The Snowmaiden, A Bride for Krampus - Jeanette Lynn Page 0,13
gold. The tall one stumbled where he stood. His antler strapped head began to go wonky, like that dust was causing confusion. Drugs. Some kind of fast acting drugs. He’d just doused himself with them. Oh god, they’d snuck in here to drug me! Ded, the one Bels was yipping and yapping instructions at him, from the corner of the kitchen, to douse me already, tumbled to his ass. Grabbing up the table tray, lifting it high by one of its legs, I swung it at Ded’s head as he picked himself up off the floor, then Bels’ short form.
Ded yelped and then slumped, toppling to the ground like a felled oak. The guy was freaking tall. Bels went flying back, slamming into the cupboards with a screech. With his fall, came the stench of cinnamon and sugar. It came out of him like a visible fart cloud reeking of freshly baked cinnamon rolls. If I hadn’t seen it for myself, I’d never have believed it. Did he swallow cinnamon pills by the handful? What the hell?!
Before I could give that another thought I was moving. Walking right over Ded’s prone form, wondering if he’d decided to croak and be fitting of his name, I had the zipper on my purse open, hand on my gun, grabbing it out to aim, when a strange noise rent the air and I felt something, or more aptly, someone, leap onto my back.
Clawed fingers tore at my hoodie as I thrashed and the bastard clinger-on fought. Dropping forward, sending him flying over me, his claws raking down my back with the action, I screamed and lifted my hands to shoot as he dropped to his scrawny ass.
It was dark in the room, and he was fast—scarily inhumanly so. I got one shot off, aimed right for his pale, freckled, bright red haired head, but then it was like he was gone. My gaze swung around wildly, but then I spun around and scrambled for the back door.
I was out of the back door and rushing through the snow with double layered socks on, sweat pants, and my favorite hoodie, all tore up from the Christmas gremlin from hell, faster than I was currently capable of thinking.
My hands shook, the gun clutched tightly in my swiftly numbing grip felt unnaturally heavy. I was just past the sex sofa when something hit from my side. A flash of tiny, pointed teeth filled my field of vision as a weight settled on me. There was the spark of gold and silver, the strange scent of pumpkin pie on the air. One second I was coughing, gagging, then I was slumping, dumping to my side to slide down into the snow.
A glaring Elf came into view then, staring down at me like he wanted to beat me with the gun that fell from my limp grasp. I was sleepy, and quickly getting sleepier by the second.
“Bels?” The bellow across the back lawn had my heart racing, even as everything else slowed.
“No,” I garbled out, the words unintelligible.
“Out here! Got her! The dust has got the same effect on her as us, apparently,” Bels murmured with disapproval. “That’s not normal.” Shaking his head, he started to wander back towards the house.
Bleary eyed and blinking, a soft whimper left me as Ded came into view. If he was upset I’d doused him, he wasn’t showing it. Kneeling down next to me, he adjusted my limp form into a more comfortable looking position. His hands shook as our skin met. A breath left him on a soft gasp. Our eyes met as my lids threatened to droop.
“Lumi,” he murmured, like we were intimate acquaintances. Leaning in, pausing to glance up towards the house, he gave my hair a deep sniff. A strange rattling started in his chest but then he shook his head, then himself, and it abruptly shut off. “Lumi,” he murmured again, a weird, soft smile tilting his lips. “It means snow,” he whispered, reaching a shaking finger out to run it through my hair.
I was so freaked out I was screaming at my body to work.
Cocking his head, he eyed me. “Lumi Arddduzzzmunnn, your identifying card says. Lumi Ardzman, Snowmaiden. You’re special, Lumi.” Ded’s face lit like he’d just said something rather clever. “You’re going to help Shnikel. I know it. You’re the one.” His thumb brushed my cheek bone, lingering there. I wished I could bite his damn hand, snap my teeth at him to get