5. How To Accidentally Move In With Your Crush

Joey scrambleddown the hallway with Samsen, their babies clutched to their chests.

Behind, a noxious, snake-like creature gained on them, fangs dripping with venom.

Just a few more moments, and they'd be out the front door.

Except the front door slammed open, and a silver-skinned man stepped in, stopping them in their tracks.

They were trapped on both ends. Joey panicked. He thought about grabbing Samsen and his baby, and phasing them through the walls, maybe out of the house. But two babies and two adults were more than he could handle.

Instead, Samsen grabbed him. The four of them became mist the next moment, Joey's body turning into something dizzyingly light.

Samsen flew them into a vent. Then, into broad daylight. Joey didn't have time to make sense of anything before they all dropped onto the roof, back in their physical bodies.

Joey clutched Katie against himself and almost threw up. But there was no more snake creature, and no more kidnapper hot on their trail.

"Oh, gods," he panted.

Samsen shoved his baby at Joey, and leaped off the roof to save Valor.

"I'll keep you safe," Joey whispered at them.

Mazie looked calmly up at him. She was so used to Joey babysitting her that she didn't even blink at his presence.

Katie made soft, uncomfortable sounds—she wasn't used to turning into mist, either. "Shh, Katie. It's okay. You're safe now."

She scrunched up her face and cried. Joey felt so bad for her.

He rocked them in his arms, shuffling awkwardly to the edge of the roof. A few streets away, cars sped toward them. In the backyard, the bad guys had surrounded Valor. Joey clutched the babies, feeling so helpless.

Caught up in the action, he didn't realize that the snake-thing had somehow gotten itself onto the roof.

He shrieked, heart clenching as it slithered fast toward them, rearing up as though it was about to strike.

Would the babies be okay with a phase shift this soon after becoming mist?

Did they have a choice?

No sooner had he thought that, than Samsen's mist came swooping back.

He materialized with Valor, who tackled the creature off the roof.

The chaos intensified.

A pterodactyl fell out of the sky. Blade's friends joined the fray, and Samsen staggered back, collapsing next to Joey.

"Are you okay?" Joey yelped.

"In a bit," Samsen panted. He needed blood badly—he was so pale. "I'll be fine."

Joey set Mazie carefully on Samsen's chest. Samsen seemed to hold her securely enough, so Joey left him to peek over the roof.

Several cars had pulled into Valor's driveway. Red and blue lights flashed on a patrol car.

Blade was stepping out of it, his uniform clinging to all the muscles on his body.

Joey's stomach flipped.

"He's here," he squeaked just as Blade looked up. Suddenly shy, Joey threw himself backward. "Oh, gods. I think he saw me."

Samsen grinned. "You should say hi."

Even though he'd had Blade's voice in his ear for the past five days, even though he knew exactly how Blade sounded when he came, meeting Blade in person made Joey so damn nervous.

What if Blade had forgotten just how scrawny Joey was? What if he'd forgotten that Joey was just scraping through life with nothing to his name?

"No," Joey mumbled, hiding his face in Katie's stomach. She giggled and burped smoke. "I don't think it's gonna work out."

Samsen rolled his eyes. "You haven't even tried."

"Nope. Noooope. I don't want to be heartbroken." Joey said the last bit extra quietly, just in case Blade could somehow hear this far.

But Samsen only gave him a knowing look. "You're going to be heartbroken if he finds someone else."

Joey gulped. He couldn't stand the thought of Blade kissing someone that wasn't him, either. "Shush."

Valor joined them on the roof. He looked intently into Samsen's eyes and scooped Samsen into his arms, and Joey ached with envy.

He wanted someone to look at him like he was the only thing that mattered.

"I guess it's just the two of us left, huh?" he said miserably to Katie, cuddling her close and peeking over the edge of the roof.

Blade was now talking to Telos, his eyebrows drawn low as he surveyed the destruction. He pulled out a tablet and tapped into it, walking around.

More police cars pulled up. The officers got out and reported to Blade, and he pointed them to various parts of Valor's property.

All of them obeyed him.

Just how high up on the food chain was he?

And why would he give Joey the time of day, when he could have literally anyone?

Blade was in the middle of directing some officers to the far end of the backyard, when Katie caught sight of him. She kicked excitedly in Joey's arms and said loudly, "Aw!"

Those reddish-brown eyes snapped up to them immediately.

Joey yelped, flinging them away from the edge of the roof. "Shhh!" he told Katie. "We, um. We should stay out of the way."

But it was too late; Blade had found out that they'd been watching him.

His cheeks burning, Joey shuffled to a shady spot behind the chimney, watching everyone work.

Well, mostly, he watched Blade. He didn't have much of a choice when Blade moved to the far end of the backyard, giving him a view of the entire roof. Including Joey. And Joey couldn't hide from him.

Now it felt like Blade was watching them every other minute.

Joey felt so self-conscious. His cheeks kept flushing, and he didn't know what to do with himself.

"Help," he whispered to Katie.

Katie grinned and smacked her hands on his chest.

Eventually, Samsen took pity on him and brought Valor back onto the roof. "We weren't sure if you wanted to get down by mist," Samsen explained. "The alternative is, Valor could grab you and jump."

Joey wished Blade was the one volunteering. "I'd rather jump."

"All right," Valor said. He scooped Joey and Katie into his arms, and leaped off the roof.

Joey clutched at him, stomach swooping. It was terrifying.

But Valor landed smoothly on his feet, setting Joey and Katie back on the ground.

When Joey turned, he found Blade watching them with narrowed eyes.

Did I make him angry?Joey didn't deal so well with angry men. He had to escape.

He ducked out of sight and sought shelter with Samsen. "Um, could you feed Katie? The house is on lockdown. Katie's formula is still in there."

"Of course." Samsen brought them to a quiet spot and let Katie nurse from his chest.

The sight made Joey feel like an imposter. Like he wasn't really Katie's dad, because he couldn't make milk for her.

When Samsen handed her back, Joey brought her to the gazebo to hide from all the people in the backyard—the policemen, and Blade's friends lurking around making sure the place was safe.

Joey leaned Katie's reassuring weight against his chest, her head over his shoulder as he rubbed her back.

She burped.

For a while, he just stood there, wondering what to do next.

Except fate decided it for him—hot air licked his neck in a horrible, familiar way.

Joey turned, alarm blaring in his head.

Bright orange flames had swallowed the drapes. They raced up the nice fabric, leaving charred cloth in their wake. His stomach clenched. "Oh, gods!"

Had the flames been smaller, he'd have smacked them down with his hands. But this was a big fire, releasing terrible plumes of black smoke into the sky. Joey looked around in a panic.

Yaeger was next to him, suddenly. The dragon shifter pointed a hose at the flames and sprayed water all over them, putting out the destruction with a hiss.

"I'm sorry!" Joey felt like crying. This was exactly why he didn't want to move in with Valor. "I'll pay you back for it. I'll fix it somehow. I'll—"

"It's fine," Valor said. "It happens."

"But you invited me here to stay with you. And—And it happened at the safe house, too. I don't think Katie and I can stick around. We're just going to destroy everything sooner or later."

Onyx—Liem's demon boyfriend—shook his head. "You need somewhere safe to stay. If not Valor's, then maybe Yaeger's? They have dragon children there."

"But..."

"They can live with me," Blade said suddenly. "My things are fireproofed."

Joey's heart tripped. Wasn't Blade mad at him?

"Yes, Joey can stay with you," Samsen said before Joey could react. "He's very nice and he doesn't have a lot of things. He needs more things."

There was a gleam in Samsen's eyes that made Joey nervous.

When Joey peeked at Blade, he found the man rubbing his chin. "I can get a guestroom ready," Blade said slowly. "Give me a day."

Then their gazes locked, and something flickered in Blade's eyes. Something dark and hungry that said, Maybe you won't be staying in my guestroom after all.

Joey's insides jolted.

He tore his eyes away and mouthed at Samsen, Oh, gods!

Samsen hurried over to hug Joey. "It's going to be better than you think," he whispered. "He's big. You just have to be ready."

Joey grew so wet, he couldn't look anyone in the eye.

Blade had been making him promises. So many promises. And he really was big.

Katie burped a mouthful of smoke into his shirt, along with some sparks.

The sparks ate into the cotton and flickered into flames. Like it always did, the fire spread quickly.

Joey could only watch with sick fascination as Samsen yelped and smacked at the flames.

Blade was in front of Joey before he could blink. Blade flattened his palm over the flames, extinguishing them with a press of heat.

He pushed his fingers into Joey's neckline and peeled Joey's shirt off his shoulder like he had every right to it, and Joey grew weak in the knees.

"Are you hurt?" Blade growled. He brushed his fingers over Joey's skin where the flames had licked them, sending a wave of tingles through his body.

Was he going to touch the rest of Joey just as possessively?

Joey swayed on his feet. "Oh, gods. I'm going to die."

"You won't." Blade narrowed his eyes. He rubbed his thumb over Joey's skin again, a slow, circular stroke like he couldn't stop touching. Reluctantly, he tugged Joey's shirt back into place. "Looks like we'll need to get you some things ASAP. You're coming home with me."

Oh, gods. Oh gods! It's going to happen!

Joey fought so hard not to think about Blade pressing him into his bed.

Samsen tapped Joey on the arm, and showed him a message on his phone:

He might sex you immediately!

Blade had probably seen the message. He huffed softly, his mouth curving into an amused smirk.

His face burning, Joey took Samsen's phone, arranging Katie into a more comfortable position. He tapped a message back:

I'm a virgin!

The sex wouldn't happen immediately. But Blade would be thorough, and then he would fuck Joey out of his mind.

Samsen seemed surprised at Joey's message. He eyed Blade's towering figure, then Joey's much-smaller one. "Uh. You may need the full set of cucumbers and carrots and corn. I'm sure Blade will take you vegetable shopping."

Why did he think Joey wanted to use Elson's methods of stretching?

Not that Blade had been any better by suggesting that cucumber.

Blade glanced at Joey. "You need vegetables?"

"No!" Joey was not putting a whole buffet of vegetables up his ass. No, thank you.

"He means yes," Samsen said. In a whisper, "Elson said it helped!"

When Joey looked up, he found Blade wincing. So he decided to be brave.

Joey grabbed Blade's large, warm hand, and dragged him to the other side of the house.

"We're not buying all the veggies," Joey said.

Blade snorted. "Yeah. Yaeger said Elson strung them up like soaps on ropes, but it was veggies on ropes."

They exchanged a long look, the promises from several phone calls hanging between them. Joey blushed under Blade's gaze.

"So, um. We're really... You don't mind me moving in with you?"

Blade's sinful mouth tipped up at the corners. In a low purr, he asked, "You don't mind me moving into you, Joey?"

Joey blushed so hot, he thought he'd faint. "Wh-when can we, um—?"

"Let's see if we can get your things out of here," Blade growled. "I'm still on duty, but I can't wait for after."