Page 31 of Blade

“Eventually you’re goingto 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 awhen you have hands and look humankind of conversation.”