Moon Shadows

by Neena Jaydon

  "Thanks." Sensing that Adrian was completely serious, Max resisted the urge to laugh.

  Adrian shook himself. It reminded Max of the way dogs would suddenly shake, as if their skins had slipped awry and needed to be thrown back into place.

  "That sucked so harsh," he said.

  "I can believe it," Max said.

  "Can you?" Adrian was glaring again. "How can you possibly know, gay monkey? You know what it feels like hitting your own skinny, little girlfriend and seeing her just—just on the floor, and you can't even see if she's okay, 'cause your own damn body's going somewhere else? And Theofanis." He shook his head, teeth clenched. "Yeah, we wind each other up, but I've known him since he was a baby, man. Seeing my own hands putting him in fucking chains, like some kinda goddamn animal—"

  "That wasn't you," Max said, unable to stop himself. He did not like Adrian, but he wasn't going to blame him for being possessed. "That was the shadow spirits, not you."

  "I know that," Adrian snapped, but his voice lacked bite. "I can't get it outta my head. She's all I got. And I coulda killed her."

  "But you didn't. Just like I could've killed you, and I didn't," Max said. "Get over it." He didn't feel guilty letting Adrian think he'd had any control over that. This got him an irritable look, but then Adrian cleared his throat.

  "Look, man, stop trying to piss me off. I'm trying to apologize."

  "I already told you, that wasn't—"

  "For before that." Adrian over-rode him. "I couldn't see you being good enough for the runt, that's all. I was trying to scare you off, you know."

  It took Max a moment to wrestle his anger down. He looked at the harvest gold fridge, and it seemed to ground him. He walked over to stand in front of Adrian, looking him in the eye. Slouched over, Adrian was just a little smaller today.

  "Just so you know," Max said, "you don't throw people you care about into walls. Or treat their houses like your own personal playground. Or mess with their partners. I'm a peaceful guy most of the time, but if you ever get all hyper-macho on Theo again, I'll do my 'badass' thing."

  Adrian gave him a disgusted look, then took a long swig of beer. He set down the bottle and held out his hand.

  "Deal," he said, smiling his nasty smile. Max shook that hand, which engulfed his own and held on far too tightly. "You hurt him, though, I'll twist your head off."

  "Fair enough," Max said. He retrieved his wine glass and left the kitchen. Kelsie passed him on the way back to the living room and gave him one of her what-can-you-do smiles. He smiled back.

  "Okay, enough of that," Max told the twins, gesturing for them to get off the couch. "My boyfriend."

  "But—" they said, slightly off unison.

  "Get!" Grumbling, they did so. Theo smiled at him and shifted to make room. Slipping his arm around Theo's shoulders, Max gave him a light kiss on the mouth. "You doing okay with all these people here?"

  "People I know are never a problem," Theo said quietly. "And right now it's good." He paused, obviously choosing his words. "I think you never really got this. I like belonging, y'know. Being at cons, it's all people like me, and it's awesome. And it's not like family, where you're always stuck as the same person no matter how much you grow up or change."

  "I get that, Theo, I really do."

  "But I got to thinking, like, your family's kind of weird." He grinned wryly. "Maybe weird enough even I could..."

  "You think you've got a choice on that one?" Max laughed to hide how moved he was. "The Shevchenkos laid claim on you, Wolf Boy. You belong to us whether you want to or not." In a matter of months I went from stubbornly single to this. Shit, I could marry him. Max felt his throat tighten as he gazed at Theo. Maybe it's too early to think this way, but I think I could seriously take this nerdy werewolf to have and to hold.

  Perhaps sensing how deep things were getting, Theo broke the gaze. He plucked at the blanket rather mournfully. "You don't have to look at me l-like that. I'm just a little worn out, you know. It's been five days. I'm fine."

  "You should probably know your complexion means it's really obvious when you haven't been sleeping," Max said, relieved for the distraction. "If you'd go outside once in a while when the sun's still shining, you wouldn't look like a panda right now."

  Theo bristled for a moment; then he visibly relaxed, rolling his eyes. "I do go outside. Just not enough to tan."

  "With all that Mediterranean blood, shouldn't you tan pretty much instantly?"

  "Yeah, well," Theo muttered. Max grinned, bumping his shoulder against Theo's.

  "When everything settles down here, I want to take you somewhere sunny." He saw the wariness in those lovely grey eyes and shook his head. "Not because I want you to be this whole different guy who loves parties on the beach or anything like that, but because I want to see you out in the sun, smiling and happy and gorgeous and just..." He smiled tightly. "Just plain mine." Then his smile relaxed and spread as he saw the warmth come into Theo's eyes and felt his weight lean his way. As people around them talked about all kinds of worrisome things, most of them in the past tense, Max and Theo came together at the same moment, hands on each other's cheeks, in a single, discreet, important kiss. They separated and leaned their shoulders into the couch, so they were facing each other.

  "So where do you want to go?" Theo asked.

  "At this time of year, maybe California? Or Mexico," Max mused. Theo put a hand on his knee, his eyes widening.

  "There's a con in San Francisco in, like, a month," he said breathlessly. Max threw his head back and laughed, making everyone look. "No, seriously, we could do both," Theo rallied. He then looked sharply at the door.

  Picking up on that signal, Max went to open it. He blinked in surprise as Frankie burst past him, Whitney and Marnie right on his heels.

  "Theo, man, you here?" Skidding to a stop, Frankie looked from person to person, then focused on Theo. His face paled. "What? What's wrong? You okay?"

  "I'm just—uh, yeah. What's—" Theo started to get to his feet.

  "When you didn't show up for lunch, we got worried," Whitney said. Marnie stood behind him, hands on his shoulders, her eyes wide behind her glasses.

  "Oh, shit, it's a lunch day." Theo put a hand to his forehead. "God, guys, I'm sorry."

  "We called you, like, a thousand times," Frankie said.

  "I just haven't, uh, been feeling so hot, and I turned stuff off, y'know, like I do..."

  "How many times have we told you? You have to let us know when you're going to do that," Marnie complained. Theo floundered, looking from one friend to another.

  Anastasia made her way to Frankie, smiling and holding out her hand. "Hi, I'm Anastasia Shevchenko. Max's sister. You might know me as the woman Theo pulled out of the river."

  "Nice to meet you—no way! You're her?" Frankie's eyes widened as he shook her hand. "I'm Frankie."

  "Could you help me in the kitchen, Frankie?" She linked arms with him and smoothly guided him down the hall.

  "But wait, Theo's clearly lying," Max heard Frankie saying. "He's a crap liar." Snorting into his drink, Max nudged Theo's leg.

  "Told you."

  As Theo, at a loss, sank back down onto the couch, Max gestured for Whitney and Marnie to go in. They hesitantly entered the living room.

  "You really okay, Theo?" Whitney asked.

  "Yeah," Theo said with an unfettered smile. "I really, really am." Then the room grew busy with introductions and pleasantries; Whitney filled Theo in on some arcane rundown of a TV show he'd missed, while Max's parents came over to discuss Christmas plans. The room was warm, golden, and alive with an eclectic mix of personalities.

  Max stood a little to the outside of it, watching Theo grow more animated as he talked to his friends. It no longer bothered him that Theo acted easier with them.

  That just means they don't excite him like I do. It means I have a different place in his life. He couldn't believe they'd ever fought about such things. With things like Deep Murky out there, the shad
ow spirits, or natural disasters or car accidents or disease, how could he ever have thought it was important to "normalize" Theo?

  I love him. Max slowly smiled, easing himself off the doorframe. I think I'll go tell him that. When Marnie and Whitney were drawn into conversation with Max's parents, Max slid in next to Theo on the couch. Theo turned to him, blinking solemnly.

  Max leaned over to whisper in his ear.

  Fin

  About the Author

  Neena Jaydon has been turning things into stories for most of her life, from building a world of spacefaring wolves and riders out of blocks to writing for hours on end in the basement. She loves fantasy best but also dabbles in space opera and cyberpunk. When not writing, she obsesses over Asian Ball-Jointed Dolls and various forms of geekery, such as video games featuring attractive fellows, and Japanese voice actors. Her English MA thesis keeps getting in the way of her fiction writing, although the elves and the mages regularly win out anyways. Animals are rarely far away, although they usually aren’t hers; her memoirs could be titled Adventures in Petsitting.

  Website: http://neenajaydon.net/

  Tumblr: http://neenajaydon.tumblr.com/