PoisonedPen (7 page)

Hours passed, and he now wore a brightly coloured pair of big cats. A tiger and a lioness twisted on his skin. “Jim and Lee?”

Chuck grinned. “My first friend with no strings attached and his wife.”

The other arm was soon sporting a dragon and a unicorn cavorting in a twist. “Dira and her new mate.”

“That is all for today.” Arkenon rotated his hand. “Do you have a spare room for me?”

Teal came out of the shadows. “We have a place for you here. As you are not seeking a mate, you are not allowed to wander freely.”

“Fair enough. Dinner?”

Teal inclined her head. “Tony is bringing it.”

Chuck moved gingerly.

Ivy frowned. “If you can have those ones exposed, why not the one on your back?”

He grinned. “It is a surprise.”

Arkenon was talking quietly to Teal as he tidied up. He asked Chuck, “You will be back tomorrow morning for the rest?”

“Of course. We are putting on five years of artwork in two days. I will be here. Thanks again, Ark.” He shook his foster brother’s hand, and Arkenon hugged him carefully.

Ivy took his arm, and they walked out into the quiet night of the Crossroads.

“When do I get to see your back piece?”

He grinned, “When we are alone. This is a big moment for me. I hope that Arkenon didn’t turn it into something stupid.”

“There is a lot of trust in something like that, isn’t there?”

“There is. It is a piece of art that you will wear all your life. If your artist is crap, the marks they make will be on you, and you will remember it every time you see the design in the mirror.”

“Wow. Heavy.”

“Indeed. I trust Arkenon with my life and my skin.”

“Perhaps I will get something done one day if he will be amenable.” Ivy had her mind on the possible designs she could request.

“Well, see what he created on me and I will ask him for you.”

They arrived home, and he still wouldn’t let her peek. She had to undress and kneel on the bedding to remove the tape and gauze that covered him up.

“Oh. My. Feathers.” She sat back on her heels and stared at the swan that cruised in a pond with a snake looped into a freeform heart on the bank. In the sky was a flying swan and next to it was an angel picked out in miniature. The detail was amazing. She could almost see the grass and rushes waving in a lazy breeze.

“It is lovely, Chuck.”

“I am glad you like it. It will be healed by tomorrow and my chest piece can begin.” He smiled. “Tonight, I sleep on my stomach.”

They lay together in companionable silence. Ivy pulled the sheet up over her nude body and up to Chuck’s hips. He rested and slept with a smile on his lips. However much pain he had felt, it didn’t leave resentment behind.

She watched over him until he was firmly asleep and then stared at his back with tears running down her face. He might not see it like she did, but she knew it was there, and he knew she was with him. It was a powerful symbol of their union, and she liked it.

“I have never done this kind of combination before, but the Naga and the angel over your heart does look stunning.” Arkenon smiled at his handiwork. “I love your skin, it takes the inks so well.”

Chuck looked in the mirror and smiled. “I like the tail wrapping around and between her legs. Suggestive but not lewd. Well done.”

The angel was wearing scraps of silk and the Naga was wearing his scales from the waist downward. It was a very PG13 tattoo.

“I like it.” She smiled brightly at Arkenon.

Chuck laughed. “I think Ivy wants one, but she isn’t sure what she wants.”

“Oh, I know what I want.”

Arkenon blinked. “Really? Do tell.”

“Well, a snake wound around a long feather. On my calf.”

He moved over to the design table that he had brought with him, and he quickly sketched something out. “In colour?”

“Yes, please. A white feather and a green snake with a detailed pattern on its back.”

“If I do this, you won’t be able to shift until it heals, all right?” Arkenon looked up from his table.

“Sure.”

Chuck got up from the client chair and helped her prepare her left leg for the tattoo. When Arkenon held up the sketch, she grinned. “Just like that.”

“Do you want this?”

“Yup. It is now or never, so I pick now. It’s the same thing I said to myself when I started flirting with Chuck.” She extended her leg as he ran the razor over it and then on went the stencil.

Chuck held her hand and it was a damned good thing that he did. She would have been out and down the street seconds after the first contact with the needle.

She breathed deep and kept calm as long as she could before she buried her face in Chuck’s neck. He held her tight as she got the symbol that she wanted to wear forever that matched his in artistry and colouration.

It wasn’t the engagement ring she had been taught to want, but their mating bands were on the way, and this was better than a ring that she would lose when she shifted.

To distract herself, she suddenly blurted out, “It should be C. I. Hector. That is the name. Nice and generic and it sound a bit fantastical.”

He grinned. “Yes, dear. It does make sense. Well chosen.”

She chuckled and winced. “You are humouring me.”

“Yes, dear.”

Arkenon was laughing quietly.

She decided to make him interact. “So, Arkenon. I hear that you are much in demand amongst shifters. Do you think you would make a return trip?”

“Well, I will be working on James next. So after that, I think it is just a bunch of beavers.”

She snorted. “Not anymore. There are some exotics, some large cats, and of course, your foster brother. I think Chuck wouldn’t mind seeing you more frequently, and if he doesn’t get an invitation to your home, he has to make do here.”

Arkenon lifted his head. “He is invited to every single family event. He just chooses not to come.”

Ivy looked at Chuck’s face. “That is going to change. Keep sending the invitations. We will be taking some of them.”

After the piece was finished and she smiled at the glowing green serpent, she surrendered her place to an eager Jim.

Arkenon kissed her on the cheek and whispered in her ear. “Thank you, he needs family.”

She whispered back, “He has it now whether he needs it or not.”

Walking back to their home, she sighed. “There, more binding than a wedding ring and far more pretty.”

“You are really going to haul me into the human world?”

“I am. I got this tattoo to divert my mother. She will be so busy being excited I am mated and horrified that I have a tattoo, you should be able to get past her in no time.” She squeezed his waist and leaned against him in exhaustion.

“You did that for me?”

“I did. And once my skin heals and I can shift again, I am going to let you have sex with an angel. That is a once-in-a-lifetime deal, my love.”

He stopped in the centre of the street and kissed her until her toes curled.

They pointed toward the house, and Chuck said, “So, if we start it in space, we can use shifters and not worry about breaking any taboos.”

She grinned. “I was thinking the precise thing. Now, action or love story?”

“Why can’t it be both?”

So, they discussed their book into the wee hours of the night, and when dawn broke, they got to work creating their first collaboration.

It took two years, but the initial work of C. I. Hector was finally contracted, and they were relieved. They had six books waiting in the wings, and once their first book broke free, the others soon found homes.

They both got what they wanted, Chuck became an action romance writer, and Ivy got all the editing she could handle and a paying audience for her sarcasm. Life was sweet, and Pookie was sweeter.

To find out about Jim and the butterflies, see
Lion Time.
A wave of shifter combinations will be meeting at the Crossroads, and in
Bearing It,
we will meet the cousin of Buzz from
Owl’s Fair
. It worked for Buzz, so why not her?

Hoping to see you next time, Pookie,

Zenina Masters

www.zeninamasters.com

Zenina Masters was born in Canada and lives in Canada. She has a regular job and does nothing particularly exciting with her life. She enjoys fishing, silence and the ability to pick and choose friends she can trust. Life is too short to watch your back all the time.

Her writing life is a teeny bit of escapism, she would probably chicken out if confronted by three naked men and looks forward to one day finding out.