Total pages in book: 34
Estimated words: 31462 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 157(@200wpm)___ 126(@250wpm)___ 105(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 31462 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 157(@200wpm)___ 126(@250wpm)___ 105(@300wpm)
An elbow poked into his ribs and he glanced down to find Sky scowling at him.
“What are you chuckling at?”
“I was just wondering if you were a cat or a dog in a past life?”
“Cat,” Red said before Sky could even open his mouth. “He’s the pickiest fucking eater. Plus, he can do that sprawl-and-sleep-anywhere thing that cats do.”
“Hush. You worry about changing your ex-boyfriend back into a human,” Sky commanded, which earned him a single-finger salute from his friend while he was opening the satchel.
“Ex-boyfriend?” Bel inquired.
Red groaned. “Sky, tell the story. I gotta prep this.” The witch didn’t even bother to look up from where he had selected a long blade that resembled a long chef’s knife. He plunged the tip into the ground and began sawing into the earth, carving a circle around Damon.
“I don’t know all the details,” Sky started with a small disclaimer and then dove in with an excitement that did Nolan’s storyteller heart proud. “But apparently Damon’s current boyfriend had become abusive and controlling to the point that the witch trapped Damon in his home. Damon called Red, whom he used to date but separated with on good terms, to help get him free. Unfortunately, there’s a good chance that Damon’s current boyfriend could track him as a human, so Red turned him into a pig to make him harder to locate. By bringing him here, we’re hoping to mask Damon’s presence under Moon’s latent magic, giving Damon and Red a chance to figure out what to do next.”
All during Sky’s explanation, Damon added grunts and oinks, making Bel’s head snap back and forth as he got all the details from the two parties.
“Fascinating! But how did you and Nolan get drawn into this?”
Red moaned and hung his head, nearly finished with his circle.
“Some witch needs to get his car fixed,” Sky grumbled.
Nolan snickered. “Red’s car broke down during the escape and he called Sky for a pickup.”
“We didn’t even get to have dinner!” Sky added and Nolan tightened his hold on the sweet man.
“You can grab drive-thru later,” Red snapped. “Now give me a little room.” He waved both hands at his audience and Nolan quickly retreated several steps with Bel and Sky.
The earth witch stopped to pet Damon on the head a couple of times and whisper what sounded like reassurances to him before he stood. The wind picked up as he rose to his feet and held his hands out flat over the pig, ruffling his jeans a little and pushing around his red hair. Red spoke, but Nolan couldn’t make out a single word of it. Just a rising and falling of gentle sounds that were strangely soothing.
Yet a tingle danced along his skin. As Red started to move his hands in a series of distinct formations in a type of witch’s sign language, the sensation increased.
A glow rose from the ground, brightening the grass from dark green to a light and vibrant new green. The strange light washed up Damon’s pig body as he continued to calmly sit in the center of the circle.
The change happened quickly, like a high-speed video of a flower unfurling in the sun. One second he was a pig and in the next, the pig was standing on his hind legs and it was like he just kept rising, growing taller, flesh changing to clothes until he was a short, slender twink with a thick crop of tousled brown curls, warm brown skin, and enormous eyes.
“Damon,” Red said with a relieved sigh.
The young man looked down at himself, his hand pressing into the front of his long-sleeved red shirt. “God, it’s good to be human again.” His nose suddenly wrinkled and his face scrunched up. Plucking at the front of his shirt, he lifted it and stuck half his face inside to take a long sniff. “Eww. I smell like sweat and pig.”
Red reached out and rubbed his hand on the top of Damon’s head, messing up his hair some more. “Come on. I’ll take you inside and let you shower. You can borrow some of Moon’s clothes for now.”
The witch kneeled and replaced the knife in the kit and closed it up. With it tucked under his arm, he led Damon toward the house.
“That was fascinating! But I forgot to video it,” Bel cried. “I’m so bad about remembering these cell phones have an easy video option. I would have loved to watch that many more times so I could make notes.”
“That was kind of amazing,” Nolan murmured when he could get his tongue to work again. So far, he’d watched Sky summon a variety of minions and raise an army of the dead straight from their graves. Now a pig had turned into a human. This was never going to get old.