11. Henley
HENLEY
“Eventually you’re going to have to stop napping on me.” Ignoring the trapped feeling his heavy body gave me, I gave up trying to push him off as our third episode ended. “Okay, I can see why you liked the show.”
It was cheesy compared to current stuff but it was fun and it was obvious that Blade loved it. The only time his gaze moved away from the TV was to occasionally rub his face against mine and to huff when I laughed about something.
He was actually a better date than the last couple of guys I’d gone out with—if we didn’t count the weird form.
“I have questions that I’m either going to have to look up online or ask you once we can communicate more easily.” The tablet was working but it was a slow process. “Do you know enough about Superman and that whole genre in general to answer questions?”
There was no point in driving him crazy asking him stuff he couldn’t answer.
Oh, that face.
I rolled my eyes as he glared at me.
“Clearly that was a ridiculous question.” Based on the expression he was wearing you’d think I’d just questioned his IQ. “Wait.”
I’d dated a guy who was passionate about records and had given me that same look the one time I’d asked why he didn’t listen to music that was clearer.
“You’re a Superman nerd?” My beast was a nerd? “Oh, don’t huff. I think it’s cute. Is it Superman or all superheroes?”
Hmm.
No, I didn’t have it right.
Blade looked away and huffed.
“Comic books?” The way he went stiff and gave a low grumble said I’d guessed right, but also that he was embarrassed. “No pouting. Come here.”
There was no way to budge him unless he’d wanted it, but all it took was one hug around his neck for him to shift and snuggle into me again.
“I really do think that’s cute and it makes you feel more man locked into a difficult body.
I don’t know if that’s the right way to say it, but it makes you feel more real to me and less like I’ve gone insane and I’m hallucinating. ”
Because otherwise something had actually killed me while I’d been hunting the beast and I was bleeding out.
That didn’t seem to be the case but I appreciated anything that made him feel more like a person.
“All the monsters I’ve hung out with have had human-looking or human-adjacent forms. It makes it easier to relate to them.” Hmm. “Oh, and I don’t know if your generation thinks that’s a bad word but I’ve seen it all over online, so I don’t have a negative association with it at this point.”
My parents…well…we weren’t going to talk about how they used that word.
His huff wasn’t sufficient to give me enough information on the word issue, but his glance back at the TV screen was. “It’s cute. I’m picturing you as a sexy stud with a secret comic addiction.”
Blade immediately deflated and hid his face under my arm. “That was a yes and it’s making me even more curious to see your human form and your original shifted one.”
Still hiding.
“You know…I’m pretty sure we can find copies of the comics you were reading before.
Everything is online if we know where to look.
” Blade nuzzled my side but didn’t come out of hiding.
“And there are still stores that sell comics and the style of books that’re basically full novels done in comic form. ”
Easing out of hiding, he settled back on my lap, arching his back to make sure I started petting him again.
“There are conventions about comics and stuff like that. There are whole online social groups built around people’s favorite comics.
We’ve even got probably a hundred different comic movies since you’ve been away, and everyone fights over which of those are good and which are horrible. ”
I didn’t have enough knowledge to have a dog in that fight but it seemed like I now had a shifter in the fight because Blade turned completely around until he was stretched down my entire body.
He was as heavy as I’d expected but the bigger issue was that my body was very confused about what the fuck I was doing.
There were parts of me that were absolute idiots but I was really hoping Blade didn’t know it. No matter what was in his head, the outside packaging didn’t look human in any sense of the word. Not even the kind of almost human with two arms, two legs, and who was really nosy.
He sniffed me.
He grinned.
For fuck’s sake.
Folding my arms over my face, I groaned. “That’s a when you have hands and look human kind of conversation.”
If cats could laugh, I’d have called that chuffing sound a snicker.
“Meanie.”
He just wiggled on top of me, chuffing again, pleased as fuck about driving me insane and confusing me.
“Be nice or I’ll…” I couldn’t even threaten him properly because it wouldn’t be fair. “I’ll do something once you look human again.”
I was not as funny as he seemed to think I was.
Eventually he licked my hands and moved to lie beside me, signaling the end of fucking with me for the moment. That meant I couldn’t hide anymore, but what I could do was pretend that topic had never come up.
I was a pro at ignoring anything I didn’t want to talk about and it looked like Blade was going to let me get away with it.
“I want to look up more about your situation. Do you want to watch me do that and type out questions on the tablet, or do you want to do something fun like watch something on TV?” His option was to groan and roll back over on me. “Not helpful, even if it’s cute.”
That perked him up again.
It seemed like my mate had a thing for praise.
“I need to help you get more information so you can decide what you want to do about the situation.” That had him cocking his head but I wasn’t sure what he was wondering. “I’ll support you no matter what.”
That much I knew on a very instinctual level.
“I know a magic guy who’s really strange, but super weird and powerful.” Had I mentioned weird? “He could probably figure out how to make you look like something humans wouldn’t get worried over and then we’d work on figuring out better communication methods.”
There had to be options I hadn’t considered.
When Blade gave me his questioning face again, I guessed what he was thinking and went back to petting his head. “He’d been hitchhiking. I met him when he was doing his best to politely get away from someone he said didn’t match their aura.”
I shrugged when Blade huffed. “Sounds weird to me, but he said mine matched, so I took him to dinner and we hung out for a while. He had great stories but might’ve been from Mars because the weirdest things confused him.”
Everyone else I’d met made more sense than he had.
“He was nice, though, and he said I was very helpful but needed to be able to protect myself better. So he put a couple of spells on a bag of marbles and told me they’d be a good nonlethal weapon if I ran into more serial killers.”
Blade’s low growl had me shrugging. “I have no idea what he was talking about, but the marbles worked and helped us get away from the ranger guy.”
He still didn’t like that.
I needed a better distraction.
Fuck it.
I kissed his cheek and made my eyes wider to hopefully look cute and innocent. “Now I’ve got you to keep me safe, though.”
Ha.
Somehow he managed to roll his eyes, but I got another chuff, so it went pretty well as far as distractions went.
“Back to my original question before you got us off track.” My attempt at looking serious and scolding him only got another laugh from him. “Do you want to help me research or explore more entertainment?”
He’d been away from TV and fun stuff for a while, so I wouldn’t be offended if he wanted to veg out more.
Nope.
He looked over at the tablet.
“Okay. I’m going to put dinner in the oven and then I’m going to get us set up so we can make some decisions.” Food and facts because he’d need more calories eventually and we needed to figure out what our next step was.
****
“Part of me is really surprised there aren’t more shenanigans going on around here.” Leaning back on the bench as Blade nudged the tablet to stop the way it was reading a newspaper article for him, I frowned at the conversation I’d been having online.
The Monster Network had a narrow focus and hadn’t been sure Blade was real since he’d never shown up online, but I’d gotten more information from the wider paranormal internet. “Everyone says the locals are nice and even the coven around here is supposed to be friendly and supportive.”
I was supposed to be a half-mage, half-human guy who’d never been introduced to the community as a kid, so I didn’t have to worry about how human I sounded on their site. It really wasn’t much harder than being a Bigfoot on the Monster Net but I had to complain about different things.
People only seemed to get suspicious when I didn’t complain.
It was kind of weird.
This time I’d just made it sound like I had friends who wanted to move to the area, and everyone online was used to me being chatty and nosy, so no one thought it was odd.
They’d given me notes on everything from great local restaurants to a realtor who was human but in the know and could help just about anyone.
“You were mentioned a few times but most think The Beast of Bladenboro is a human myth that got out of control and the handful that seemed to understand the situation dropped comments that sound like what the ranger was saying.” No one I’d talked to online was old enough to have been alive when it’d originally happened, but Blade seemed to have turned into a local cautionary tale for making sure everyone realized that anyone could have mental health struggles…
and that when you added magic to the mix things could go very wrong.
The Monster Network guys kept an eye out for him but didn’t seem to understand he wasn’t the same kind of person as Mothman or the Bigfoot who ran the Monster Network.
“Oh, and because of your situation there is now a wider network of therapists and psychologists in the area that deal with the paranormal world.” I probably should stop saying monster around him just in case.
“It’s still slow but they’re not far behind the human world when it comes to handling difficult situations. ”
Depending on what group was talking…I wasn’t going to point out what the cat shifters online had said or about half the Bigfoot community.
He’d already been listening to old newspapers talk about the rumors around him, so I wasn’t going to point out anything else negative.
Some groups were more receptive to mental health help than others.
“That’s another point in believing the locals’ version of events. They talked about it in enough detail to look bad and for other people to want to learn a valuable lesson from it.” I just really wished I’d thought to ask the right questions online to begin with.
I’d met the people who thought it was an old wives’ tale to begin with and hadn’t thought to push deeper. It was a mistake I wouldn’t make again, but it’d allowed me to meet Blade, so I wasn’t going to feel too badly about it.
His soft rumbling sound was a thoughtful agreement, so I nodded toward his tablet. “We can do this the short way or the long way, but have you made up your mind yet?”
Blade nodded.
That was a good start.
“Before I ask any more questions, I’m going to remind you that I will not be angry with your decision, even if it goes all kinds of fucked up and we end up caged and experimented on.
” Blade cocked his head before looking over at the TV.
“Fine. Yes, that was basically the plot of a terrible movie but it fits.”
His chuff had me rolling my eyes. “Anything could go wrong, but the point is that I’m not going to be upset. We’re making the best choices we can and that’s all we can do.”
I’d repeated that enough when I thought about my family that I must’ve sounded believable because Blade licked my cheek.
He was sweet.
“Okay, do you want us to contact someone here like the coven or the ranger?” He might still be pissed, but if he was, Blade could eat him. “It’ll be—”
Blade stopped me by licking my cheek again before he nodded very deliberately.
“I…I need you to tell me you’re doing this for selfish reasons because it can’t just be about me and that…that thing we’re not talking about yet.” Reaching for the tablet, I was a complete pain in the ass and turned on the typing program again.
When I had it positioned right, he huffed but focused on the screen.
F
R
E
E
D
O
M
As I nodded, letting out an admittedly shaky breath, he licked my cheek before shifting his focus back to the words.
T
O
I found myself fighting to sit still as I watched him slowly work through the letters.
To love my mate
To live my life
Then he’d grinned and licked me again.
To talk about movies
“You’re such a dork.” Wrapping my arms around his neck, I pressed my face into his strong muscles and tried to sound relaxed. “I think movies are a good reason. Burgers too.”
The laughing sound he made had me trying not to snicker. “And there are desserts and steaks and caffeine…we’ve got amazing coffee now.”
That got another chuffing laugh out of him as he let me ignore the rest. We’d come back to it eventually but I just couldn’t do it at that moment. My brain kept trying to wonder what would happen to that tenuous bond if something went wrong.
“How about we watch another episode and just snuggle for a while?” Sitting up, I tried to look calm but the way he was studying me said I’d gotten it wrong. “Then we’ll work out the plan.”
At that point there didn’t seem to be a rush to change anything. We had dinner cooking, shows to watch, and a bed to snuggle on…the rest could wait.