Read Flight (Children of the Sidhe) for Free Online

couldn’t be dashed by mere hours in Nathan’s presence. Maybe she should have a man over after all . It must be the sexual drought of recent days. Her body was playing tricks on her mind.
     
     
    Eight
     
    Nathan ’s glee over getting out of the house surprised even him. He’d always been at home in the woods, and now he wondered if that was more his nature than he’d ever assumed. Growing up in a small town bordered by plenty of open spaces had supported the trait on the nurture side. He looked around, keeping an eye out for more of the pixie creatures, as they walked into the forest. Once or twice he thought he heard the buzzing of fast-moving wings, but he couldn’t be sure. He also didn’t know what other strange flying creatures were out here.
    Now that he’d eaten his fill and spoken with at least one other person who knew his world, Nathan felt more at ease than he’d expected. A trip into the Tir Nan Og forest was an enticing adventure for a man with his interests in wildlife…though he still wasn’t sure how he felt about shifting again and becoming the wildlife.
    He walked behin d Tessa, who soon left the well-maintained path for a tiny trail into the brush. Thorns gripped his shirt like greedy hands as he passed, and his foreboding grew as the shadows deepened around them. Just when he was about to mention his unease, the trail opened up into a clearing with a creek running through it.
    Just like that , in a rush of madly beating wings, Tessa changed into her triple doves and flew to the nearest treetop. From the highest branch, she sang to him, and the sound wound its way into him, a feeling of warmth spreading as he listened to her song.
    “What are you?” he sighed, knowing she wouldn’t answer.
    She continued to sing, and he knew it was time. He felt for that piece of himself he’d felt break – no, surge was a better word for it – when he’d changed before. And he let himself go. He tried his best not to resist, but he had a feeling he could have done better. Something told him it shouldn’t hurt like it did, that it hurt because he held back a part of himself, wanting to retain his humanity.
    As a ha wk, he shook out his feathers. Stretching his wings, he felt each part of his hawk form. His talons gripped the earth, digging long furrows. He could see further than humanly possible, he realized as he glimpsed a small creature flitting about on the opposite side of the clearing, under the canopy of the trees. Was that another pixie? He’d always had great vision, but not superhuman vision, or hawk vision, as it was in his case.
    The Tessa-doves were preening and flitting about on that treetop, and Nathan had a sudden urge to chase. He gave in to it, stretching his wings and leaping clumsily, tucking his legs up under him at the last second. He had to flap more than a graceful hawk aught to, but what the hell? He had to learn sometime.
    The Tessa-doves saw him coming and took off in the nick of time. He didn’t even stretch his talons. He wasn’t sure exactly what he was capable of in this form, and it was better not to take chances with a flesh and blood person.
    If hawks could have laughed, Nathan would have right then. He’d been worried he’d be completely different in his hawk form, driven by the animal. Everything had been so foreign the first time he shifted that he’d been completely consumed by the experience. Now, he realized he still thought like a human; the hawk was a form, but it didn’t define him. He remembered morality and kindness, and greed and fear. He was still himself.
    Tessa alighted midway up a fir tree, all three doves coming to rest within feet of each other.
    Nathan circled the clearing, stretching his wings. He jetted upward, and tilted his wings for a suitable air current. He reached it, and soared high above the forest, which stretched on and on as far as he could see, a dense myriad of greens.
    His gaze pierced the foliage below him, and with Hawk’s