Page 45 of Blade

Magic was so weird.

This time was a lot less dramatic, though. I could feel the pressure building again and I closed my eyes just in case that flash of light came back, but it was different this time. One moment he was pretty murder kitty and the next the weight was different, so I opened my eyes.

He was a man.

On my lap.

“You really are hot. I’m glad I don’t have to lie to you about that.”

I just needed to stop talking completely.

But the man on my lap grinned as he slowly sat up, thankfully remembering the purpose of the blanket and not flashing anyone. Me included. I wasn’t sure how he saw being naked and I was going to be careful of him until we’d gone over some basic shifter limits.

“Um, hi.”

Was he in there?

It’d suck to lose his brains in this body.

If murder kitty was the only one who could think, which one would I want to live with most of the time? Could I live with a hot Ken doll with a dick? Hopefully he had one under the blanket. He’d have already panicked if it’d gotten lost, right?

“I’m not going to ask what you’re thinking, my mate.” Based on his low chuckle, my eyes had probably gone cartoon-sized. But murder kitty was a human now and could talk…deep voice and soft Southern drawl just like we were in a movie. “It would probably be inappropriate.”

“Um, yeah.” No point in lying since he wouldn’t believe me anyway. “You’re a real person. That’s so weird.”

Before I could decide if I should apologize or not, he looked around. “This feels…oddly anticlimactic.”

“This is just the start of the crazy.” We still had a lot to figure out. “Don’t jinx us.”

Did I need to explain that?

“What—”

“May we turn around?” Serena’s question stopped my stupid rambling.

“Um.” I waited until Blaine sat up and wrapped the blanket tighter around his body. “Yes. Do you have any clothes for him? I’m not sure I really thought this would work because I didn’t think to bring any for him.”

Not that mine would fit.

He was broad…and thankfully not as hairless as a Ken doll because he had a light dusting over his chest that trailed down to where it was covered by the blanket.

As the coven turned around, they all let out a breath and several of them looked unsteady, like they were just as shocked as Blaine was. I probably couldn’t blame them. It had to be weird waiting for something for so long and then having it be over so quickly.

“It worked.” Serena shook her head like she couldn’t believe it as one young guy ran toward the house. Hopefully for clothes for Blaine. “I…I’ve been planning this moment for as long as I can remember but it’s…”

Oh yeah.

Taking another breath, she tried again. “My family is more sorry than you will ever know that we let this happen to you.”

Blaine swallowed, hiding how much emotion he had to be feeling behind a pleasant but mostly blank expression. “Even I didn’t realize how her mental health was struggling.”

Yay, nothing offensive.

“Looking back, to me we barely knew each other and ran in completely different circles.” Rising slowly, he secured the blanket before reaching to take my hand to help me up. “My mate has explained that being gay no longer holds the same stigma in most places, but I’ve always known my mate would be a man.”

I wasn’t sure if that would’ve been good to know back then or scary.

No…I knew…scary.