Feathered Friend
'Shifting Perspectives' (Aspen
Mountain Press)This three-title
anthology contains stories by Fiona
Glass, Emily Veinglory and TA Chase. All
the stories involve shapeshifters, all
are male/male, but each tells a very
different tale.
Feathered
Friend is based on the old northern
European fairy tale The Swan Maiden.
Charlie, who races pigeons for a hobby,
finds a very odd pigeon in his loft one
day, and little expects the effect it
will have on his life - or his heart.
"This story
teaches a lesson of why we should never
cage wild creatures and how true love can
come even to the most unusual of
couples."
TA Chase,
author
"I
didn't realise I was having such an
effect on you," said Avery, turning
his hand palm-up and rubbing small
circles into the skin.
"You're
not... that is, I don't...." Charlie
realised he was tangled in half-finished
sentences, and drowning in a pair of
pretty grey eyes. Eyes that were slate on
the surface, but reflected a strange red
glow when he stared into their depths.
The pale red of a Kipps, if he wasn't
much mistaken.... He shook himself,
blinked the vision away and nervously
licked his lips. The stranger was pulling
on his hand now, trying to drag him
close, and he resisted in spite of
himself. "I don't do one-night
stands."
"That's
all right, neither do I. A bird is for
life, not just for Christmas, you
know."
"Well,
yes, but...." There it was again,
that peculiar reference to birds. Charlie
began to feel ever-so-slightly sick.
"I only sleep with humans," he
said. "Breeding pigeons is a hobby,
nothing more. I'm not into that sort of
kink."
Avery
laughed, a soft cooing chuckle that
grated on Charlie's nerves. "So,
what kind of kink are you into?" he
asked, and pulled so hard that Charlie
ended up on his lap.
"Nothing.
I mean, I'm not. I don't get off on
feathers or anything like that."
"Are
you sure?" A single long grey
feather appeared in Avery's hand and he
brushed it down Charlie's cheek and over
his lips, before following its path with
his lips.Tiny kisses rained down on
Charlie's skin, the contact so small it
was almost like the peck of a beak. The
thought made him shudder again and he
shied away, trying to find leverage to
clamber off Avery's lap. But Avery
tightened his grip, holding him round the
waist and running a hand through his
curly brown hair.
"Don't
worry," he whispered into Charlie's
ear. "I'm not a bird. Not in this
form. When I change, I change completely.
I'm a man now. A very beautiful man, just
the sort you like. You do like me, don't
you?"
Charlie
stopped struggling to get away and
turned. He saw the pale skin and the soft
greyish-fair hair and those pretty grey
eyes, and he sighed as if he knew he was
already lost. "Oh yes, I like
you," he said, and surrendered to
the embrace.
©
2007 Fiona Glass
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