Page 44 of Blade
“From what I’ve researched and what Serena said, intent is everything.” Barely whispering as the group formed around us, Henley kept his gaze on mine. “We’re both just going to think about you being in your regular form again. That’s what matters.”
No.
Lifting my head, I licked his cheek again and grumbled low until he sighed. “Fine. I get your point.”
My form and our bond.
Those were the only things that mattered and the only things I kept in my mind as the coven started to chant and the magic started to grow.
CHAPTER 15
HENLEY
The words weremeaningless to me because they clearly weren’t English or any of the random foreign languages I’d tried to learn over the years, but I could feel it doing something as the pressure built behind my ears.
As the bubble of what I assumed to be magic pressed down on us, Blaine whined softly. I couldn’t tell if it was nerves or pain, but I stroked his head and started whispering as softly as I could. “Not much longer, murder kitty.”
His quiet chuffing laugh made me smile. “Yeah, murder kitties survive anything. You’re badass and are probably going to be a pain in the butt once you can talk.”
He was going to have so many questions.
“But we’ll be able to go out to eat like you promised me and to have a real date that doesn’t start and end at my kitchen table.” Or the bed but that sounded inappropriate based on his current form…and I didn’t want to give the coven the wrong impression. “You’ll be able to tell me about your favorite parts of the Superman show.”
And ask questions about how that franchise had been tortured.
“We’ll make a road trip to go find comic book stores.” And possibly hide from the people here if it all got fucked up somehow.
The pressure continued to build and it was almost like a pillow being pressed down on us. The words came faster, and if we’d been living in a movie, lights would’ve been whirling around us.
I’d have preferred a movie so I could see what they were doing better but just feeling the magic was probably more than I should’ve expected. That didn’t mean I wasn’t greedy, though. I was also nosy and didn’t like the helpless feeling that raced through me as Blaine started to twitch and whine.
I could feel the pulse of something flowing through him, but all I could do was hold him and wait as the pressure got to the point where I wanted to fight against it too. Just as it was almost too much and I had to fight the urge to drag him out of the circle, a flash of light filled the yard that whited out the world.
When my vision started to clear, I realized the chanting voices around us were silent. It took me too long to realize that the fur under my hands was softer than it had been. Blinking a few times, I sucked in a breath as the curious parts that’d been put together haphazardly to form my mate had turned into a beautiful large cat with fur so black it was almost blue.
“Okay, I’ll give you the point on being prettier in this form.”
Oh.
“Um, welcome back?”
I really wasn’t good at the whole mate thing.
Thankfully my still not-human-looking mate chuffed and rolled over on me so he could lick me again. “Not appropriate for the moment.”
Good grief.
A few snickers around us reminded me that we had an audience but before I could figure out what I was supposed tosay that wasn’t ridiculous, Serena came over with a blanket in her hands. “I’d like to see if he can shift.”
Oh.
Yeah.
“The human-looking form. Yeah.” That was important too. “Um. Thank you.”
Taking the blanket from her, I realized the whole naked shifting thing and twirled a finger around. “I don’t think you guys can help this part, so…”
It only took a few more giggles to have the coven turning their backs on us while I draped the blanket over where I thought Blaine’s lower half would be. I probably shouldn’t see him naked either…at least not until after our first date, so I focused on his face as he closed his eyes.
