The Snowmaiden, A Bride for Krampus - Jeanette Lynn Page 0,74
Bels raised the scythe up over his head.
Shnikel snarled and came charging up to us. He shot over me, tackling Bels.
Bels let out a shriek as they fell, then a series of ear piercing screams.
It was the blade that shot through Shnikel’s back and the pained grunt that left him that had me screaming.
Bels shoved Shnikel off of him at the horrendous roar that filled the tunnels, my Baumbel on his way.
Face ashen, eyes wide and panicked, Bels shot up, rolled Shnikel, and leveraged his foot on my Elkfen’s chest to pull his knife free. Another scream left me and I scrambled to my feet. Knife in hand, Bels fled.
I was at Shnikel’s side in an instant, pressing my hand to his wound.
A choked cough left Shnikel, his breathing wrong, wet. He was trying to speak but couldn’t.
“It’s okay. It’s okay,” I whispered. “It’s going to be okay.”
Bels had barely made it to the end of the first tunnel offshoot when Yule got him. With a terror-inducing shriek, she clamped her beak down on Bels’ arm, ripping it clean off and the knife in his hand along with it. Bels screamed, and then screamed louder and louder as the big bad Baumbel whose mate he’d terrorized stormed into view. Bels’ left arm was next, then his leg, then the other one, and finally, Baumb lifted his carcass up to bite his head clean off and spit it out at Yule.
With a happy squawk, Yule began to peck Bels’ eyes out.
Dropping Bels’ bloody torso, closing his segmented jaw, my Baumbel got one look at me and ran to us.
“Help him, please,” I begged, but it was out of Baumb’s capabilities. Shnikel was dying and I knew it. “Please,” I fairly screamed, tears streaming down my face to drop down onto my hands and soak Shnikel. Once the floodgates opened, that was it.
“Lumi,” Shnikel gurgled out, urging me towards him.
“You can’t die,” I sobbed, hugging his torso. Bloody hands smoothed over my face. He was bleeding out everywhere. “I just got you back. You can’t. I- I love you.”
“Love you, too,” he mumbled feebly, his hands starting to fall slack.
Baumbel let out a mournful sound as his hand slid over my back and he laid his head on me.
“He can’t die,” I cried louder. “He can’t. I’ll do anything, but please!”
Baumb had to pry me from Shnikel as my Elkfen’s chest stopped moving. Curling me into him, Baumb slowly began to rock me as I lost it.
“I’ll do anything, anything,” I kept mumbling, heartbroken.
Baumb began to hum, a soothing tone with his churring joining in.
I’d give anything to have him back, even in his Krampus form, I didn’t care. I just wanted him back.
Blind to anything but the grief overwhelming me, I felt the hint of something tugging at my subconscious, like a little voice whispering to me, asking just how far I would go to keep him. An image of us all gone furry popped into my head, a trade, my human shell and Shnikel’s Elkfen one if we all went Krampus. I’d give the last bit of this Snowmaiden bullshit if it meant he’d come back.
Baumb made a weird noise and his rocking and chest churring came to a stop. “Lumi,” he mumbled, sucking in a deep breath.
Swiping my eyes on my sleeve, I caught the hint of blue and froze. Blinking, I stared down at Shnikel’s chest and the blue glow of my tears gathering to seep into his wound. Where there’d once been a gaping knife wound, a glowing blue scar had taken up its place.
Bright blue eyes shot open and a cough left him. Shnikel shot up with a gasp, clutching at his chest. “Lumi,” he burst out, gaping at me.
“You’re alive!” An ear piercing shriek left me and I leapt at him. Shnikel chuckled as he caught me, hugging me to him, but stifling a groan.
My lips found his and then I was peppering kisses all over his face.
Shnikel grinned as I told him exactly how much I loved him and what I was going to do with him if he ever scared me like that again.
Once he’d gotten me to calm my ass down, he sat up, frowning as his gaze shot to the portal. “It’s closed,” he lamented, “we missed the window.”
Happy with her prize, Bels’ head clutched in her maw, Yule strode over to Baumb as if to assure him she was ready to go. Dropping her new toy, she gave Baumb a