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Chapter5
Nolan Banks
Another vampire.
He couldn’t say he was excited to see him, even if Sky had said he was a good guy and only there to help him. After his run-ins with the Sandor Clan, Nolan was confident that he could be completely happy never seeing another vampire for as long as he lived.
After Christoph escaped in his car, it took Sky another few minutes to coax their visitors to come through the yard and up the front stairs. The bushes were…restless. Some vines shifted and seemed to follow the two newcomers as they walked up the driveway and along the sidewalk to the porch stairs. Smacking noises, as if the flowers were still savoring the taste of those disgusting pickles, and rustling leaves filled the air.
But as the duo reached the stairs, all the vines had settled into the bushes and everything was quiet except for the distant sound of cars on the road and a dog barking a block away.
Sky showed their new guests inside and disappeared into the bathroom to wash off the stench of the pickle juice from his fingers. Nolan turned off the drama they’d been watching and sat in one of Sky’s comfortable chairs while the strangers settled together on the sofa.
Nolan wrung his hands together, trying not to stare at the two men, who were clearly a couple. Was it wrong that he couldn’t tell which one of them was the vampire? It should be obvious, right?
Not that it had been obvious with Aldo, Colette, or even Christoph. Sure, Christoph gave off this aura of sexy and powerful, but if he’d met the man on the street, his brain wouldn’t have automatically screamed,Vampire!With Aldo and Colette, he’d just thought,Asshole.
One of them had red hair, pale skin, and an eager smile. The other had wild black hair, pale skin, and a frosty glare.Fuck. They both could be vampires for all he could tell.
“I’m a witch,” the redhead announced, pointing to himself. “He’s the vampire.” He poked a finger into his companion’s side. The glare shifted to the witch, but his lips softened noticeably.
“Shit! Can you read thoughts too?” Nolan gasped and instantly wished that hadn’t slipped out of his mouth.
The redhead cackled, and even the vampire snickered softly.
“No! No! I’m Fox. A friend of Sky’s. I take part in a private online forum where we chat about spells—”
“And gossip about TV shows,” the vampire interrupted.
Fox poked the vampire, only to have his finger captured, but the witch ignored him, allowing his finger to be held in the vampire’s grip. “Mad and the others told me Sky had met this human who was going through a crash course in the paranormal world, thanks to some nasty vamps. Plus, you had this expression on your face, like you were trying to figure out if we had fangs.”
Nolan scrubbed a hand over his face and sighed. “Sorry. I have a feeling I’m going to look at everyone like that from now on.”
“It’ll get easier, I swear,” Fox said. His wide eyes twinkled and stared at him with such reassuring warmth that Nolan wanted to believe him. It made sense that there were good vampires and bad vampires. So far, he’d met good witches, but there were probably some bad witches out there, too. Same as people. Some were good and kind. Other were inconsiderate pricks.
It was just that the paranormal people came with a kind of danger he didn’t know how to handle.
“This is my boyfriend, Winter Varik.” Fox continued with the introduction. “He likes to pretend to be this loner badass, but he’s a big sweetheart on the inside.”
Nolan’s gaze shifted over to Winter, and he swallowed hard. Fox could claim his boyfriend was a nice guy, but right now, all Nolan was getting were “I’m going to bite you” vibes, and he already had one vampire chewing on him. He didn’t need another.
“Sorry! Sorry!” Sky’s voice echoed through the house as he hurried from a tiny half-bath on the first floor to the living room. He appeared, still drying his hands with a small mint-green towel. “It takes forever to get that brine off my fingers, and I didn’t want to risk it smelling up the house.”
Fox shifted to the very edge of his seat, his body tensing while a huge smile spread across his face. “What kind of plants are those? Could I grow them in my greenhouse? What spells did you use to grow them like that? What were you feeding them?”
The questions left Fox’s lips in rapid fire while Winter groaned, covering his face with one hand.
“You’ll have to talk to Maddox about that. He knows their official name since he planted them. I call them my Audrey II roses,” Sky began. Nolan snorted. Sky had the most twisted sense of humor, and Nolan could appreciate anyone who made aLittle Shop of Horrorsreference. Sky flashed him a grin and turned to Fox, his expression tightening a bit. “As for them turning out so…”
“Carnivorous?” Nolan supplied.
“Yes. That. Well, that’s kind of influenced by my magic. Whenever I plant things or work in the dirt, the life there…has this strange way of mutating.” Sky winced. Winter chuckled and wrapped his arm around Fox’s waist as the witch stared at the necromancer with an open mouth. Even Nolan was floored. What it sounded like Sky was saying was that he had a knack for turning living plants into zombie plants.
“But it’s not everything!” Sky quickly added. “Nightshade, Belladonna, Lily of the Valley. Generally, most shade plants I can grow the hell out of. However, things like daisies, roses, and lavender turn into something of a nightmare. And you don’t even want to know about the vegetables.” Sky squeezed his eyes shut. “This is why Mad and Red typically keep up with my flower beds. It’s too dangerous for me to go poking in the dirt.”
Nolan caught Sky’s hand and wrapped it in both of his. He lifted it to his lips and brushed a kiss across the knuckles. “If you’re in the mood for fresh vegetables, I’ve got a nice open patch of earth in my backyard. I can start a small garden for you and bring over the produce before it mutates.”
Sky gasped and dropped to the arm of the chair Nolan was sitting in as though his knees had given out. “You’d do that for me?”
