Chapter 2
Nolan didn’t trust the tree, but after a couple of days, his panic about the odd creature in the corner of their living room had faded.
They refilled the pan of water each day and unplugged the lights each night before they went to bed.
Since coming inside and getting settled in its spot, the thing hadn’t moved.
Other than its curled roots showing and the fact that it had walked into the house, it really wasn’t that different from a normal Christmas tree.
But what had he expected when he’d jumped into a relationship with a necromancer who had man-eating roses in the front yard and a “live”-in ghost Grammy who popped by to give unsolicited relationship advice and catch up on the neighborhood gossip?
Following the tree’s arrival, Nolan had helped Sky haul his many boxes of Christmas decorations out of the basement.
The interior of their home now looked like a Christmas fluff bomb had exploded in every room.
There were smiling Santas, twinkling lights, stockings, reindeer, angels, and even a miniature glowing village on a puffy cotton snow bed.
The only thing they still needed to put up was the fake tree that would have gone in the spot the creepy spider tree was now in.
Not that they needed another tree. From Nolan’s perspective, the walking tree was more than enough. However, Sky was sad that the new tree couldn’t handle all his ornaments and argued that the fake tree needed to go up so the rest of the ornaments could be displayed as well.
They also needed to finish the outdoor decorations, but those were limited because the roses didn’t care for the inflatable or plastic figures.
Sky explained that since the roses got jealous and would the decorations, they would put up a few white lights around the door.
That was fine with Nolan. The temperature had dropped significantly in the past week, and he had no interest in being on a ladder out in the cold and hanging lights.
Everything appeared fine.
Which was usually when things went horribly wrong. But it didn’t happen in the way he’d expected, though.
Nolan frowned at the remains of the last load of unfolded laundry in front of him. Something was off.
“Hey, baby!” Nolan called out from the top of the stairs.
A couple of seconds later, Sky’s voice swept from the foyer. “What’s up?”
“Could you come here for a moment? There’s something wrong with the laundry.”
A low chuckle carried up the stairs ahead of Sky.
Nolan waited at the foot of the bed where he’d been folding the last load.
It had seemed like a normal lazy Saturday, where they usually spent the first half of the day catching up on all the housework followed by a run to the grocery.
It was one of Nolan’s favorite parts of being in a relationship with Sky—the mundane things they shared suddenly felt special.
“What’s wrong?” Sky asked as he strolled into the bedroom.
Nolan motioned to the bed, where six different socks lay without their mates. “This was the last load. I folded everything else and put it away.”
Sky’s brow furrowed, and he rubbed his chin. “That…seems a little high.”
“At worst, I’ve had two socks without mates, but six? I’ve already checked around the bed and in the bathroom hamper. I can’t find a single one of them.”
“Did you check the dryer or the laundry room floor? Maybe you dropped some on the way upstairs?”
“No, but do you really think I dropped six socks and didn’t notice?”
Nolan’s devilish boyfriend beamed at him as he shrugged.
With a groan, Nolan grabbed Sky’s shoulders and turned him toward the door. “Fine. You’re coming with me and helping me search, smartass.”
They tromped back down the stairs, scanning the floor the entire way to the tiny laundry room off the kitchen, but there wasn’t a single sock on the floor or forgotten in the dryer. They searched between the machines, and even behind them, but found nothing.
“Have you been using any underworld minions recently that prefer socks?”
“Nope. Just my regulars, and they all demand sandwiches. I haven’t found one yet that has a thing for socks.
” One of the perks of being a necromancer was being able to talk to the various minions of the underworld.
And it also didn’t hurt that he’d discovered that many of the minions were more than happy to do small, odd jobs for him in exchange for a deli-meat sandwich and a snack-sized bag of chips.
It was a killer deal considering how quickly and easily they could complete some tasks.
Nolan sighed and led the way up to the bedroom. “What the hell? How did we lose six socks? Those red ones I wore two days ago, and I know I tossed both of them in the hamper that night.”
“I like those red ones on you. They make your feet appear even bigger.”
Nolan snorted, a smile teasing his lips no matter how hard he tried to remain serious. “You’re so weird.”
“Eh. I find it sexy.”
“Oh, I’ll show you—” His words stopped short as his eyes fell on the bed where they’d left the socks. “Look! Now there’s only four! I’m not losing my mind. I know there were six there when we went downstairs. Did you take two?”
Nolan swung around to pin Sky with an accusing glare, but Sky was quick to hold up his empty hands. “Not me! I didn’t touch them.”
“What the fuck! Are there such things as goblins or gremlins that steal your socks? Or a ghost? You’d know it if the house were haunted, right?”
“The house is haunted.”
Nolan almost groaned. “I’m not talking about Grammy.”
“Oh, then no. The only ghost in this house is Grammy, and she wouldn’t bother our socks. Besides, she’s currently out visiting a friend in the next town over.”
Nolan closed his eyes and rubbed them with his thumb and index finger. “Sky, what is stealing our socks?”
“No clue. I haven’t summoned anything from the underworld in weeks, so there shouldn’t be anything lurking nearby. And none of them has ever had an interest in socks.”
“Are you sure?” Nolan dropped his hand and glared hard at his boyfriend. “Because you were pretty sure that the tree came from the underworld.”
“You don’t think…” Sky started, letting the words fade. “I mean, it would have had to come up the stairs, and it’s currently plugged into the wall.”
“Babe, it walked into the house and found a spot to rest. I wouldn’t be surprised if it could crawl up the stairs.”
They stared at each other for another second and then raced down the stairs to find the tree…
exactly where they’d left it in the corner of the room.
Its lights twinkled, and its ornaments appeared completely undisturbed.
The one strange thing was that it appeared somewhat poofier. Just a bit fuller.
Sky marched up to the tree and glared at it with his hands on his hips. “All right. The jig is up. We know you’ve been stealing our socks. Cough ’em up.”
The tree didn’t move. It was almost enough to make a person believe that it really couldn’t have done it.
“I’m serious. I want the socks now. All of them,” Sky barked.
The underworld tree finally shifted slightly, its branches scraping and rattling.
It rose on its roots and shook violently, twisting this way and that.
In the blink of an eye, eight socks flew out of the depths of the tree like startled birds taking flight.
Nolan gasped and stumbled back a step, watching as the socks landed on the furniture and floor.
Amazingly, not a single ornament had been disturbed by the thrashing.
“All right. No more stealing socks,” Sky admonished, wagging a finger at the tree as if it were a troublesome two-year-old.
“Are you kidding me?” Nolan squawked. It felt like his brain was going to melt and ooze out of his ears. Each time he thought he was getting used to the magical weirdness of Sky’s world, something new happened to throw him for a loop.
“What? It’s just some socks. Not a big deal.”
“Not a big deal?” Nolan demanded, his voice growing higher in pitch. “If it stole our socks, that means it went upstairs. Possibly when we are sleeping.”
“Huh. That’s true.” The necromancer turned to the tree and got out his wagging finger again. “No more wandering through the house. You stay right there with your pan of water. If you keep it up, I’m putting you outside.”
“Oh my God,” Nolan muttered, scrubbing a hand over his face.
Sky moved to him and wrapped his arms around his waist. With a magic that was Sky’s alone, the panic and confusion that frazzled Nolan’s nerves dissipated like smoke. How could he stay angry with Sky grinning at him like that?
“It’ll be fine. I’m sure it was curious and wanted to explore. It’ll stay put now,” Sky reassured him.
“I hope you’re right. I think I’d have a heart attack if I stumbled across that thing in the middle of the night on my way to get a drink of water.”
The necromancer with the sweet smile leaned up and brushed a kiss across Nolan’s jaw. “Don’t worry. I’ll protect you from the little tree.”
A reluctant smirk toyed with the corner of Nolan’s mouth as he leaned down to steal another kiss. “You better, or I’m going to feed you to that tree.”