The Snowmaiden, A Bride for Krampus - Jeanette Lynn Page 0,60

to my face, then over my shoulder, my fingertips brushed fat, bumped up nodules from where he’d sunk his chompers into me. Glancing at the spot, I gaped. “I’m glowing. Your marks are glowing.” One look down at my belly and there was still a faint glow. “I’m a glow worm,” I blurted. My gaze darted to Baumb, who seemed perfectly content, snuggling me to him, churring so loud the water stirred. “Is this permanent? Is it going to hurt me?” Lower, I whispered, “Can I die from this? What is this?” My fingers brushed the bite marks again. They lit up when a shiver instantly wracked me. Baumb let out a loud, happy noise. “Well, if that wasn’t telling,” I mumbled faintly.

“Mine,” Baumb rumbled out, leaning in to rub his chin along the top of my head, then, using his nose, nuzzled his way down until our noses bumped and rubbed. His whiskers twitched as they brushed me and we both shivered.

“So… you’re not mad at me anymore, then? Uhm… Baumb Loo-me?” I queried tentatively, biting my lip as he brushed his nose up one side of mine and right back down the other.

“Baumb Loo-me,” he purred, then closed his mouth over mine. And I mean purred. My body vibrated with it until my side, pressed up against him, was numb. His main tongue brushed the seam of my lips, searching, tasting. The action was sweet, curious. Just as fast as he’d begun to explore, he eased up. His happy purr was so loud the churring was a muted hum.

“Oh, look,” I said on a laugh, “your little friends have shot free to say hello.” Reaching out, I touched the tip of one of the glow spot feelers that slid free of its housing. The spade-like end wrapped around my finger, glowing brighter at the contact. My finger wiggled and it let go to retract.

A soft grunt, followed by muttering and a chuff, had me glancing up to the hooves smacking the cave wall unhappily. Another huff sounded.

Following my gaze, Baumb snorted. “Kraumpensuss,” he said with a note of disgust. “Mine Hunman. Baumb Loo-me.”

“Baumbel…” A familiar chuff sounded off behind us. “Bad. Bad.”

My eyes widened. Ded didn’t… That wasn’t.

“He just spoke,” I mumbled to Baumb. “Ded Krampus doesn’t actually talk.” Squirming until I was sitting up, I tried to peer closer to the pouting, from the sounds of it, Krampus wall ornament.

Baumb scowled and grunted. The Baumbel was unimpressed. “Mine,” he began to grumble, until his gaze was darting from the Krampus stuck on the wall to me. “Nawt Kraumpensuss. Nawt Ded Loo-me. Mine.”

“No. No,” I reassured him, shaking my head vehemently. “I’m yours. I’m so yours, Fluffy Stuff, I’m just- How is- I mean, why? And you? Where are the words coming from? Who has been playing hooked on beastly phonics with either of you?” One glance down at my person and I scowled. How? I didn’t… What had I done differently this time with Ded, or even Baumb? My hand went to my eyes. “My tears,” I whispered as I nearly poked my own eyeball out and it began to water at my finger’s proximity. “With Ded, he’d tasted my tears?” I guessed. What an odd thing to bring him around, though… Shnikel Krampus had been interested in the taste of my tears too and he’d come back from the brink. “What a weird thing to be the secret ingredient to unKrampus a beast,” I murmured. Could it really be that simple?

Ideas ran through my head, odd, silly ones. Could I cry enough to put it in their water and get them all to drink it? Smear some salty tears over meat and get them to eat it? Did it have to be fresh? Why my tears? Would any tears do? Did Krampus cry?

“No,” Baumb grunted out, interrupting my thoughts.

“Huh? Hmm? What?” I mumbled, dragged from wonderings.

“No,” he said again, more firmly.

“No what?” I blinked, staring at him.

“No,” he just kept saying, his voice growing flat.

“Um, okay,” I agreed, though to what I wasn’t sure, but somehow I had a weird feeling he was on to me. My suspicions grew, and along with it a sense for him, like his glow monster bite had aided me with some monster for a mate intuition I hadn’t been privy to before.

When he’d dried us both off, swaddling me in blankets to nestle me within the stack on the sleeping platform, stoked the warming rocks, and with a click at