.”

Ethan quickly typed in his number and then handed the phone back to her, even as his pegasus screamed at him to convince her to stay.

Quiet. I’d love for her to stay the night as well, but she obviously needs some space, and it has been a pretty insane day for her. Let her rest in her own home. We don’t want her to regret anything in the morning.

When the pegasus still seemed inclined to argue, he added pointedly, Do you really want her to spend the night while Curtis is still hanging around, watching YouTube videos and appearing at the least opportune moments?

The pegasus harrumphed, but gave in.

“Thanks,” Chloe said. She fiddled with the phone, and a moment later his phone buzzed. A text saying Chloe popped up, and he felt heartened to know that she trusted him with her number.

“Would you like a ride back into town?” he asked, and Chloe nodded gratefully.

“Thanks,” she said. “I really appreciate it. See you tomorrow, Curtis – I hope you have a good evening.”

~Good night, Miss Chloe,~ Curtis said with a wave. ~Sweet dreams.~

“Thanks, Curtis,” she said with a smile. “Sorry that I didn’t believe in you at first.”

~Think on it no further. I would have done the same.~

A huge yawn split Chloe’s face in two. “Oh my God. Okay, I need to get going.”

The two of them walked back to Ethan’s car, Chloe almost asleep on her feet; when they got there, she practically collapsed into her seat, eyes sliding closed. A moment later, and the smallest, most adorable of snores slipped from between her perfect pink lips. It really had been a long day.

Ethan buckled her in and closed the passenger door gently, then slid into the driver’s seat and began the drive back into town.