Page 12 of Monster's Past
He chuckles as he stirs the potion. “Are you going to complain about the instructions the entire time?”
“Yes.”
“All right, then how about I ask you that question to distract you.”
“It is your turn.” I try to think through what he might ask. Will he want to know what I am? Or is it going to be something about my hair? That one seems unlikely, he’ll just assume it’s natural.
“Do you have a boyfriend?”
I stare at him. “That’syour question?”
“So?”
“No, I don’t have a boyfriend.”
His whole face lights up, including his ears, sending a wave of affection towards him through me.
“Still a weird question. I was going to ask you if you could pass as human as my next one.”
He chuckles. “The point is to get to know each other, isn’t it?”
“Well, yes.”
“So learning about your life is part of that,” he responds. “And yes, I can pass as human.” For a moment, I think that’s going to be the end of the conversation, but a shimmer of purple moves over his body and he transforms.
I blink a few times. “Wow.”
“It’s just a glamour,” he responds. “Everything is the same underneath.”
Without meaning to, I reach out to touch him.
A smile curls at the corners of his lips. “The ears are where you’ll notice it most.”
I step closer, taking it for the invitation it is, and reach out to where his bat-like ears should be. To the naked eye, there’s nothing but air, but my fingers brush against the shell of his ear.
He lets out a strange noise and I pull my hand back.
“It’s sensitive.” He drops the glamour.
“Sorry.”
“Don’t be, I invited you to touch it.” He grins at me in a way that makes me think it was all part of his elaborate plan to do that.
“What do we do next?” I ask, gesturing to the cauldron.
“Huh, and here I was thinking you were going to ask me why I didn’t keep up the human glamour all the time.”
“I can ask that if you want, but I figured the answer was either that it was too much effort to maintain it, or that you like the way you look and want to feel like you.”
He raises an eyebrow. “Interesting observation. We just let the cauldron simmer for another five minutes.”
“Great.” I pull over my stool. “So which is it?”
He shrugs. “A little of both, I guess. It does take constant magic, but it’s not too much hassle so long as I can have a few chances to let the glamour drop. For the most part, I don’t see it as necessary to have one here.”
“I’m glad you don’t. I like this form,” I blurt out before realising what it might reveal about what I think about him. Then again, maybe I shouldn’t feel too strange about that, there has to be a reason he asked me if I had a boyfriend.
“Good.” His eyes flash purple despite the fact he’s not doing any magic.