"I see you got one out of captivity for me," Saunier said. "Whisper its tail to bits for me, love, I don't want to muck around in the damp any longer than I have to. My shoes are ruined."She lifted a foot a few centimeters, showing off suede that looked water-stained and manky indeed.
"I've told you," Tara said irritably as she walked around Declan to try to get Saunier to listen. "It takes time and trust, and you need to understand that?—"
Declan interrupted with a deliberately harsh shriek, drawing both women's attention. He shook his tail purposefully, not yet lifting it, but making the feathers rattle and watching more avarice light in Saunier's eyes. He wanted her completely focused on him when he put his plan into action.
Although he had never tried shifting from one size to another without stopping off at human in between. Now, advancing on Colette Saunier, was a bad moment for him to suddenly wonder for the first time if it was even possible. He said,Do you think wecan?to his peacock.
Our mate will beveryimpressed,his peacock—promised, maybe, or maybe it was trying to convince itself. Since Tara was in Declan's line of sight, her eyes wide with anticipation, he had to agree with his peacock: she would beincrediblyimpressed if he shifted directly to the unbelievably huge bird that he could become.
It's just a shift, right?he asked the bird.Just like any other. No reason we have to be human in the middle of it. We're still changing shape…
He wasn't quite sure he believed it, honestly, but his peacock let go one of its raucous screeches, and between one step and the next, made the shift.
It feltweird. Both of them thought so: it feltweird, not quite unnatural but certainly unusual, to go directly from a more or less normal-sized peacock to one who stood four meters at the shoulder. And peacocks weren't quite so long-necked as swans, but Declan was suddenly looking down at Colette from prettyclose to sixteen feet off the ground. She looked remarkably small.
Like abug,his peacock said with delight.We couldeat her.
We can't,Declan told his bird firmly.She's already scared enough.
That's nothing,his peacock said with arrogant confidence.Thisfemale won't like to see us get it up. Watchthis. As it spoke, it raised its train, rattling it, sending the hiss of swishing feathers spilling across the whole castle grounds. That tail had to be a good twenty feet in height, all told: absolutely massive, impossibly large and threatening. Declan honestly wished he could see himself. He stepped forward again and Colette shrieked, but seemed rooted to the ground, unable to even flee. For nearly the first time ever, Declan also wished he could talk in this form: some kind of dramatic speech telling the woman to leave peacocks—and other animals—alone seemed like the right thing to do in this moment.
Colette whispered, "Wha, wha, what, whatareyou," in a series of breathless stutters. "Are you—what are you, a—agod?" She sounded as if she thought she might be losing her mind, and managed to cast one beseeching glance toward Tara, like she hoped the other woman would verify what she was seeing.
Tara crinkled her eyebrows down in concern and in a very convincing tone of worry, said, "Colette? Are you all right?"
"Aren't you seeing this?" Colette shrieked. She gestured toward Declan, who watched Tara's gaze turn to him, although she seemed to be looking at his knees. Then he realized: she was looking where a normal peacock's head and body would be, not up and up and up like Colette was.
Tara, very gently, still looking at Declan's peacocky knees, said, "I see a peacock, Colette…"
"No! No, it's a—it's a peacockgod, it's a—it's huge, don't you see?—?!"
The peacock, with a note of absolute glee in its voice, saidWatchthisagain, and took another step forward.
A shudder ran through Dylan as they moved forward. It felt almost like shifting, but not quite; it feltmorelike their unusual shift from small to enormous, but not quite that, either. It sent a chill through his whole body, like he'd stepped in snow, and his tail feathers shook and rattled even more as the peacock let out a truly thunderous shriek that had to be audible for miles.
To his complete astonishment, Colette Saunier's eyes rolled back in her head and she collapsed in a faint at his feet.
Chapter 13
Declan was a dinosaur.
That was all Tara could think for a few seconds: that this had to be what dinosaurs had been like. Fifteen feet tall, with clawed feet large enough to crush the unwary and a beak that could pierce armor, all wrapped in the most incredible, vibrant, beautiful colors she could possibly imagine. It took everything she had to pretend he was just a normal peacock.
And then hechanged color.
With a shudder that seemed to come from his bones, the massive bird's unbelievable plumage turned a heavy, icy white, so deep there were glacier blues and pale purples buried in the depths of its layered feathers. It looked like a ghost; it looked, Tara thought, like a god.
She wasn't at all surprised when Colette fainted. Tara felt a bit woozy herself. The unbelievably huge peacock was clearly taken entirely off guard, although Tara thought she could see the Declan part of the peacock in the surprise, followed by what struck her as an extreme, triumphant smugness on the bird's part. It didn't shriek again, which was good: the sound had been huge enough to rattle her eardrums, and she could alreadyhear people running and shouting as they approached this part of the garden. But it did look to her for approval, and after making sure the camera's wifi was off and the pictures wouldnotautomatically be uploaded to the internet, Tara lifted her camera and took as many pictures of Declan as she could in a few seconds.
Then she whispered, "You are the most beautiful thing I've ever seen, but you'd better change back," and got her feet to move, which was a little more difficult than usual. She took a few steps to kneel next to Colette, checking on her. The designer had no obvious injuries from her collapse—she'd fallen straight down in a surprisingly graceful drop—and was breathing steadily. She'd just had the shock of her life.
Which was fair. Tara had nearly had the shock ofherlife. Gorgeous men shifting into peacocks was one thing. Shifting into fifteen-foot-tall peacocks was something else. Turning into a peacockgodwas a whole 'nother level, and once Tara was sure Colette was all right, she glanced up to make sure Declan was still, like…real.
And shrieked, surprised laughter slamming through her. "Declan! Your hair! Oh my God!"
"My hair?" He put his hands in it, as if that would tell him what was wrong. "It's still there, right?" he asked, even though he could obviously feel it.
"Yes, but—!" Tara sprang to her feet and took a picture before turning the camera to him so he could see himself in the viewfinder.
