The Snowmaiden, A Bride for Krampus - Jeanette Lynn Page 0,43
but it was true—I’d never wanted Shnikel or even oddball Elkfen Ded and his weird looks and strange comments more than I did now.
A loud grunt and a chuffing harrumph had me stealing a peek at the beast who’d yet to come at me again to find him hunched close but offering me a small semblance of space. He was staring at me with such a puzzled look. His eyes kept darting from the vicinity of my chest to my head. Obsidian eyes darted to my face, meeting my gaze, and he scuttled closer on bent legs.
When I tensed, he stilled. His head cocked to the left, then, slowly, to the right. Closer he moved, his gaze gluing to my blunt tipped fingers, tremoring as I clutched the pelt.
Snatching up my hand, wrenching it free from my knee, where I’d just huddled up and rested it on it, curled into a ball, he jerked me towards him.
When I tumbled, he frowned, eyeing me, then the floor. With a grunt, he jerked my arm again. He wanted me to get up. Terrified of where he’d expect me to follow him if I did, I played stupid, gaping up at him with a wild-eyed look.
Another grunt sounded, and as I feared, as if that meant, Eh, fuck it, she’s coming along one way or another, he began to drag me toward the back of the caves. The back of the caves where the others denned down.
“NO! NO!’ I started to shriek, fight, kick, my free hand trying to clutch my pelt to keep it with me and failing. None of it fazed him. It didn’t matter.
My arm wrenched in its socket as I fought, but that was about all that happened. His grip was like iron.
My skin broke out in a cold sweat I wasn't sure was from the pain of his bites or the dread creeping up my spine.
Right into the middle of a pit of fuzzy wuzzy evilness, he dragged me, giving me a look when I shrieked and some of them began to stir that told me he was warning me to be quiet.
Beasts moved as we passed, grumbling and rolling to their left or right groggily, to go back to sleep. I was in the den of the beasts, right in the heart of it. Oh god. This was bad, really, really bad… I was going to be eaten alive.
Once we were directly in the middle, my kidnapper turned and climbed right over me, settling himself backwards next to me. His clawed feet came on either side of my head and he locked me in, his arms wrapping around my legs to snuggle them like I was his personal body pillow. I wanted to scream. My mouth opened on a soft sound but nothing else came out. I was too terrified to scream.
He’d seen me trembling and thought I was cold? Was that it? And this was his solution?
Something at my back moved and a small whimper escaped me. My body gave a jolt as something pressed to my back and a nose bumped my neck, bending to lean in for a good sniff. A sneeze and a grunt followed, then more snuffling. A hand slapped to my hair, petting it. A deep rumble vibrated my back. A hand came over me to shove the foot on my face off and Ded complied. The beast at my back reached around for my face. A garbled noise left me as he cupped my mouth with his hand. Sharp, long teeth sank deep into the meaty part of my shoulder and I cried out. He bit down harder until I clamped my teeth down on his thick palm and a sob left me. Tears freely flowed down my cheeks at this point. I was in my own living nightmare.
As if that was all he wished, his hand slid from my mouth, dragging the blood on my lips, in my mouth, down my chin. A spicy tomato-y taste hit the back of my throat I recognized as I swallowed, lingering on my tongue. That hand slid to my lower belly and he jerked me flush against him. The beast at my back felt enormous. The biting sting was there but subsiding instantly at my shoulder, along with the ones from Ded. I’d drunken enough blood during this odd bite debacle the nausea threatening had bile rising in my throat. Yet nothing happened.
It was disgustingly warm with all these bodies around us.