Total pages in book: 27
Estimated words: 25630 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 128(@200wpm)___ 103(@250wpm)___ 85(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 25630 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 128(@200wpm)___ 103(@250wpm)___ 85(@300wpm)
“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?”
Chapter 2
December 5
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.