by Mina Carter
Bullets slammed into her side, the pain indescribable as they sliced through fur and skin, then further. She lost count of how many as the scent of blood exploded on the air. Her blood, she realized, feeling strangely disconnected from the world around her.
Turning her head, she watched one of the wolves tear the pixie's throat out. Behind him, Darrick and the rest of the team swarmed through the door, weapons at the ready to take down the rest of the gang.
Satisfaction filled her. They’d done it. They’d caught the Grotto Gang and no humans had been harmed.
A wave of tiredness hit her and she couldn’t hold her head up anymore. She stretched her neck out, antlers clunking against the floor as she lay full length. Small hands wrapped around her throat. Opening her eyes, she realized the little girl she’d been protecting lay next to her.
“Shhh, mama’s gone to get help. You’ll be okay,” she whispered, tears in her eyes as she stroked Rudi’s fur. “I had a really bad cut on my knee and she made it all better. She’ll make it all better. I promise.”
Rudi managed a small chuff, moving her head to nuzzle the girl’s hand. It wouldn’t be okay; she’d known that as soon as she’d felt the ability to change drain away with her blood. If a shifter got too tired or injured, they needed to shift. If they couldn’t then the end wasn’t far away.
A sense of calm settled over her. She was dying. She was okay with that. She didn’t regret charging down the pixie and saving two lives even at the expense of her own. She was a bodyguard, it was what she did, who she was.
The only thing she regretted was not telling Nick… she still loved him. She’d never stopped loving him, even though he loved another. Sighing, she accepted it as part of her reality, for all of the seconds of life she had left.
Drawing the remainder of the Christmas magic she had left, she wrapped it in that single thought and let go…
Chapter Six
The attack, when it came, was like nothing Nick had ever experienced.
Sure, life as a Santa wasn’t without its hairy situations. Like last year when his deer team, led by a young buck, had overshot on a roof and he’d ended up dangling upside down with his sled wedged between two tenement buildings. Only his lap belt, a new-fangled safety device fitted by the health and safety department the month before, had stopped him taking an undignified nosedive onto the asphalt below.
Then there were the adverse weather conditions. Snow, sleet, hail, thunderstorms and torrential rain, Santa always delivered. Thanks to the generally high location of rooftops, and the fact Christmas magic acted as an impressive lightning conductor, more than a few of the Claus brethren came back from their run looking like they’d stuck their fingers in an electrical socket. Not a good look. Eyebrows took months to grow back…
But this… the mayhem, chaos and fear when the Grotto gang hit, was totally outside his realm of experience. He hadn’t even realized something was wrong, all his attention on the child, a young boy, sitting next to him. Then there were shouts and Rudi had charged out of the reindeer pen, shattering the fence to gore a pixie about to shoot a mother and her child.
Time had stopped for Nick as he watched the deer…woman…he loved face down an armed criminal with nothing more than her antlers and fur to protect her. His heart had swelled at her courage, but his brain hadn’t, the warning bursting from his lips without conscious thought.
Horrified but unable to look away, he’d watched the injured pixie raise his gun…then the nymph, a dryad, had thrown up a wooden wall, separating them and the group of kids around them from the gunmen and their bullets.
“Shitshitshit!”
Jumping up, he slammed into the wall, the sound of gunfire searing him to his soul. Rudi was on the other side and she was in danger. Gathering all the Christmas magic around him, he hit the wood with it but, rooted in the very floor, the thing didn’t move.
“Take it down!” he demanded, looking from side to side in desperation, but it stretched from wall to wall and higher in the air than he could reach. He tried, jumping up. If he could just catch the edge, he could haul himself over.
“I can’t!” The dryad shot back, her face pale. Every so often she flinched. Frowning, Nick realized each flinch coincided with something slamming into the other side of the wood.
Bullets.
Crap… she was keeping them all alive, but it obviously cost her to do so.
“Right,” he strode forward, his voice a full-on Santa boom. “Everyone into the back.”
The parents and children behind the protective wall tentatively rose from their crouches and edged toward the door to the backstage area. His lip curled back as he noticed Ginger scuttling behind them. Behind, not in front like Rudi would have been. The difference between the two women couldn’t have been more apparent.
Nick nodded to the dryad as he ushered them all through. At least this way she didn’t need to worry if her shield wall failed.
“Come on,” he urged, holding out his hand when the area was empty apart from the two of them.
She shook her head, sweat streaming down her face as her fragile body shook with effort. “Can’t. Need a line of sight to the shield.”
Realization hit him. She needed to stay to keep the shield between them and the gunmen up, even though she was getting weaker by the second. And if it failed, she’d be the first in the firing line.
“Okay.” He didn’t say anything else. Instead, he stepped in front of her. She could still see the wall but if it failed, then she was protected behind his Santa-enhanced bulk. “Hang in there, you can do this. I believe in you.”
She flicked a quick glance at him and smiled. “Aren’t I supposed to be the one saying that? You’re…well, Santa.”
“Belief goes both ways…” he paused for a moment and reached inside himself. A list scrolled up in his mind’s eye, the names whizzing past too quickly for him to read until they slowed down and focused on one. Her name. “Aspen. I see you’ve been a good girl this year.”
Pleasure filled her eyes, but trembles overtook her entire body. Alarmed, Nick reached out just as she collapsed, scooping her up and preparing to run for it when the air around him filled with bullets. How the hell did Rudi do this all the time? His nerves would be shot within a week.
The wall behind them fell with a loud crack, shattering and disappearing as though it had never existed. He tensed, but there was no gunfire. Turning, he looked out over the grotto.
The armed team had swarmed in, Darrick shouting orders as the gang members were held at gunpoint. The pixie agent looked around, concern written on his sharp features, and his skin paled as his gaze latched onto a slumped furry figure to one side.
Nick staggered back as his brain made sense of what he saw. Fur and blood. Blood. So much blood. His heart thumped in his ears.
“Oh god, Rudi!”
All but dumping the dryad woman on the chair he’d recently vacated, he sped across the space separating him from Rudi. Before he could get there though, Ginger grabbed his arm, stopping him by stepping in front of him.
“Ginger, get the fuck out my way. Or so help me Christmas, you won’t need any help to get back to the Pole,” He snarled, his fear for Rudi invading every cell of his body. She hadn’t shifted. Why hadn’t she shifted?
The elf sniffed, a show of hurt on her easy-to-read features. Nick knew her though. It was all an act. “I don’t know why you bother. She’s just a deer, no better than an animal.”
Darrick, hearing her words, whipped around as Nick glared and loomed over Ginger, invading her personal space in threat. “Oi, Santa. Get her out of my sight before I add another digit to the body count. No one talks about Rudi like that.”
A chorus of growls from the werewolves and several members of the armed team proved Darrick wasn’t the only one who felt the same. Ginger glanced around, her cheeks going pale, then she focused on Nick again.
“Baby?” she asked, her voice shrill. “Are you going to let him talk to the next
Mrs. Christmas that way?”
Nick sighed. This again. She was fucking delusional and it was time to put an end to it. Grabbing her arm, he swung her around to face where the newly arrived EMT’s were crowded around Rudi. She was still in deer form and they were obviously struggling with what to do. A male broke from the crowd of parents and approached them, hands moving in earnest conversation with the lead paramedic.
“THAT,” he growled, pointing at Rudi. “Is the next Mrs. Christmas, if I can convince her to have me, not you. Now get lost before I let the pixie make good on his threat.”
He shoved her away and stepped forward, jostling for space with Darrick. Humans knelt by Rudi’s side, holding dressings against her wounds. They were already stained red.
“More pressure…we’re going to need more dressings to stop this bleeding,” the man near Rudi’s head rapped out orders, not one of the EMT’s but some kind of medical professional by the way he was checking her over.
He looked up, gaze catching on Darrick. “I’m assuming she’s one of yours?”
Darrick nodded sharply, already shrugging out of his jacket and shirt to give them to the women trying to stop the bleeding. “Yeah, deer shifter.”
The doctor nodded. “Thought she was moving with too much focus for a natural animal.”
“You know about shifters?” Nick demanded.
“Yeah, something. Chief veterinarian for City Animal Control. We don’t get many weres but I’m familiar enough with them to know she should have shifted by now to heal some of this damage.”
“She should. Let me look at her.”
He took a half step forward, stripping like Darrick to drop his own shirt and undershirt on the pile. The magic had sloughed away, leaving him in his younger form. He slid to his knees next to the doctor, who looked at him and nodded. “Figured a Santa would know about reindeer.”
Nick spared him the tiniest smile, his attention on Rudi as he leaned forward, stroking the fur over her neck gently. She huffed as though sensing his presence but didn’t open her eyes. Anguish speared his heart. She was almost gone. The magic of her shift had leaked away, leaving a small bubble rising toward him.
Curious, he reached out to touch it only to have it burst open. A cacophony of emotions hit him. Rudi’s emotions.
There was pride she’d saved the child. Nick swiveled around to find the little girl watching him, her eyes wide with unshed tears as she watched the fallen form of the reindeer.
There was sorrow she had to leave. To leave him. She was sorry she had to leave him and there was something else wrapped around it. It was regret.
Regret she’d never told him she loved him. The emotion hit and burst through him. Filled his heart and radiated through his body and he couldn’t help the smile that flowed over his lips.
Rudi loved him. She always had.
The harsh voice of the EMT broke through his daze. “We’re losing her. Can we use the defib on a deer?”
He opened his eyes and smiled. He knew exactly what he had to do.
“No need. Everyone move back.”
As he spoke, his voice swelled with the power of Christmas, with the power of Santa, and he leaned forward to place his hands gently on Rudi’s side. Over her heart.
“Come back to me, my love,” he whispered.
Closing his eyes, he gathered all the Christmas magic within him, every last drop, and shoved it all into her. Drained himself entirely of the power and energy that made him what he was. Everything which made him a Claus elf and a Santa he gave to her. Willingly. With love and no regret until there was nothing left within him. Depleted, his hands slipped off her fur and he sat back on his heels, swaying as he opened his eyes.
“Oh my god, she’s breathing.” The EMT’s swarmed around her as she shifted back to human form, her terrible wounds down to merely nasty, non-fatal ones. “Right, let’s get her out of here.”
Nick watched, unable to move as they loaded her onto a trolley and wheeled it away. He should go with her, but he had nothing. No energy. He’d given it all to her. He wasn’t even sure his body worked anymore.
A large, scarred hand appeared in front of his face. Surprised, he looked up. Darrick stood in front of him, a new respect in the Pixie's eyes.
“I saw what you did. Come on, bud, let’s get you checked out so you can be there when she wakes up.”
***
Rudi opened her eyes with the sure and certain knowledge of two things:
It was Christmas morning.
And she should be dead.
In an instant everything, the mission in the mall, the armed gang…getting shot…all flooded back to her and her body replied with a mass of aches. She groaned. So that was what getting shot and killed felt like. Like she’d been run over by a truck. No, a fleet of them.
Blinking, she turned her head to find herself in a hospital room and frowned. If she was dead, this was a pretty shitty heaven. Shouldn’t there be way more clouds and harps and less a room which looked suspiciously like the hospital wing of the PPA building?
She leaned over with an effort to look at the floor by the bed. Yeah, there was straw there and by the looks of it, she’d shifted form a couple of times to heal. Straw in a hospital… A snort escaped her. She could imagine the human doctors totally freaking out.
It was why the PPA had its own medical facilities. Normal hospitals weren’t equipped to deal with paranormal injuries. Not when the patients wore hooves half the time, or in the case of dragons, toasted everything in sight when in pain.
Her gaze swept over the medical equipment and get well cards on the nearby cabinet. Was there? She squinted. Yeah, there was even a bunch of grapes in the middle there. She fucking hated grapes.
How long had she been here? Leaning her head back against the soft pillow, she counted back to the day of the mission. Five days? Had to be if it was Christmas Eve now, and she never doubted her internal clock on that score.
It was the same every year, her deer stomping and yodeling at her they should be out delivering presents, not understanding why she’d locked them up in the bedroom and hidden under the duvet when it wanted to be out flying.
Christmas Eve and she wasn’t dead. Why wasn’t she dead?
She closed her eyes and sought the answer within herself. She might have been out for the count, but her deer hadn’t been. She filtered through its memories as it happily stomped and called, telling her all about the Christmas magic which had brought them back from the brink.
She opened her eyes in shock.
Christmas magic?
Nick.
It had to be.
He’d saved her life with Christmas magic.
A bittersweet smile crossed her face as she looked out of the window into the night sky beyond. He’d saved her life and had no doubt gone back to the pole with Ginger. Even now he was probably out there delivering presents. She listened, extending her senses… and caught a faint ho ho ho! on the air. Yeah, the Claus' were out already.
A slight sigh escaped her. Maybe next year she’d go home for Christmas, find another Santa to work with. She couldn’t live there full time, but there had to be a way to combine the two. She was Rudolph’s grand-daughter…it was her birthright to fly.
Her gaze fixed on the jug of water on the counter by the window and thirst filled her. Fly later. First, she needed to walk. Gathering herself, she sat up and swung her legs off the end of the bed. Her head swam, dizziness assaulting her, but she ignored it. She needed a drink and she’d be damned if she’d call a nurse. She wasn’t some helpless invalid. She was one of Santa’s reindeer and she could do this.
Slowly she eased herself forward until her feet were on the ground, then just as carefully, transferred her weight from her hands to her feet. So far so good. It all went well, right up to the point she tried to take a step.
Her legs went from rock solid to limp noodles in less time than it took her to take a breath. With a cry, she found herself falling with no way to halt h
er downward progress…
But strong arms wrapped around her before she could hit the floor and she was hauled up against a broad, muscled chest.
“What’s a good looking girl like you doing in a place like this?”
She hardly dare look up, even at the deep, familiar voice. Instead, she closed her eyes as love and heartache swirled through her. It was Nick. It couldn’t be Nick. He’d gone back to the Pole with Ginger. So…
“I’m dreaming,” she whispered softly. “I’ve got to be dreaming.”
“Well, you always did call me a dreamboat.”
She snorted and opened her eyes. “I so did not. You must be confusing me with someone else. I think you’re an asshole. Always have.”
The tiny lines around his eyes crinkled. “That’s my girl.”
He didn’t move, just stood there with her wrapped in his arms, watching her as she watched him. She couldn’t look away. Something was wrong. Very wrong. Then it hit her. It was Christmas Eve and he was a Claus. He shouldn’t be here, and he certainly shouldn’t be in his younger form.
“You should be out… deliveries.”
“No. I shouldn’t.”
The smile that curved his lips this time held a hint of sadness. She frowned. There was something else wrong, something more than the obvious fact he shouldn’t be here. It was almost like there was something…missing.
“What do you mean, you shouldn’t? They gave you the night off… to come and see me?”
“Not exactly.” He leaned down and brushed his nose against hers. A sweet, lovers touch which made her heart sing. Still dreaming, apparently…
“What do you mean ‘not exactly’?”
They hadn’t given him the time off, which made sense. She’d never heard of the management at the Pole ever giving anyone Christmas Eve night off. Ever. Not unless they were at death’s door. Was that it? She’d almost died—fuck.
Gaze sharp, she focused on him properly. Looked past the handsome, if a little tired features and beyond. Like most Claus elves, he appeared to be a good-looking, tall and muscled human male in the prime of his youth and… that’s exactly what he was. All he was now. Her eyes filled with tears, her hand lifting to cover her mouth.