Page 21 of Demon Dating Service

Tuk eased to the last of the stairs and scooped the young man up in his arms. Luke gave a snort but didn’t wake as he turned to rest his head on Tuk’s shoulder. And yeah, maybe that made Tuk’s black heart thump, but he wasn’t telling anyone about that.

He snagged Luke’s bag and grunted under the staggering weight. Luke was carrying this around every day? Oh, somebody needed to have words with his professors. They were trying to break their Luke in half.

Trying hard not to disturb him, Tuk carried Luke up to the second floor.

Tuk’s bedroom door flew open when he was within a few feet of it. Craig opened his mouth to howl, but Tuk hissed, “Zip it!” and cut him off.

The werewolf choked on his howl and stared at the man in Tuk’s arms, his furry face twisting up in confusion.

“I’m calling off the scare. He’s not up for it,” Tuk announced.

“Whatever, man. I’ve got cars to chase and hydrants to piss on.” Craig strutted down the stairs without glancing back.

Tuk continued along the hall, flinching as he neared Mag’s room. Except the door didn’t fly open. It sort of rattled in its frame and muffled the moans of the zombies.

A low, weary sigh escaped the demon. The zombies couldn’t open the door.

Mental note: Don’t use zombies for anything.

Of course, the vampires were prompt about flying out of the room as bats, but as soon as they saw Luke in Tuk’s arms, they rematerialized as humans and crowded close.

“Ah, he’s cute,” the brunet cooed.

“Are you sure we can’t have a taste? A tiny one,” the blond wheedled.

“No biting him. Go after the old lady across the street. She’ll invite anyone inside for coffee and gossip.”

The vampires exchanged a single look and were gone in a flash.

Tuk groaned and continued to take the deeply sleeping Luke up to his attic apartment. Gently, he laid the man on his bed, slid off his shoes, and placed a blanket over him so he wouldn’t get cold in the night.

Okay. So maybe Tog had a point. Luke was very hard to scare.

Chapter 9

Thump That Melon

LUKE

Luke sighed and stared at the selection of melons. Should he toss his money away on fruit?

Yes, actually, he should.

Recently, he’d been surviving too much on ramen, pizza, and burgers. Deep down, he knew french fries stopped counting as a vegetable after being cooked in so much oil.

He couldn’t remember the last time he’d eaten a raw vegetable or a piece of fruit. He was probably in danger of getting scurvy. Of course, if the odds were that high, it was likely that most American college students across the country were likely to get scurvy, and he couldn’t remember hearing of any cases of scurvy on campus.

He closed his eyes and groaned at his thoughts. That was all ridiculous.

But when he opened his eyes again, he was still standing in the produce section of the market one bus stop away from the house. He’d enjoyed having the day off from work. Classes had flown by. He’d caught up on his laundry and located a rare book through the college library loan system.

On his way home, he’d thought he’d pop by the store and pick up somethinghealthyto eat. Unfortunately, healthy meantchopping, mixing, and cooking many ingredients. But he didn’t want to get a bunch of food to cook one meal and then have the leftover ingredients end up going bad before he found the time to make another meal.

Plus, there was the whole overload from trying to decide between too many options.

Not to mention that it had been a long day, and now he was out of the energy he needed to even make a decision.

Ugh.