My jaw dropped, and I temporarily forgot the insane predicament I was in. The man was drop-dead gorgeous. “Who are you?” I asked.
His green eyes flashed. “Whatare you?”
What the hell does he mean?I raised my hands to pull my hair out of my face and put it back in the clip, and was distracted by the bruises. Both arms were entirely purple. I needed to find my purse and get my glasses out so I could get a better look at everything around me.
I rubbed my eyes, and was shocked to feel the contacts moving around on my eyeballs. They’d survived the fall after all. I looked around and saw my purse lying at the top of the stairs, where I’d begun my descent. I couldn’t believe it was still there with all the people around.
When I lifted my foot to walk up the stairs, I discovered my balance had changed. The wings attached to my back threw my equilibrium off. I teetered backwards; arms wind milling as I tried to catch my balance on those steep stairs. I heard a shuffle behind me, and then I was pushed forward.
I turned back to find the handsome stranger with one eyebrow cocked. “Do you normally have so much trouble staying upright?”
“No. I’m not a clumsy person at all. I’m just having an extremely strange day.” The broken heel didn’t help.
He nodded, expression masked. I figured out my new balance—barely—and tottered up the stairs to grab my purse. As I bent, I realized the back of my blouse was in shreds and hung on my body from the shoulders.Lovely. It had been my favorite.
Swapping out my contacts for my glasses, I tossed the disposables down in my purse. I blinked my eyes behind my glasses and rubbed at them as I slowly walked down the stairs, mindful of my balance. The fuzziness wasn’t going away.
As I reached the bottom where Sir Studly waited, I pulled off my glasses to clean them. Maybe they were smudged and that was keeping me from focusing properly.
“So, what are you?” he asked as I used the bottom of my shirt to clean the lenses.
I looked up at him to respond that I didn’t have the first clue what was going on, but the words didn’t come. I could see him. I could see himclearly.
Oh, yeah, he’s hot all right.
A group of teenagers across the street walked past with cell phones pointed at me, probably taking pictures. I could see the details of their cases as clear as I could see the faint beginnings of laugh lines in the corners of Studly’s eyes.
He snapped his fingers in front of my face, bringing my attention back to him. “What are you? Don’t you dare change back until you’re out of sight. People think you’re dressed up for some stunt now, but if you change back to human in front of them they’ll get freaked out.” He looked around at the people milling about. “You’re lucky humans do their best to believe the world is utterly non-magical.”
I finally found my voice as I dropped my apparently unnecessary glasses into my purse. “What in the world are you talking about? I’m a person. Magic? Why can I see clearly without my glasses? How did someone attach wings to me? What’s going on?”
My frantic voice drew a few stares. He put his arm around me, wings and all, and laughed nervously. “Okay, calm down, the show’s over.” He lowered his voice. “Did you drive here?”
“No, I took the bus.” I marveled at the feeling of his warm arm around my wings. How could I feel something someone had stuck on me? It made no sense!
“Fine. Come with me. I’ll get you out of here.” He tugged me toward the side of the building, where I knew a parking garage to be.
I jerked out of his arms. “Why would I leave with a total stranger?”
“What species are you?”
Oh for Pete’s sake.“I’m a human, what else?”
“Look closely at your arms.”
I rolled my eyes, but I also couldn’t stop myself from looking down. With a gasp, I brought my arm closer to my face. “Are they scales? How did you get them on me?” What I hadn’t been able to see with my glasses and contacts was that the colors on my skin I’d thought were bruises were something else entirely. They looked like scales.
“I didn’t put anything on you, lady. I was walking out of the courthouse, minding my own business, when you exploded into this purple and blackthing.”
“Why’d you help me?” I couldn’t take my eyes off of my lizard-like skin. I twirled my wrist around and watched them overlap each other. “How is this happening?”
“I have no idea. Are you going to let me help you further?”
My brain finally caught up with the events of the day. I’d almost died falling down the steps, but in a moment of extreme panic, I seemed to have sprouted wings and flown instead of breaking my neck in the middle of downtown Knoxville. A strange man apparently thought I was some other species, and wanted to help me.Yeah, right. More like he wants to stick me in a cage and run tests on me.I moved my wrist, shocked that there was no pain from what I had been sure was a break.
“Okay, I guess the joke’s done. It was all a stunt!” I said brightly as I pulled away from him. “Gotcha!” I pointed around randomly with a huge smile plastered on my face. “There are hidden cameras everywhere. If you wait here my assistant will be right along to have you sign a waiver to be on camera.” I grabbed his hand and pumped it up and down, then turned and scurried down the sidewalk, limping with only one heel still intact. I turned once, before I rounded the corner, to see him staring after me, a confused look on his face.
I had driven to the courthouse, but he didn’t need to know that. Once I turned the corner and was out of sight, I doubled back around the rear of the courthouse to go to the parking garage without him seeing.
