An Elf’s Magic Santa’s Elves Book 4
Page 14
She chuckled. “I’m not a ma’am by any means. Do I look that old?”
Now that he looked at her, he realized he had gotten a woman-child, someone in the first blush of adulthood. It didn’t diminish him wanting her. “I see what you mean. Just how old are you?”
“Almost nineteen. How old are you?”
“Old enough to know better.” His voice was a little rough and then he leaned into her, whispering something next to her ear.
“What was that?” she asked.
“I said, don’t move and you won’t get hurt.” His hand went around her throat. “Can I have everyone’s attention, please?”
The room turned immediately quite as they all saw Merna in the clutches of someone they didn’t know.
“I think we need to talk this over, son.” Santa was the closest to the pair and tried to soothe the situation.
“Come any closer, I’ll snap her neck. And it would be a shame.” He leaned in and took in her womanly scent. He didn’t care if she was barely old enough. He wanted her and his body was going to make him pay for his indiscretion.
“You know you’ll never get out of here.”
It surprised him the comment came from the bride. “Why would you say that?”
“Because you’re picking on the wrong bride.” She lifted her hand, an orange flame flared from her palm.
Before he could move, a scorching inferno engulfed them followed by a blessed blanket of cold.
* * * *
Lacey stood there amazed. She hadn’t meant to do anything to either of them. She had wanted to scare them. “Wow.”
Cuinn turned her to look at him as the family surrounded her. “What do you mean wow? Where are they?”
“I don’t know. I only did the fire. I didn’t make them disappear at all. I don’t have a clue where they are.”
“Great. This is just great.” Bevan stated evenly. “I’d like to know where my daughter is and just who the hell that man was.”
“That makes two of us.” Janice stood wringing her hands and trying so hard not to look worried.
Aingeal and Fearghus came up quickly.
“Tell me everything you felt, lass.” Fearghus’ soothing voice calmed her nerves.
“I just wanted to frighten him. After all, that’s what I’m supposed to do while I’m here. Protect our people.”
“I’m not sure making her disappear with someone like that guy was protecting her.”
Lacey turned to Janice. “Listen to me again. I didn’t do that.”
Aingeal rubbed her head. “Good heavens, we have a teleporter. Worse, she doesn’t even know it.”
“What?” Bevan asked.
“Merna did it. The fire must have scared her and she took them away from it. That’s the only explanation for the whole thing.” Aingeal stood there and stared at her father.
“Now that does call for a wow. But I do know a couple things they don’t.” Lacey smiled mischievously.
“What’s that?”
“One, no matter what he does, he can’t kill her. Two, he just might be the second of our elementals because I didn’t get any real sense of danger from him at all. He just pissed me off because it’s my day, not his. “
“Don’t even think about him killing her,” Janice exclaimed. “That’s my little girl.”
“Wait a minute, Mother. Why can’t he, Lacey?” Maddox questioned intently.
“Every time he tries, the fire will burn them. Don’t ask me how I did that, but she’s well protected.”
Fearghus hid a smile behind his hand. “That poor man.”
“Poor man, nothing. That’s my daughter he has.” Bevan stood there infuriated.
“I understand, sir, but what would you do if you were alone on a desert island with a beautiful woman? Now, I understand that woman would be Janice but think about it. That man can’t touch her with anything but care.”
“Heavens, I’m not sure if I like what that implies at all.” Santa rubbed his chin. “You want to tell me how he got in, Ronan.”
Ronan shook his head. “I never saw him before, sir. Matter of fact, I didn’t see him now. Just fire. But if he is a second elemental, it would explain all of us not being able to detect him until he made his move.”
“So, what do you plan to do about it?”
“We’ll have to go the council and see if anyone can tell us about the energy signature. It’s a long shot, but the only thing we have.” Ronan looked around. “Giselle, are you ready to leave?”
“I don’t think this is fair to Lacey, Ronan. We all can’t leave her wedding.”
“It’s okay, Giselle, really. We have done everything we were going to do.” Lacey looked intently at Cuinn. “Can we still go on our honeymoon?”
Cuinn looked at his older sister. “Well, Aingeal?”
“Are you absolutely sure he can’t harm her?”
“Absolutely, if he even thinks about it, he’ll get burned. It will probably take him a while to get that through his thick skull, but once it’s there, he’ll never try it again. At least not that way.”
“Then go on your honeymoon. Just keep in touch as we may need you.”
“What an end to a party!” Eggther yelled.
* * * *
“Where are we?” Trevor shouted.
“I don’t know,” Merna said and tried to get out of his grasp as well as out of the water.
“I should just break your neck right now.” The fire in his hand spread up his arm and he immediately pulled away from her. “Maybe I should ask what you’ve done to me.” He eyed her cautiously. This would take a little experimentation.
“I haven’t done anything to you.”
“I guess the fire came from the bride.”
“Yeah, I guess you shouldn’t have pissed her off.”
He looked down at the woman at his side and chuckled. “You think?”
Merna frowned and nodded. “I think. Maybe we should look around here to see where we are.”
“We’re off the grid.”
“Off the grid?”
“Yeah, my GPS is registering nothing. Nada. There aren’t many places like that on the earth.”
Merna shook her head and scanned the horizon. She hadn’t even realized he had something in his hand. “How do you know that?”
“Let’s just say, I’ve been around. And this place is too good to be true.” Trevor looked around and saw a lover’s paradise, an island away from everyone with white sandy beaches and clear, turquoise blue waters.
“Oh.”
“There’s one other thing I need to check.”
“What’s that?”
“When I said I was going to kill you, I got burned. Didn’t you feel it?”
She shook her head.
“I need to try it again.” Now he was a smart man and realized he only needed to try to hurt her a little. “I’m not going to kill you. At least not yet.”
Merna backed away from him as he reached out and grabbed her arm, twisting it a little for her to gasp in pain. The burning sensation was immediate and he dropped her arm like a hot potato. “Great. I can’t even do my job now because it requires me touching you. Get out of the water. We’ll have to find some sort of shelter before night. Then there’s water and food.”
“What-what was your job?”
He put his hands on his hips and gazed at her. “To kidnap an elf. Problem is, I think she’s kidnapped me.”
About the author
Lynn Crain realized at an early age she wanted to write. She took the long way to being published by doing a variety of things like nursing, geologist, technical writer and computer manager all of which have added to her detail-oriented stories. Now she’s a full time storyteller and weaves fantasy, futuristic and paranormal tales as well as erotic stories for various publishers with most being published by eXtasy Books. She lives in the very hot southwest with her husband, son, one dog, three cats and a snake named Sandune. Other members of her clan live close by. She
is a past national board member of the RWA, past VP, Secretary and EPPIE Chair of EPIC and current EPIC President. But the thing she loves most of all is hearing from her readers at lynncrain@cox.net.