Tinsel in a Tangle

by Kimbra Swain

  “It worked out,” I smiled.

  “Yes,” he muttered. I slipped across the seat, threw my leg over his and tucked myself between him and the steering wheel. He shifted his weight below me. “What are you doing, Grace?”

  “Making up for lost time,” I smiled. Finally, a smile flirted with the edges of his lips. I leaned over and kissed the edges of his mouth. With each kiss, the smile grew. Placing my palm on the window, the windows in the truck frosted over.

  “You could still marry the troll,” he teased.

  “I have everything thing I never dreamed of right here,” I said.

  “Never dreamed?”

  “Never in a million years,” I replied.

  We steamed up the cab enough the windows eventually defrosted. When we entered the living room, Nestor sat on the couch waiting for us. His concerned eyes met me as I straightened my clothes. He smiled knowing we’d been home for over an hour.

  “Everything okay?” he asked.

  “The trailer is gone,” I said.

  “What?”

  “Burned to a husk, fucking trolls,” I said.

  Nestor looked worried. “You can stay in the apartment above the bar,” he offered. Bless him.

  “Um, no, she’s staying here,” Dylan said.

  “I didn’t want to assume,” I smiled. Nestor took this as the cue to leave. He climbed the stairs to join Mable in the room she’d picked for them.

  “We need to put out presents for Winnie,” I said.

  “I’ll go grab them from the truck,” he said.

  As he went outside, I slipped up the stairs and peeked in on Winnie. Her little snores filled the girly room. I shut the door softly. Pushing power through my tattoo, I brushed the edges of the doorframe placing a protection on the door. As I passed Levi’s door, I heard him snoring as well. I placed the same protection on his door. Down the hall a bit, I heard Nestor still moving around in the room. That room received the same protections. Through my fairy eyes, I could see the warm glow around each room. My family. Mine.

  Sneaking into the bedroom, I pulled a box I’d masked with magic out of the bottom of the closet. Tearing off my clothes as fast as I could, I slipped on the red velvet short dress. Long red and white striped stockings rolled up my legs making them look even longer than they were. I slipped on red high heels that would make a drag queen proud. Looking in the mirror, I pulled my hair back as slipped on a red and white hat with a little sprig of mistletoe. The outfit was a perfect mix of slut and Christmas cheer. I laughed at myself trying to be a trailer park queen.

  Stalking down the steps without the heels clacking against the wooden steps proved to be a challenge. I watched as Dylan arranged Winnie’s presents in front of the Christmas tree which included a bright pink bike that he put together while we cooked earlier.

  “Sorry, I had to change,” I announced when I got close enough.

  He turned to look at me. I put my hands on my hips and lifted my eyebrows at him. He fell back flat on the floor and stared at the ceiling. I heard him muttering something.

  “What are you doing?” I laughed at him.

  “Thanking every god in every pantheon that you are mine,” he smiled up at me. “Is this my Christmas present?”

  “Some of it,” I replied. “Ho, ho, ho.” He reached up and pulled me down on top of him. Tracing my neck with kisses, I felt the warmth of his body pulsing next to mine. He’d always said I felt cool to him. We were complete opposites, but when the elements combined, there were fireworks. Suddenly he stopped.

  “This house is full of people. We can’t do this here,” he said.

  “Hmm, well, we could if I put protections on everyone’s door that would give us a warning if anyone leaves their room?”

  “Oh, you are so good,” he said. I took my hat off and put it on his head.

  “Merry Christmas, Darlin’,” I said.

  Christmas Day

  Before the sun made an appearance, I heard the soft chime of bells. “The alarm,” I said bolting up in the bed. I still wore the outfit, minus the shoes. While it’s romantic to make love on the floor in front of a fireplace, once was enough. The damn floor was hard.

  “Winnie?” he asked.

  “Yep,” I said as he slipped on his jeans. “Put some clothes on woman!”

  Sliding out of the bed, I gathered my shoes from the corner of the room as Dylan ran downstairs to catch Winnie. I heard a second chime indicating that Levi was up too. I crossed in front of the bedroom door making eye contact with Levi.

  “Holy shit!” he muttered looking me up and down.

  “Git downstairs,” I motioned for him to go. His eyes were locked on me, so I slammed the door. I heard him grunt, then descend the stairs. I threw on pajama pants and a t-shirt, then padded downstairs.

  “I wanna see!” Winnie whined.

  “We were waiting on Aunt Grace,” Levi explained.

  “Okay, go,” I said. She ran into the living room squealing like Bo, the cake eating troll.

  Levi passed me and muttered, “Dylan is damn lucky.”

  “Thanks, Dublin,” I said. He nodded and joined Winnie on the floor with all the toys.

  The exchange didn’t escape Dylan because he lifted an eyebrow as I approached him. “I walked past the door as he came out of his room,” I said.

  “Oh, well, every man needs visions of sugarplums for Christmas,” he said without a hint of jealousy. “I’ll start some coffee.”

  We watched Winnie play with her new toys. I made breakfast for everyone. Nestor and Mable packed up their things, heading back to town. Some of her family was getting together for lunch, and Nestor was going to meet all of them.

  Around noon, I got the call from the med center. It was Tabitha.

  “She’s gone,” she said.

  “Thanks for calling, Tabitha. Shouldn’t you be at home with your family?” I asked.

  “My shift ends in an hour. Merry Christmas, Grace,” she said hanging up.

  Dylan met my eyes.

  “Med center,” I replied. Levi turned to look at me when I said the words. They knew from the look in my eyes. I didn’t have to speak it for Winnie’s sake. I wanted her to enjoy Christmas. We would tell her about her mom later. Levi grabbed her, and she squealed again. He hugged her tight. When she realized that he was hugging, she wrapped her arms around his neck squeezing him back. She quickly went back to playing, but the mood changed in the room.

  Dylan refilled his coffee cup. Nestor had given him a giant tin of his special coffee. He offered to refill mine. We leaned next to each other at the bar watching Winnie play. “You okay?” he asked.

  “I’m scared,” I said.

  “All parents are,” he said.

  “I just want to give her everything she’s never had,” I said.

  He hugged me. “You’ve already given her the best Christmas she’s ever had.”

  “She doesn’t know what’s happened,” I said as the tears started to flow.

  “We will tell her together,” he said. “We will do it all together.”

  Winnie passed out on the couch, so Levi took the Harley for a ride. Dylan and I shared a recliner much like the one in my old trailer. Resting my head against his chest, I listened to his heartbeat.

  “Are you going to replace the trailer?” he asked.

  “Of course, I’ve been wanting a bigger one. Levi needs his own bathroom,” I said.

  “I’ve never noticed him to be messy,” Dylan said.

  “It’s not the mess. It’s the bare-chested parades through the living room,” I admitted.

  He laughed making my head bounce up and down on his chest. “You aren’t jealous?” I asked.

  “Grace, who did you buy that kinky little outfit for? Me or Levi?” he asked.

  “You know, I bought it for you,” I said.

  “No, I’m not jealous,” he replied. “I was before you gave into me, but not now.” I rose up and looked at him.

  “Were you?”
>
  “Mainly because he got to be with you all the time,” he said.

  “He was fucking Kady most of the time,” I said.

  For a moment, the whole house shuddered. “What the hell?” he asked while leaning the recliner up. The house shook again, only harder this time.

  “Can’t I just have a happy holiday!?” I screamed waking Winnie. She stared at my outburst. “I’m sorry, honey. Go back to sleep.” She plopped her head back down.

  “The mother?” Dylan speculated.

  We walked out onto the columned front porch and watched a hulking woman march down the drive with a young troll hanging from her left arm. His feet twisted below him as her gait was too long for him to keep up. Behind her the twelve brothers followed hanging their heads.

  Dylan shut the door behind us. I hoped that Winnie would be safe. I pushed power through my tattoo. Glittering to life, I traced the door frame placing a protection on the threshold of the house. Nothing supernatural could cross it without an invitation.

  “You got a gun?” I asked him.

  “Do I have my pants on?” he smirked. Without thinking, I looked at his legs. “Seriously?”

  I rolled my eyes at him watching the slow pounding approach of the ogress mother of the thirteen lads. Levi had found very little about her. Other than she was huge and ugly. Both of those facts were confirmed as she stepped beyond the line of oaks.

  “Where is the fairy queen?” she spat. Her skin, mottled with brown splotches, had a greenish tone to it. Her teeth were jagged and brown. Her back caused her to hunch forward, but she balanced this way without a cane. A large black cat the size of a mountain lion circled her legs.

  I shifted my appearance so that she would not mistake me for a mere human. My hair switched to platinum and lengthened. My eye flicked to a deep turquoise allowing me to see her fairy form. She was covered in festering boils which oozed with green gunk. “My goodness, you fell out of the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down,” I smirked. Dylan coughed behind me. Fuck diplomacy. She was here to pick a fight.

  “You puny thing are the daughter of the great King Oberon?” she asked.

  “The one and only,” I replied.

  “Seems he would have taught you manners, but I suppose that’s why he kicked you out of his realm,” she said knowing more about me than I expected.

  I slowly walked down the front steps of the house to stand on the concrete walk that lead to the main drive. “What do you want?”

  She tossed poor Taylor toward me, and his body rolled into a heap between us. “My son wants to marry you,” she said. I saw the steady rise and fall of his chest. Thankfully, he was still alive.

  “I belong to Mr. Dylan Riggs,” I said pointing behind me.

  She snarled at him. “I’ve come a long way to see my son married to you. He brought his brothers here, and they’ve helped him prepare for a wonderful ceremony and feast. You will marry him.”

  “This is my town. You don’t get to come here to order me around,” I spouted at her. “In fact, I’ve had just about enough of fairy and magic bullshit this season. Your sons are a collected menace to society. Take them and leave,” I warned her.

  “Or what will you do little Queen?” she asked.

  Unleashing power pent up in my stirring emotions, the grass frosted over and climbed the large oaks down the lane. The sky darkened as snow started to fall. I stalked slowly toward her, one icy step at a time. “Leave now,” I said.

  Her sons cowered behind her. I wasn’t sure if they were more afraid of me or her. “I will leave if you negotiate a trade,” she said.

  “Speak your terms,” I allowed it.

  “I smell a small child,” she purred as she ran a long black fingernail across her tongue. “So young and juicy.”

  My anger boiled over as I raised a hand to blast her with ice. Unleashing the power, it hit her solid, but she didn’t freeze. It bounced off of her. “Fuck,” I muttered.

  She cackled as she circled a bony finger in the air. A trail of light followed her as I felt power being drawn from the surrounding area. I cringed knowing that I would have to pull power from the oaks to have enough to make a dent in her. I circled her to the right as she continued to trace the air between us. I stepped over the limp form of Taylor to reach the first tree. Keeping an eye on her, I spoke to the tree instructing it to funnel power to me. The ancient tree acknowledged me as the tattoo on my arm pulsed with a humming pulse.

  The power that the tree pulled was old and strong. It knew what I needed to disable if not kill the ogress.

  “Grace,” Dylan warned as the woman stopped drawing.

  “Guard that door. Don’t let her take my child,” I replied. He nodded as his eyes flared with blue flame.

  “Oh, the Phoenix. No wonder you don’t want my boy,” she laughed. “He has power, but neither of you have enough to defeat me.”

  Her eyes twitched behind me to my left. I dared to glance over my shoulder to see a blue-jean clad bard carrying a guitar approach. “Oh, a bard. Lovely. Play me a little jig,” she laughed.

  “Stay back, Levi,” I said. If he were going to get into the fight, he could play music outside of her reach. I didn’t know what he had planned, but I hoped it would help.

  Low howls ripped through the air, and two large wolves bounded up the lane behind the lads. They huddled together as the wolves bared their teeth. “And wolves. They are tasty. Picking fur out of your teeth is a bitch though,” she laughed.

  “Especially when you could eat corn on a cob through a picket fence,” I taunted her.

  “Momma, maybe we should just go,” Lamar suggested.

  “Don’t doubt your momma,” she warned him. He nodded hobbling back into the huddle of trolls.

  A loud voice bellowed behind her, “Gryla, there is only room in this town for one flesh eater.”

  She slowly turned to face the hulking goat form of Krampus. “My esteemed goat-lord,” she bowed to him. “I have a grievance with the Queen here. She’s shunned my offspring by caging them. She refused the hand of my youngest. She has slighted us all.”

  “Your children wreaked havoc in this town. I’d say she’s been tolerant. Instead of killing them, she allowed them to live,” he said. “You will leave. She protects us. We protect her.”

  “Interesting. I’d known that your influence grew, however I did not realize you had a following,” she smirked as she began to realize that she wasn’t going to win this fight. “Come with me boys. Gather your brother. We will leave this hell hole.”

  “We aren’t leaving,” Lamar said. “The queen said if we straightened up our acts, that we could stay.”

  “You will go with me,” she spouted while the black cat hissed.

  A harsh strum across strings broke through the sounds of the cat’s challenge. The cat couched batting its ears with its paws. Gryla spun towards Levi flinging white lightning toward his position. I turned to motion at the ground between us. A large ice wall appeared to block the lightning.

  She let out a disgusted howl flinging lightning toward the wolves. They bounced away into the woods, but their low growls continued to be heard. Krampus advanced on her. She did not miss. The lightning struck him in the chest flinging him across the field. His body laid limp.

  Alternating hands, I pushed my ice block spell toward her over and over. It bounced off with no effect. The brothers scampered over to Taylor and dragged him behind the ice wall with Levi.

  She met my throws with lightning. I started to tire, but I didn’t know what else I could do.

  A clap of thunder rippled through the air. I turned to face Dylan whose body flickered with flames. He slowly approached her. Each step he took, thunder rolled over the farm. The snow intensified with my rising emotions. She flashed lightning toward Dylan, but his flame consumed it causing him to burn brighter. As I stared at him, I realized that if I didn’t know the man behind the fire, he’d scare the shit out of me. Snow, ice, thunder and lightning in a perfect s
torm.

  “You will leave,” he demanded. “The Queen has ordered it.”

  “Dear Phoenix, this fight does not have to involve you,” she said backing away from him.

  Large flaming wings extended outward from his back. She stumbled backwards into a heap. He stopped advancing. The radiating heat around him throbbed, and I took several steps back from him. The last thing I needed was the Ice Queen to be subdued by her own boyfriend. At least, not in front of an enemy.

  “Leave!” he bellowed.

  “My sons,” she cried out clutching the large cat to her chest. She flicked her eyes to the ice wall where her sons were hiding.

  Dylan locked her gaze. “Leave or die,” he stated.

  “Damn, that’s hot,” I said. He smiled beneath the flame.

  “This isn’t over,” she sputtered. But I knew it was. We didn’t even have to strike at her. She cowered away. The last of her lightning formed a circle around her. She spoke a few words and vanished.

  Flaming Dylan turned to me. I took a long look at his wonderfully naked body, that I couldn’t touch, but enjoyed the sight for the moment before he sprinted to the house as the flame extinguished.

  The ice wall cracked and fell. Taylor was sitting up with a bit of blood trickling out of his mouth. I reached and lightly touched it. It healed.

  “I’m never washing my lips again,” he sighed.

  “He’s got it bad, my Queen,” Phil said.

  “We are sorry for all the trouble we caused,” Ryan added.

  “Could we please stay?” Cory asked.

  “We would swear not to cause trouble,” Willie offered.

  I paced for a moment as Dylan emerged from the house with Winnie. “Snow!” she squealed running out into it. She ran in circles as it fell from the darkened sky. She stopped when she saw Phil. The troll who took her milk.

  “They won’t hurt you, Winnie,” I assured her.

  “Okay, Elsa,” she said. Levi died laughing.

  “Hush your mouth, Levi, and go check on Deacon.” I pointed at him. The trolls laughed too. “All of you!”

  Several “Yes, ma’ams” came from the group while Levi sprinted into the field. I heard the howl of wolves which told me that Amanda and Troy were returning to their home.