The Snowmaiden, A Bride for Krampus - Jeanette Lynn Page 0,10

and sit there with the car idling, heater warming my chilled to the bone carcass up, until they had the pair in the back of their car and were driving away with them, I had no real reason to linger.

Pulling out of the tiny parking lot, I spared the group freezing their butts off outside one last look before I made the turn that would take me out of here.

I supposed, in a way, that was the most fun, insane as that sounded, I’d had in a long time.

Laughing, shaking my head, I made the turn.

I got off on thwarting would be kidnappers now? Where was the sense of fear for my safety? Should I not be panicking? It was just one happening after another. Perhaps I was in shock from it all, numb from the first we don’t want you here, past the sex couches and butt plugs, and straight up into horror flashbacks of lube-tossed-out past while the store creeps clumsily followed after me.

Turning the Christmas tunes I’d abandoned earlier back on, I made it all the way down the long, empty stretch of road I’d be readying to turn on any minute now, when I cracked.

It started with a tiny giggle of a laugh and grew from there. Before I knew it, I was cackling my ass off, swiping at my eyes desperately as tears streamed down my cheeks.

At that point, I couldn’t tell if I was laugh-crying, or cry-laughing. My emotions were scrambled, one giant, jumbled up mess.

Once I’d safely returned to the cabin, I put my groceries away, dumping my Bigfoot wine to clean out the bottles and fill them with the discounted Halloween colored lights I’d nabbed at the store, and set them on the small windowsill over the sink.

Another giggle left me, eyeing the winter wonderland of snow covered sex furniture. Everything felt funny to me in this moment.

Grabbing a piece of chocolate cake, a big glass of almond milk, and a few pieces of ready to eat oven roasted chicken breast, I sat down in Mom’s reading nook chair, laptop set up on the TV tray and the first DVD set and ready to go. I’d opted for a slew of horror movies, to go with my current mood.

Huddling in my This is boo sheet throw, tiny little ghosts littering the purple material protesting along with the funny saying strewn throughout agreeing with me on this, I took my first bite of chicken and hit play.

“And so it begins,” I whispered, as my night of Christmas-y horror began.

Chapter 6

Bels & Ded

“If you hadn’t started screaming like that, we could have given them the slip much earlier,” Bels grumbled.

Rubbing his hands over his person protectively, Ded muttered defensively, “She was touching me everywhere.” Lower, he added, “She told me I had to take off my clothes.” A shudder that had a hint of a shiver to it wracked his tall frame.

Bels dutifully ignored the look that came over his friend’s face, like Ded was recalling the prompt from the law officer and the Elkfen might have actually enjoyed their rough handlings.

“Your shift was brilliant,” Bels thought to compliment. “I wouldn't have thought of that.”

“Would have been better if you’d made us invisible right off,” Ded muttered petulantly. “Would have saved me the trouble of running around with clothes tatters stuck to me. It’s hard to get about shifted and tangled in garments like that.” The large male’s fur lifted like it was standing on end, chills erupting across his thick hide.

“You know it doesn’t work like that,” Bels said on a huff. Brushing the last of the tinsel from his person, sat huddled where they hunkered down to study their quarry, he rolled his eyes. “It’s for emergencies only, and it only works for so long.”

“Long enough,” Ded mumbled under his breath. Watching the woman coming into view, putting up bottles with little purple and orange lights in them up on the sill, that wasn’t very Christmas-like, not at all. But did that make her naughty?

“See.” Bels lifted a finger and pointed. “She imbibes! Evidence!”

“A lot of people do on the holidays, do they not?” Ded shook his head, his antlers rattling the branches over his head. “She didn’t endanger others by driving while imbibing. She’s alone, by herself.” Scowling as he thought it over, he observed, “Did she not seem sad to you, do you think? Troubled? Is she not in need of a miracle, not a... a…” He still couldn’t say