Alex massaged his temples with his fingers, as if trying to rub the madness from his mind. "Please go away. I don't want to be crazy. I want to be boring old me again."

 

Tephros grunted, and for an illusion, sounded extremely frustrated. He walked toward Alex, hunkering down in front of him. It was extremely difficult not to look at him when he was no more than a few inches away from Alex's face.

 

And naked. Don't forget the naked part, Alex thought. His gaze drifted from Tephro's handsome face to the large organ hanging between his meaty thighs. Even blue, it was quite impressive. Alex mewled, and screwed his eyes shut again.

 

"Alex, this is getting old very quickly. You are not imagining me. I'm real. This is happening, and I can't go away until all the rules have been followed, so you might as well deal with it."

 

Alex took a deep breath. Maybe if he let his delusion play out, it would resolve itself and things would go back to normal. "Okay. What are the rules?"

 

"Finally, a sensible question!" Tephros said, smiling. His teeth looked incredibly white against his blue skin as he held up three long fingers. "These are the rules. One, you get three wishes. Before you ask, no, you can't wish me away, and you can't duplicate wishes, either. Food and drink are on the house, but almost anything else is negotiable. Two, no messing with time – you can't go forward or backwards, because the fabric of time is fucking fragile and I'm not messing with it. Three, after you've exhausted your wishes, you have to find a new vessel for me and chant me back inside."

 

"Three wishes. How cliché," Alex said dryly. "You'd think after dreaming you up, I could think of something a little more original. I've seen Aladdin. I've read One Thousand and One Arabian Nights. I know how it works." He took a deep breath and tried to look serious, even though the entire situation was beyond lunacy. "I wish you free, genie."

 

Tephros laughed, a deep, booming sound that was oddly contagious. "You have a sense of humor. Excellent! Don't you think that at least once in the past several thousand years, someone would have tried to free me? I appreciate the thought, but it doesn't work, kid. Try again."

 

"Dammit! Why can't I hallucinate about spiders or rock stars or like everyone else? All right, my first wish is for you to put some clothes on."

 

"You're kidding me, right? You're wasting a wish on that?"

 

Alex tried not to fidget, but parts of his own body were reacting forcibly to Tephros' incredibly sculpted flesh, particularly his cock. It was a beautiful one, even if it was blue - long and fat, and far too close for comfort. Alex could also smell Tephros' musky scent, fully male with a hint of myrrh or frankincense or something equally archaic. It was intoxicating. Alex silently congratulated himself -Tephros was one very realistic, sumptuous fantasy. Still, the sooner Tephros covered up, the better off Alex would be. "That's my wish. Deal with