Join a Roman Centurion and Celtic Queen in a high octane, paranormal thriller that reveals the origin of the Order of St. Michael!
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“Millie has requested that I formally query you for your opinion of this crazy day in December in the form of a book review. So please leave a review of “The Christmas Walk Caper.” We thank you very much.
Mac, non-writer and retired Chicago cop.
Contents
“From the opening pages to the final sentence, you are treated to a rollercoaster of fun and frights.”- DT Chantel
The Christmas Walk Caper
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Join a Roman Centurion and Celtic Queen in a high octane, paranormal thriller that reveals the origin of the Order of St. Michael!
For you and the young readers in your life, JB’s award-winning Tannenbaum Tailors SERIES
29. INTERRUPTED SLEEP (excerpt from ‘A Capitol Abduction’)
30. FAILURE TO REPORT
31. DETAIL AND DETAIL
32. Off- Tree (excerpt from ‘The Secret Snowball’)
33. Play Time
34. Come To The Stable
35. Seizure (excerpt from ‘Brethren of the Saints’)
36. Tailor Traps
37. Shake The Foundation
Also by JB Michaels
Also by JB Michaels
Copyright © 2019 by JB Michaels
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
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For you and the young readers in your life, JB’s award-winning Tannenbaum Tailors SERIES
So I have another entire series! (Actually two other series, more on that later.) I consider it some of my most original work and you just haven’t quite experienced a Holiday story quite like this one. Please enjoy three three-chapter excerpts from the Readers’ Favorite Gold, Silver, and Bronze medal-winning book series- “The Tannenbaum Tailors”-tiny tree elves and fairies that take care of Christmas trees around the world!
29
INTERRUPTED SLEEP (excerpt from ‘A Capitol Abduction’)
Jane’s wings ached. She flapped her wings repeatedly hoping to work out the sting. The damage from the South Pole’s wind pervaded her every thought, emotion, movement. The events of the past Christmas might have changed her forever. A fairy’s wings are a fairy’s identity. She hoped that with wing therapy and exercises the pain would lessen over time.
She didn’t have time for pain.
The Fae Flyer’s pride lay in her ability to lead, to command, to fly among her fellow Fae with a sense of confidence that pushed her to being one promotion away from Admiral.
She stood in front of her bathroom mirror. Jane removed her leather aviator helmet and pushed her fingers through her hair and rubbed her scalp. Her blond hair was a knotted, curly mess. She sighed blowing her hair from her face with an overlapped bottom lip and jutted chin. She examined her dirty, rosy-blemished face. Jane sighed again.
Exhaustion weighed on her like a ton of bricks. Missions like the one she just flew having thwarted another Spiritless assault had sapped her strength.
It was time to rest.
Jane couldn’t find the energy to shower. She took off her jacket and sat down on the sink to remove her boots. She kicked off the right and struggled with the left one. Her hammock looked like heaven. Jane slipped off the sink and fell on her butt.
“Ugh. Just what I needed. Nice work, Jane. Nice. Work.”
She sat on the floor and pushed the boot off then dragged herself over to the hammock, folded her wings and lay down. Within seconds she was out.
The vibration of her phone rattled on her desk. The phone’s silent but physically obnoxious function caused it to fall off her desk and onto the floor, where it still shook.
Jane’s eyes cracked open.
“Ugh! I just fell asleep!” The fairy grabbed for her phone still in her hammock. She swung herself to the phone and picked it up.
“Hello...”
“Jane. I need you come down to the hangar,” a male voice burst from the speaker.
“I was just there...what could have possibly happened? I just fell asleep.” Jane rubbed her forehead.
“Jane it’s been about 14 hours since you left here. I need you back here now, that’s an order.”
“Yes, sir. Right away.” Jane ended the call. Admiral Pixie’s tone was far too serious and panicked. He was her commanding officer, but he usually acted so casual and aloof that it frustrated her. Something must have rattled him. Jane rolled herself out her hammock and stretched her wings, then went back to rubbing her head. Her headache was bad, not a full migraine but close enough. Her bottle of DUST was depleted. She took too much of it anyway. She will have to deal with the bad headache and the fatigue of perhaps, sleeping too long.
Jane walked over to the mirror and quickly put her hair up in a ponytail. She splashed her face with some cold water, secured her helmet and boots and was off.
30
FAILURE TO REPORT
Jane’s wings still stung from her last adventure. She flew a little slower to lessen the pain and enjoy the journey. The Fairies’ Hollow was just outside the North Pole’s residential trees where the tree elves lived. She flew through a tunnel of ice and tree bark that were lit up by tracking lights all the way to the outside. The round bulbs were colored blue and yellow and they gently flashed, as to provide a sense of peace for the Fae who lived in North Pole Hollow. Jane reached the tunnel’s end. The view still took her breath away, even after flying out of it her whole life. The North Pole’s residential pine trees blinked and beamed with the colors of the rainbow.
The tree elves really know how to decorate their ornamental homes, each tree with a different combination of two colors. Jane passed the Western tree’s orange and red lights and ahead was the North Tree’s blue and gold bulbs. The smaller residential trees surrounded the massive, majestic, Home Tree: the official Tannenbaum Tailor headquarters for tree elves that maintain Christmas trees in human homes every year.
Beyond the grand circle of Christmas trees is North Pole City. The supreme craftsmanship and immersive detail made the North Pole’s buildings incredible. The Workshop’s multi-colored and ever-changing spectrum of colors was a sight to see and representative of the work always being done inside its hallowed halls: toy research and development, new decorative technologies, all refined and innovated to raise and maintain Christmas spirit levels.
Everything had a purpose. Every building’s architecture conveyed a message. The only exception was the hangar to the outside of the city center, where the fairies worked alongside Tannenbaum Tailor pilots and their Icicle ships. It was just a massive half-cylinder and was purely functional. Jane sighed. She could have used a few days away from work.
She flew into the hangar bay. The maintenance teams were flying around, touching up the Tannenbaum Tailors’ Icicle ships. All around Jane hover engines fired. The noise was loud, and it did not help Jane’s headache. Her head pounded. She winced and pulled her leather helmet
down farther. Its cushion was no match for the decibels of noise.
Pixie’s office was elevated over the rest of the hangar bay. Jane landed on the catwalk and could see him sitting and looking out the window. He must have sensed her presence and stood to greet her.
“Someone’s eager to see me.” Jane landed on the catwalk next to Pixie’s office.
Pixie opened his door, “Come in and have a seat.”
Jane sunk into the cushy comfortable office chair.
“Okay what’s going on? Anyone else going to join us or no?”
“Right now, I think its best we keep this to ourselves and then we can decide who else we want to include. Most of the Tailor Icicles have returned or are accounted for. All the Flyers have reported in as well, with the exception of three Fairies. Three Tailor teams have reported their flyer’s disappearance.”
Jane took her helmet off and leaned forward in the chair. Pixie paced behind his desk.
“So, three fairies have disappeared?! Are they connected in some way? Where were their mission areas?” Jane asked.
“Yes, they were all on duty in the Washington, D.C. metro area. Now they are gone. I brought you in because you are my best flyer. D.C. is the most surveilled city in America. I can’t send the entire fleet to search but we can’t have fairies flying all over the nation’s capital. I need you to find them and bring them home.” Pixie put his hands on his desk and gave a worried look to Jane. She could see the tired lines around his eyes. He hadn’t slept. She felt guilty about the 14 hours of sleep she just enjoyed.
Jane straightened up in her chair.
“Yes, sir.”
31
DETAIL AND DETAIL
“With the attempted Spiritless invasion of the NP, the Home Tree’s communications were shut down, the Tailor teams attempted to report the missing Fae after they exhausted their search for them in their respective assigned trees and human homes.” Pixie examined the report in the middle of his desk, glasses balanced on the end of his nose.
“They came back to make the reports and their trees were probably taken down. It’s their protocol. I understand that.” Jane leaned over to look at the report as well.
“The Tailor teams who reported were devastated and worried. They are overwhelmed with news of the thwarted Spiritless invasion. Still you should pay them all a visit,” Pixie said.
“The timeline is interesting. A fairy goes missing on December 23rd, then two in rapid succession on the 25th,” Jane said.
“That is really all we know at this point. I would suggest recruiting another flyer to accompany you on the investigation.”
“I have someone in mind already. I just hope she isn’t as sore as I am.”
“I will have the Tailor teams here for further questioning when you get back.” Pixie said.
“Coco, you home?” Jane knocked on Coco’s round door in North Pole Hollow.
No answer.
Jane knocked again, a little harder this time. Jane noticed a light turn on in through the small window in the door.
“Hold on...ouch...ugh.” Coco’s dark brown hair covered most of her face. She attempted to brush it back as she opened her door slowly.
“Are you as exhausted as I am?” Jane asked, happy to see her fellow Fae Flyer.
“I think I may be more... I just used the power Frenetic to and from the Spiritless’ South Pole lair in the last week.” Coco chuckled.
Jane felt the instinct to act as Coco’s superior officer but, instead hugged her dear friend.
“Thank you so much for braving the journey. Without you, the North Pole would be lost.” Jane’s eyes teared up as she held Coco close.
“It was my duty. I was just doing my job. Ouch.”
“Oh gosh! Sorry I know you are sore!” Jane finally let go.
“I am so sorry to bother you, but we have a problem and if you are physically able, I could use your help, actually, three fairies and their families could use your help.”
Coco looked at her bandaged burned wing. A firework display from a human theme park had injured the wing on her journey back to the North Pole.
“I should be good to go.”
A Capitol Abduction AVAILABLE NOW
32
Off- Tree (excerpt from ‘The Secret Snowball’)
On his way to the lower branches, Brendan ran into Tonto on his way to check the water levels in the tree stand. He saw his Captain rappelling faster and faster down to the stand.
“Captain! Where you headed in such a hurry?” Tonto asked.
Tonto was far too bright to buy any lie Brendan would tell. The new Captain was a bad liar anyway. Tonto was talented, came from a long line of quality tree elves, great Tailors. He would be Captain of his own tree one day for sure.
Brendan just came out with it, “I am going off tree to ask the boy for help.”
“What? Captain! You aren’t serious are you?” Tonto grabbed his arms and looked into his eyes.
Brendan shrugged him off.
“Under purview of the Tailor Code, given certain situations emergency powers are granted to the Captain of the team to, within reason, use whatever means necessary to accomplish the mission and uphold the oath the Tailors take when they graduate from the academy. This is how I see it,” Brendan said.
“Going off-tree and breaking the Silence Protocol is a bit much, perhaps too much power, don’t you think? Not to mention dangerous! What would Captain Mas do?” Tonto said.
“Tonto, you make a whole lot of sense but, I am the Captain now. Normally I would not think of doing anything like this but if this tree is taken down, if the Snowball is exposed, if we fail…then Christmas is over.”
“There has to be another way! The Tailors Code forbids that you do this. The Silence Protocol takes precedence! How do you know if that kid, who looks like he might almost be a teenager and probably doesn’t believe in Santa anymore, will not crush you when he sees you? Or worse, capture you and spread the news that we exist?” Tonto said.
“I don’t know. But it is worth a shot.” He hooked his Glimmerlift to the bottom branch and descended to the tree skirt. “Tonto take care of the tree while I am gone.”
Tonto just shook his head and glimmerlifted up the tree. Tonto had a very literal interpretation of the Tailor Code. He is next in line to become Captain and follows the rules to the letter. Ever since his parents died while on a mission, he never takes any chances. Perhaps the burden of leadership will change his mind one day.
Brendan was alone among mountains of wrapped presents. He walked towards the edge of the tree skirt. Nerves rattled. Sweat gleamed from his forehead. He took his hat off for a moment and wiped his brow with his right arm.
“One minuscule step for me, one giant leap for elvenkind.”
Brendan stepped down into the fibers of the carpet and headed towards the stairs. He knew the general direction he had to go. If he needed a refresher he would jump.
The fibers were like tall grass, tall enough to obscure his vision. He fastened his Glimmerlight goggles to the back of his head and clicked them on. The family was asleep so he hoped for no interference to the stairs, leading to the bedroom. He leaped to find his way. He saw a big black blob in between him and his destination. The human’s poufy dog lay before him…sleeping. At least he hoped.
“I am so tiny and stealthy. No problems just go around the big dog,” Brendan thought
He continued through the fibers of the carpet, on a path that would bring him around the dog. A toy with a hole in it lay next to the dog, probably laced with peanut butter or something. “I think they called those congs? Fitting since the dog is as big as King Kong to me.”
He moved around the dog successfully. The dog slept. Nothing but breathing could be heard. The dog lay in front of the stairs he needed to ascend. Luckily, Brendan had his trusty Glimmerlift with him! He aimed towards the side railing a couple feet above the dog. His Glimmerlight goggles aided him as he aimed toward the rail’s underside.
He thought about taking the shot and zipping away. Instead, he found himself in a staring contest with two black eyes framing a long, snarled snout. The staring was really not a game he entered into voluntarily. “Elves must smell differently?” Brendan tried to figure out a good reason why the dog woke up and how he was going to get away from the giant, poufy, rather angry canine at that.
“Coal,” Brendan said, cursing.
33
Play Time
The dog’s breath hit him like the winds preceding an arctic twister. Except the wind was hot and smelled of something the dog should not be eating nor any living creature for that matter. The growls ceased and then a giant white paw came crashing down! Brendan rolled out of the way, with his Glimmerlift still at the ready in his right hand. He shot towards the dog’s cong. The line tightened, the hook fastened inside the dog’s toy and he zipped right in.
The inside of the dog’s cong smelled like peanuts and it was a bit slimy from leftover peanut butter and probably the…Yep the dog’s tongue slithered into the cong. He pressed himself up against the back of the cong. Brendan’s head and body shook as the cong turned and tumbled as the dog’s paw secured it to the floor. He pressed his body against the wall. He felt the heat of the dog’s breath again. The tongue lathered the tip of his shoe and then retreated.
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