by Selena Kitt
“What do you mean, crazy or weird?”
“You know… crazy, cuckoo, loony, the ones they lock up in little padded rooms…” Alex gives me a look. “Or the weird ones, like people who can see the future, psychics, that sort… and only the real ones, not the fakes.”
Now it makes sense!
Maya mentioned him being a psychic. Zeph must be one of the real ones.
“Why do you ask?” Alex nudges me, and I glance down at the woman who is pulling a different card out of her wallet and handing it to the cashier.
“Someone saw me.” I bite my lip at the memory. I can still feel the kind of heated tingle that went through me in that moment. I’ve watched humans throughout my whole existence…what makes this one so different? I can only imagine it’s the fact he can see me. “A man… he seemed to know what I was, what we do.”
“Ha, serves you right!” Alex puts chin in hand and leans an elbow on a knee.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I glower.
“Not you…” Alex points to the woman at the counter. “Her.”
Watching, I see her hand over yet another little plastic card to the cashier. Her face is flushed, eyes wide, confused, even a little scared.
“Karma, baby.” Alex grins, head shaking. “Ain’t it a bitch?”
“That’s not possible! I have ten thousand dollars on this card!” The woman’s voice grows louder, panicked.
“Did you do that?” I watch as the woman slings her purse over her shoulder and walks stiffly out of the store.
“Nope, that wasn’t me.” Alex flies off and I follow. We’re going after her. She’s got a cell phone in her hand now, and she’s talking frantically to someone. “So what about this guy who saw you? Did he do anything? Say anything?”
“He… put me in his pocket.” I shrug but I feel the heat of the moment again with the memory.
“Was he going to try to keep you?” Alex’s eyes widen.
“I don’t know.” We’re almost to the woman’s car now. It’s snowing pretty hard and I have to keep my wings moving to keep them from getting wet. “But he didn’t. I guess he just wanted to talk to me?”
“He talked to you?” Alex makes a beeline for the BMW as soon as the woman opens her door. I follow, sitting on the dash.
“He thanked me…”
I can still see Zeph’s face, the way he cocked his head and smiled when he looked at me. How it made me feel. Fairies have feelings, but they’re not as extreme as human feelings. At least, from what I’ve seen of human reactions, that’s my guess. But the way Zeph looked at me, it gave me that same feeling I got while watching humans copulate. But why should that be? What was so special about him?
I mean, aside from the fact he’s the first human I’ve ever met who could see me.
Is that it? Is it being seen that has me so flustered and riled? Or is it something else? I’d been surprised by him, but it’s more than that. It’s more than just having my usual invisibility stripped away. It’s something about him. Maybe it was the way he’d said, “I wanted you,” when I asked him why he put me in his pocket.
“James! It’s me!” The woman is crying, and it’s the first time I really notice. She’s got the phone crooked as she starts the car. “He’s cancelled my credit cards, and I just called the bank—there’s nothing in my account! Nothing! Call me. Please. As soon as you get this message.”
“Did you do that?” I ask Alex, grabbing on to the edge of the dash as the woman backs quickly out of the parking space.
“Wasn’t me.” Alex shrugs. “So what did this guy thank you for?”
I explain what happened the other night, my assignment and its impact on Zeph and his friend, Maya. Alex listens, nodding, and then grins at me.
“You’ve got a crush.”
“Shut up.” I snort, rolling my eyes. “I do not.”
“Hang on.” Alex closes his eyes. The woman has stopped her car at the side of the road and she’s got her head resting on her steering wheel, her eyes closed, too. Suddenly, her head comes up, and she pulls out into traffic in a hurry. “Now, that was me.”
“Where are we going?”
“Doesn’t matter. Listen, I’ve got an idea.” Alex leans in toward me, eyes bright, almost mischievous—Alex’s ideas are never a good thing. The last one got us both in big trouble with The Maker, and I spent two months aligning the fate of earthworms.
“Never mind!” I grip the dashboard again as the woman makes a sharp right, the tires squealing on the wet pavement. “Pretend I didn’t say anything.”
“Christmas is next week,” Alex reminds me. “You get one request.”
I frown, crossing my arms and looking out the window. Every year, on what humans call Christmas Eve, we’re allowed to ask one thing of The Maker for ourselves. Fairies don’t need much. We usually ask for some time off, since we don’t get any breaks the rest of the year, aside from the revival. I’ve never really asked for anything personal before.
“What are you suggesting?”
The woman pulls her car up to an enormous gate and rolls down her window to punch in some numbers on a keypad. The gate swings slowly open and she noses the BMW’s hood forward until the car is clear and she can speed up again along the asphalt drive.
“You know you want to.” Alex grins. “I’ve seen the way you watch them. Think about it. One night as a human. You said you wanted to be a girl… so you’re a girl, he’s a guy…”
Jaw dropped, I feel a slow, heated tingle at the thought—I can’t say it hasn’t occurred to me, that I haven’t thought about it, even fantasized a little. Meeting Zeph has upended my whole world. I’ve even considered putting in a requisition to speak with The Maker directly—our communication is normally one-way—so I can ask about this strange phenomenon of humans being able to see the fey.
And I want to know more about Zeph. About his life, about his fate. But I haven’t been given any assignments related to him, aside from Maya, and I haven’t had a chance to go back and find him. If I do what Alex suggests, if I ask to be human for a day, I can look him up. I can visit him, in human form. We can…
No. I shake my head, as if to dispel the thought entirely. It’s a silly notion. I can’t ask The Maker for something so… so…
Anyway, that sort of request is hardly ever granted. Only under special circumstances. There are forms to fill out in triplicate. Approvals are long and arduous. It’s a hassle—and a longshot. It’ll never happen.
The woman gets out of the car, and Alex follows. I barely make it out before she swings the door shut. The house… yikes! This isn’t a house, it’s a palace! Who lives here? I wonder. Is this her house? Must be—she’s taking out a key to open the door.
“James?” The woman’s voice trembles slightly as she glances around the foyer. The ceiling is high, an enormous chandelier hanging there. Alex flies up and perches on one of the arms, watching. It’s a good vantage point, I think, as I settle in to watch, too.
“Karen!” Ah, here he is, the guy from the men’s room the other day—her lover, not her husband. “What are you doing here?”
She’s crying, reaching for him, clinging to his shirt. He frowns over her head, patting her back as she sobs. “I left you a message… he’s taken everything… he’s going to divorce me…”
“You play, you pay.” Alex sighs, swinging his legs and leaning forward.
Not always, I think, frowning. Fate is often cruel and seems to make no sense at all. Even when we fairies get a bigger picture, it usually isn’t big enough. Someone always seems to be on the bottom, when someone else is on top, like some big wheel of fortune that just keeps spinning.
Speaking of top and bottom, the woman kisses him, her hand rubbing between his legs. He says something, but I can’t hear him. I think he’s trying to tell her ‘no,’ but she isn’t listening. Instead, she sinks to the floor, unzipping his pants and taking out his cock. It’s only half the size it was the other day, I notice, but when she puts it
into her mouth, it grows.
She puts her hand up under her skirt, and I know she’s rubbing herself. It makes me remember watching the woman in the tub, and then being seen by her friend…
Zeph.
Why am I so fascinated by this part of being human? I wonder. Alex is as bored as ever, waiting for it to be over, but me, I’m on the edge of my seat, feeling warm and flushed as I watch them fumble their way over to the huge spiral staircase.
“Karen, please… We—” The man can’t speak because she kisses him, pushing him back onto the stairs, kneeling between his legs again to take him into her mouth. The look on his face is pure bliss, and I can tell he’s given in. His hands work on her blouse, pulling it out of her skirt so he can unhook her bra and free her breasts.
She moans around his cock as he fingers her nipples, sucking him faster, making wet, sloppy noises. The harder she sucks him, the more he kneads her flesh in his hands, and this makes her even more eager. It’s like some upward spiral and watching makes me dizzy.
“Lick me,” she purrs, pulling her skirt up and putting a high heel on either side of him on the stairs.
He’s rubbing her pussy through her panties and then he pulls them aside, burying his face between her legs. I feel a deep ache in my belly, low and throbbing, like I want something, but I don’t know what it is, and the image that keeps coming back to me is that man’s eyes, the way he looked at me. I got that same tingly kind of feeling then, too…
She’s holding onto the railing, her head going back, her hips rocking as he works his tongue and fingers into her flesh. Her other hand is cupping her breast, tugging at her nipple, and she puts one of her legs up over his shoulder and I can’t even see his face anymore. But I can hear him, the soft noises of her wetness and his tongue.
“Look at you,” Alex whispers, like they can hear us. “You want it so bad you’re trembling all over…”
It’s true, but I refuse to look at him.
Besides, I want to watch…
She’s coming, her face caught in that twisted look, something between pleasure and pain, and then she slides down his body, jerking his cock in her hand before easing him into her pussy. I can’t decide which I like better—the look on a man’s face when he first slides into that tight, hot tunnel… or the look on his face when he comes.
I still can’t decide, as they rock together on the stairs, his hands gripping her ass where her black panties ride up the crack. She hasn’t taken them off, just pulled them aside. He’s thrusting up hard, grunting, and she grabs onto the railing for balance with one hand, lifting her blouse with the other so he can suck one of her nipples into his mouth.
They don’t speak to each other, but it feels like they are—the whole room feels charged with whatever language it is they’re communicating with—the wet slap of their bodies, the groans and grunts and sighs, they say it all. Faster and harder, more and more, the spiral just keeps spinning up toward some impossible peak.
“All you have to do is ask,” Alex whispers, close, tempting me. “You know you want to…”
“Shhh…” I wave at him, watching as the man shoves himself up inside of her with one great, tremendous thrust, his body stiff and quivering like an arrow just shot from a bow. There’s that look on his face, the one that makes me feel weak just to see it. She collapses onto him, panting, and their bodies begin the slow unfolding which seems to happen after sex.
“Sir, you have a call on your cell—” The voice precedes the figure walking into the room by a moment, and the uniformed man stops in the doorway, eyes wide. “Oh… I’m… so sorry…”
“It’s okay, Joe!” The man pushes the woman off his lap. She fumbles with her clothes, tugging her skirt down, pulling her blouse together to cover herself. “I’ll take it.”
The uniformed man hands the phone over, and James puts it to his ear. “Yes?”
“Hey!” I nudge Alex, pointing. “That’s Joe! I was assigned to him just the other day! He saved a little kid on his way to a job interview…”
James is still zipping up his pants, the phone crooked against his ear. Karen turns her back, hooks her bra, and begins tucking her blouse into her skirt.
“That’s great, honey!” James exclaims. “Listen, I’m gonna give the phone back to Joe, you give him all your flight information and we’ll pick you up!”
Karen’s eyes are wide and she sits on the stairs, looking between the two men.
“Oh, sorry… I just hired him,” James says into the phone. “Lucas quit and I needed someone fast. Don’t worry, he came highly recommended…”
Alex leans over, grinning, and says, “That was me.”
Maybe The Maker knows what it’s doing after all, I think, as Joe takes the phone and begins nodding and writing in a notepad he’s removed from his vest pocket.
“James—” Karen’s voice pleads. She clutches at him again, but his eyes are sad.
“I tried to tell you, but you didn’t give me a chance.” He holds her wrists and presses them down to her sides. “My wife is coming home early, for Christmas. I’m sorry…”
The woman’s face twists and then falls. She doesn’t say anything. She just runs out the huge front door, leaving it open. I fly down and see her fumbling with the door handle of the car, tears streaming down her face.
“Well, my work here is done.” Alex sighs, joining me as we fly out into the still-falling snow. “So… tell me… what are you going to ask for?”
“World peace.” I roll my eyes and flit upward, sticking my tongue out and ignoring the laughter. “See you around, Alex.”
The Maker has finally sent me another call.
Maybe burying myself in my work will keep my mind off… him.
Chapter Five
Cats are the worst. It’s the wings. They love to play with the damned wings. I can’t count how many times, out of nowhere, I’ve become some feline’s personal play toy. You’d think I’d been rolling in catnip, the way they come after me!
One minute, I’m just sitting here minding my own business—okay, so I’m minding someone else’s business—perched on the footboard and watching the show, and the next minute—wham! Now I’m rolling around on the bed with Anna and her new Beau, except they’re having a good old time, and I’m trying to save myself from Fluffy’s claws!
“Beau, put him out,” Anna begs.
Brilliant idea! The damned cat’s got my wing pinned and he’s about to pounce on my head! I’m flopping like a landed fish and the cat’s tail is swishing like mad when Beau grabs him by the scruff of the neck. Just in time! I stick my tongue out at the cat and shake off my wings while he hisses and spits and sails out the door.
“Where were we?” Beau climbs back into bed and dives under the covers, making Anna giggle wildly at first, until she begins to moan.
Damned comforter! I give her a little “push,” and she kicks off the covers, revealing the spread of her hips under his hands and the swell of her breasts with their hard, dark nipples. His face is buried between her legs, and he’s making those noises, like he’s eating something sinfully delicious.
Anna rolls her hips, eyes closed, fingers gripping his head, guiding his tongue. The cat mews on the other side of the door, but they’re both oblivious, of course. I’ve got that funny feeling in my belly again, and I’m thinking about what Alex said the other day. I haven’t gotten up the nerve to go back… to the man who could see me. Okay, so I flew by his window and peeked in, but it was dark, and I couldn’t see anything.
“Beau, yes, oh God!” She gasps and squirms, spreading her thighs wider and pressing up against his mouth in fast, rhythmic thrusts. Her head goes back and forth, side to side, and she makes this noise in her throat, not unlike the cat outside of the door. When her body stiffens and threatens to buck right out of his hands, he grips her ass, his mouth fastened tight between her legs, his eyes dark and full of lust as she shudders and quakes.
“Oh God, oh God, oh God,” she breathes as he kisses h
is way up her belly. She clutches him tight, reaching between them to find his cock. I can’t see well enough, now, and I float down toward the mattress, moving off to the side so I can watch them join together. She strokes him, squeezing, and I watch his face—that look of bliss as she slides him between her pussy lips, guiding him inside.
Their eyes meet, and there it is, that low communication, something passing between them, unsaid but completely understood. It hasn’t even been long, a few weeks since they met, but they are deeply connected in this moment. Is it possible, I wonder, watching them move, their hips rocking in a slow-building rhythm. Is it possible to feel it so quickly, to have an instant feeling of euphoria with someone you hardly know?
The cat’s scratching at the door now, mewing like mad, but they’re kissing, completely oblivious to anything but one another, whispering things, urging each other on. His thrusts become deeper, faster, and her nails dig into the flesh of his back, making him arch into her.
“Don’t stop,” she moans. “Oh baby, please, I’m so close…”
Her words spur him onward, driving him deep into her flesh, the look on his face caught somewhere between pleasure and pain. He looks as if he’s trying to hold onto something, to hold back, as she writhes underneath him.
“Please!” She pleads, her hand slipping between them and rubbing herself as they rock. “Oh, Beau, make me come!”
He groans, and I see something in his face, a surrender, a giving into something bigger than him, bigger than both of them. Shuddering, he breathes her name, giving one final thrust. She gasps, arching up to meet him, and I see that look on her face, too, as they come together. It looks like such delicious agony, and I find myself moving in even closer, lost in the moment with them as they smile and kiss and rub their slick bellies together.
“Mommy!”
The door flies open and they quickly separate, covering themselves, as David leaps onto the bed, my second near-miss of the night. I fly quickly up, vacating the spot he situates himself into just in time to miss being squished under his little limbs.
