The Star Man Read Online Free PDF Page A

want to eat food you get from me? Since I’m so—”
    Dove ignored his meal, standing up, reaching out, and hugging Matthew.
    “Get off me, you crazy fuck!” He was suddenly fighting tears. Shit!
    Dove whispered, “I’m sorry, Matthew. I know I should feel bad for the other man you hurt, but I mainly feel bad for you.”
    “Don’t!” Matthew’s head was down, his cheeks flushed, embarrassed, trembling.
    “Are you okay, Earth friend?”
    “Fine. I just. Don’t fucking look at me like that, like you feel sorry for me!”
    Dove kissed Matthew’s cheek.
    And Matthew backed away, freaked out now, his hands up. “Stay here! I’ll be right back. Don’t go anywhere. Don’t, um, fly. All right?”
    “Matthew, your aura is bleeding!”
    “ Shut the fuck up and stay here! ”
     
    *  *  *
    Outside , Matthew knocked over some trash cans. He was shaking, so he sort of collapsed against the brick wall for a moment.
    What the fuck had happened in there?
    All Dove had actually done was hug him. Not like it meant fucking anything. The angel was a big spaz.
    Matthew covered his face, trying to get himself under control.
    It was those eyes. Dark, penetrating. They went inside Matthew and touched him where he was all blasted walls and shrapnel. More, they touched him, changed him in a way he was afraid he wouldn’t be able to forget.
     
    *  *  *
    The angel knew he was supposed to stay here and eat the cheese sandwich, but he could see spilled aura in orange and yellow and bright red in a trail leading to the back door. Matthew’s aura was bleeding!
    Most angels couldn’t bear to be among humans long. It hurt them very badly to see all this pain and rage and be unable to heal it. All angels wanted to help, but for all their power, they were delicate creatures. If Dove didn’t get back to his ship soon, he knew he’d risk going insane like other angels who had gotten trapped down here on Earth.
    It was why he was so afraid.
    But his only friend here was so full of pain. The shameful truth was Dove really wanted to turn away from Matthew’s wounds, but this human had always called to him, always touched him.
    Why didn’t Matthew see how special he was?
     
    *  *  *
    Matthew rubbed his eyes, getting a grip. When he looked up, it was to see Dove had followed him. The angel should have looked ordinary wearing a T-shirt that said “No one knows I’m gay” that Matthew had been given as a gift; it was the only thing large enough for the bigger man, but Matthew had carefully covered it with a jean jacket so his angel wouldn’t get into trouble.
    “What fucking happened when you touched me in there? Something happened.” He’d felt something shift between them, felt himself opening up and Dove going inside him somehow.
    “I’m an empath. I can touch your pain, take it away, if you only let me,” Dove explained, but Matthew noticed how his eyes darkened as if in fear.
    Matthew frowned. “Sounds nice and freaky, but what happens to it? I mean, if I remember my basic science nothing can truly be destroyed, right?”
    “You are very smart, Matthew,” Dove said. “No, if I take your pain, you don’t feel it anymore, but it goes inside me, and I bleed.”
    “You’d feel what I feel. Would you see things that happened to me?” Matthew swallowed, flashing through certain chapters of his life.
    “Not see them, relive them,” Dove outlined simply. “They’d be mine and not yours. You’d be free.”
    “So when you hugged me, you were trying to take some of my pain?” Matthew straightened, getting a handle on things.
    “It’s what an angel does.” Dove nodded. “It’s why we mostly float around and watch. If we do it too often then we can’t stop bleeding and—”
    Matthew’s gut tightened. “I don’t want you to hug me again, ever! ”
    “But, Matthew, your aura—”
    “I don’t fucking care about my fucking aura, all right? Let’s just get you fixed and back to floating on clouds. I’m doing