Chapter 1
December 1
An icy wind howled through the streets, rattling limbs and tearing the last of the autumn leaves from the trees. Darkness blanketed the city, and thick clouds rolled across the night sky, blocking out the stars and the thin, delicate curve of the moon. Fall was withering away, and winter was slipping its claws deep into the world. The residents of this sleepy street remained huddled safely in their homes, protected from the cold and the scary things creeping in the shadows.
In fact, necromancer and general cinnamon roll Skylar had a different kind of creeping in mind as his hand slipped under the hem of his boyfriend’s sweat shirt. The BL romantic comedy they were watching was good, but he’d watched it a million times before and at that moment, he was more interested in exploring the contents of Nolan’s sweat pants.
“You realize that we’ve tried three times to watch this episode, and we never get past this part because someone has Wandering Hands Syndrome,” Nolan said suddenly, his eyes not moving from the TV.
“I know. I know,” Sky mumbled. His hand stopped inching forward and rested on Nolan’s flat stomach. Sky placed his head on Nolan’s shoulder and jutted out his bottom lip.
“I thought you said you liked this show.”
“I do. It’s just that this one also has the evil, manipulative sister trope, and that one gets old, fast. Why can’t they have more of the supportive, helpful fujoshi sister who tries to get the two main characters together? There’s never enough of that in BL shows.” As he complained, Sky’s fingers began moving of their own accord again, plucking at the waistband of Nolan’s pants.
Nolan reached over and picked up the remote resting on the cushion opposite Sky. “I can find something else to watch. Viki just started posting episodes of a new Chinese costume drama that’s gotten excellent reviews.”
“Or…” Sky drawled while tipping his face up to kiss along the underside of Nolan’s jaw, working his way to his earlobe—Nolan’s greatest weakness. His wicked fingers finally dipped below the waistband of Nolan’s sweats, continuing their wicked trek toward his boyfriend’s cock.
A sharp, brisk knock on the front door caused them to flinch. Sky whined at the sudden intrusion into their happy cocoon as Nolan tossed aside the blanket they’d been cuddled under and walked to the foyer.
“If it’s Red or Mad, tell them to go away. I’m about to get laid!” Sky called.
“You sure about that?” Nolan teased.
Sky snorted. “Yeah, like I can’t see the tent forming in those sweat pants.”
He wasn’t wrong. Nolan jerked on his baggy sweat shirt, trying to get it to stretch down to cover the front of his pants.
Sky heard Nolan open the door, scream, and slam it shut again. That was not normal!
“What happened?” Sky shouted as he raced from the couch to where Nolan had his back pressed to the wood, his face pale and lined with fear. “What’s out there?”
“A tree!”
Sky blinked slowly at him and repeated, “A tree?”
“Yes!”
“Let me see,” Sky said, motioning for his boyfriend to move aside. Humans did tend to overreact.
“No! It’s trying to come in.”
“How?”
“It has legs,” Nolan hissed. “Like…like crab legs. And it made noises.”
“Oh. Like my roses?”
“Your roses don’t scuttle around. They stay in their bed!”
Okay, Nolan had a point.
Sky walked slowly up to Nolan and laid a hand on his cheek. “Baby, it’ll be okay. Let me check. I’m sure it won’t be hard to send it away.”
He nodded and moved from the door on shaky legs. Sky grinned at Nolan, happy to wait until he was a comfortable distance away before slowly opening the door.
The “tree” was more of a teardrop-shaped shrub, standing about three feet tall on a set of curled roots that did resemble twisted crab legs. The creature chittered at him and took a step forward as if it were an overgrown cat trying to dart inside where it was warm.
