The Necromancer’s Christmas Tree of Terror (Princes of Mayhem)

Chapter 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.

“Huh. Wow. That’s nice,” Sky murmured to himself.

“What? What’s nice? What is it?” Nolan demanded from deeper in the foyer.

“It’s a witch’s Yule tree. No one has ever sent me one,” Sky replied.

“A what?”

“A witch’s Yule tree. Earth witches will sometimes bespell a tree, giving it some small level of sentience so that it can walk into a house on its own.

They’re used to celebrate Yule and the winter solstice.

I think they’re supposed to have about the same intelligence as a golden retriever.

” He glanced over his shoulder at Nolan and flashed him an encouraging smile.

“They’re seen as protectors of the hearth and home. It’s not going to hurt you.”

“Uh-huh,” Nolan said in a disbelieving tone as he inched a little higher up the nearby staircase. “And can we talk about how it makes noises? It’s a tree, Sky.”

Sky resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Poor human. Sometimes, his boyfriend was too adorable for words. “Magic. Obviously.”

Nolan narrowed his eyes at Sky, sending him a warning look. His very smart and patient boyfriend also knew when he was being placated. “Can you send it back?”

Sky’s warm expression fell away, and he stared down at the tree again.

That didn’t seem like a good idea. The magic emanating from the tree didn’t have the same tingle as Redstone’s or Maddox’s magic.

This wasn’t from an earth witch. And it went without saying that it couldn’t possibly have been sent by Moon.

The former blood witch turned vampire with the occasional toe dipped into necromancy had a grumpy vampire boyfriend who didn’t want him casting spells at all.

If anything, the magic felt vaguely familiar, which meant the tree could have come from only one place—the Underworld.

“I don’t think so. I’m pretty sure this is from Zalramon.”

“Sky! It’s creepy!”

“Nolan! The king of the underworld sent me a gift. I don’t want to piss him off by rejecting it.”

Nolan’s pale face twisted up as if he were in pain. “But it can stay outside, right?”

“I don’t think so. It seems like it really wants to come inside.” Sky made the mistake of looking over his shoulder at his boyfriend. The Yule tree darted forward, brushing past Sky to squeeze into the house. Nolan screeched, and Sky jumped aside in surprise.

“Fast little bugger,” he mumbled, watching it thump and scuttle through the house. It moved from room to room on the first floor as if it were searching for something. The thing was stunningly nimble, lurching here and there without knocking into anything or breaking a single knickknack.

“What’s it doing?” Nolan whispered. He’d edged closer to Sky to watch the tree from a distance.

“I think it’s searching for a place to settle.”

“And then what?”

Sky shrugged. “Nothing.”

“What? That’s it? The thing just lives in the house now?” Panic was creeping into his voice again.

“No, think of it as a live Christmas tree. We’ll put out a pan of water for it, decorate it with ornaments and tiny white lights, and on January first, it’ll scuttle off to where it lives.” Sky paused and cocked his head to the side. “However, I wouldn’t mind if it decided to live in my backyard.”

“Sky!” Nolan gasped.

“What? It would be damned convenient. It would scamper into the house on December first and scamper out to the yard on January first. Think of all the time and money we’d save on cutting down trees or putting up a fake one.”

“You’re insane.”

Sky laughed and gave his boyfriend a shove toward the kitchen. “Go fill the big blue roasting pan with distilled water from the fridge. I’m going to the basement to find a box of Christmas decorations.”

“I’m not going near it without you in the room!” Nolan shouted as he walked to the kitchen.

Sky snickered. “It’s a tree. They don’t have teeth.”

“Sky…don’t!”

Naturally, the necromancer completely ignored Nolan’s warning tone. “Come on! You know it’s all bark, no bite!”

“There’s a special place in Hell for people like you,” Nolan muttered.

“Yes, yes, and we’ll all be sipping mai tais and having a wonderful time, I’m sure,” Sky replied.

While Nolan was preparing the water for the Yule tree, Sky dug out a box of lights and another box of ornaments.

It was too late in the evening to decorate the entire house—that job took at least six hours to do properly—but they could at least get the tree decorated.

Maybe if it were twinkling with white fairy lights and shining with pretty red and gold ornaments, Nolan wouldn’t be so scared of it.

When he returned, Sky coaxed Nolan into helping him move some of the furniture so they could set up a nice open area for the Yule tree by the front window.

As soon as the spot was open, the tree scrambled over and put several of its roots into the pan of water.

The tree shuddered once, as if shaking out its weary limbs, and sank a few inches, settling in.

Since it wasn’t a typical pine tree, it wasn’t easy to cover in lights or hang ornaments from its limbs, but after nearly an hour of steady work, Sky got it decorated and glowing nicely. Nolan refused to touch the tree, but he was willing to at least hold the lights and hand Sky decorations.

Exhaustion sank into their bones as they finally finished getting the tree decorated and settled in its corner of the living room. The BL show they’d been attempting to watch was forgotten, and the only thing that sounded good was bed.

“I’m heading up. You coming?” Nolan said as he retreated from the tree, refusing to turn his back on it.

“Yes!” Sky bounced to Nolan and wrapped his arms around his waist. “We can pick up where we left off.”

“If you think you’re getting lucky with that thing in the house, you’ve lost your damn mind.”

“Oh, Mr. Banks, I think you’re underestimating my powers of seduction.”

“And I think you’re underestimating how creepy that tree is.”

Sky pulled his boyfriend toward the stairs. “It’s fine. We’ve got the tree plugged into the wall, and there’s a cover for the water pan. It’s not going to cause any trouble. What is there to worry about?”