Servants of Fate

by Wendy Sparrow

  He sighed and propped his feet on the hearth. “It’s all I’ve known. I might make a lousy mortal.”

  “Maybe you just need to practice at it.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean don’t use your magic powers for the rest of the week.”

  “Other than to save your life?”

  “Yes. Other than that. Do what I do. Pretend you’re mortal.”

  He propped his elbows on his knees and stared into the fire. “After I summon enough clothes to get me through the week?”

  “Yes, totally. Doing laundry here would actually blow. Plus, the gift shop is heavily flannel. I can’t see you wearing flannel lumberjack shirts every day.”

  “Okay. On one condition.”

  She folded her arms. She didn’t like the sound of that. “What condition?”

  “You always kiss me like you did earlier.”

  Seriously? She covered her face with her hands. “It’s like you enjoy embarrassing me.”

  “I might.” There was a lightness and a happiness in his voice that hadn’t been there before. It almost made her forgive him. Getting up, Tempus retrieved one of the books and paged through it. “I like the cover on this one better.”

  She dropped her hands. “You’re never supposed to judge a book by its cover.”

  He frowned as he flipped to the first page. “I’m not following silly mortal rules like that though.” Apparently, he was going forward with being mortal even though she hadn’t explicitly agreed on his condition. “Chapter one. Two shadows detached themselves from the inky black shrouding the city street.” He paused. “I hope someone dies really soon in this. I like that in books.”

  She was tempted to say that of course he would, but it seemed like a cheap shot. He thought he was doing the right thing by taking one life to make up for all the others. Maybe he was. The whole thing was in a paranormal moral gray area.

  He skipped ahead a few pages, his gaze skimming the words. When a smile lit his face, she knew he’d found his murder victim. He went back to the beginning. “Two shadows detached themselves from the inky black shrouding the city street. They met underneath the window of a man who was sleeping deeply, not knowing that this was his last night on earth…”

  His voice was so incredibly sexy. Tempus reading to her might just be the perfect way to spend a Christmas Eve. It might not make the cover of Christmas cards, but it should. She propped her feet on the hearth too, beside his.

  This was perfect. If this was her last Christmas Eve on Earth—she’d have no regrets.

  They’d moved to one of the beds as the night progressed and she pressed herself to his side with her head on his chest as he read.

  “Mmm,” she murmured, wrapping her arm around his waist. She’d been fighting sleep, trying to keep her eyes open, but her breath was now slow and deep.

  His throat was sore so he set the book aside. Zeit was right about pain... it wasn’t always pleasant. In fact, he was wishing he had some ibuprofen and he didn’t even know how effective it was.

  Without dislodging Lacey from his side, he reached over and grabbed the glass on the bedside table. The water felt amazing on his parched throat. He’d never tasted anything so good in his life... which was weird.

  “Tempus?” She opened her eyes halfway.

  “Yes?”

  “If you don’t choose me—I’m okay with that.” He waited for her to continue. With Lacey, one sentence was never enough. But her breathing evened out and it was obvious she’d fallen asleep.

  She was lying on his arm, but he tunneled his free hand through her red hair. It felt like silk sliding through his fingers. She was so gorgeous. Of course he’d choose her. He just wasn’t sure of the ramifications of that choice. Would he have to give up his immortality? Possibly. That was less daunting than it’d been a few hours ago.

  He turned on the TV, flipping channels, rather than being alone with his thoughts. Every channel was playing something to do with Christmas. He stopped on a cartoon and watched as a vile green creature stole all the gifts from a small village of bug-like humanoids. He needed to get a Christmas gift for Lacey. He eyed the phone. Midnight was probably too late to call Zeit and ask his opinion.

  Just as the green creature was returning the gifts, Lacey woke up, stretched, and stared at the TV. “Oh look, his heart grew three sizes already.” She lay back down on his chest.

  “What do you want for Christmas, Lacey?” he asked.

  She yawned and wrapped her arm around his waist. “I can hear you breathing.”

  “Okay.”

  Was she asleep or awake?

  “What do you want for Christmas, Lacey? If you could have anything you wanted... anything at all?”

  “Tempus.”

  “What?”

  “No, I’d want you.” She laughed softly. She sounded at least partly asleep, but…

  “You want me for Christmas?”

  “Mm hm.”

  “Oh.” No one had ever wanted him to be somewhere or to be with them. Not that he knew of anyway.

  She exhaled a quiet sigh. “Also, fireworks.”

  “You want fireworks for Christmas?” Well, that was unexpected.

  “Yes, I missed you the most on the Fourth of July because I could have had you, but not because you wanted to be with me.”

  She was most certainly asleep.

  Lacey reached out and fumbled around for his hand before drawing it toward her chest. She flattened his palm against her breastbone and held it in place. “You’re in here, Tempus. You and fireworks.” Then she wrapped her arms around him again, trapping his hand between them.

  “Uhh, Lacey?”

  She didn’t respond.

  He wriggled his hand out from between them, feeling guilty for not wanting to move it. Guilt was a new thing for him.

  Her fingers tightened, digging her nails into his skin.

  “Ah!” He reached for her hand... and then stopped. Actually, that felt good too. Maybe mortality wasn’t so bad. He might be able to handle mortality. A commercial came on for laundry soap. Maybe he could talk Lacey into doing all their laundry.

  CHAPTER TEN

  “My hair has snarls the size of Texas in it,” she said, eyeing herself critically in the mirror. She wasn’t used to sleeping with guys. The morning-after felt pretty damn awkward. Especially since he hadn’t slept at all. He might have watched her sleep all night.

  “I think you’re exaggerating.” He walked into the bathroom behind her and took the brush from her. He was going to brush her hair? Strange.

  “Do you want it to hurt or not hurt?” he asked, holding the brush above her hair.

  “Uhh, not hurt.” Hopefully he didn’t start asking that about everything. That’d get awkward in public.

  He frowned and began carefully running the brush along her hair. It was going to take forever with how gentle he was being, but she didn’t care. Just like the reading... it was Christmas card awesome.

  “That green creature brought all the gifts back and sang with them at the end.”

  “The green creature? The Grinch?”

  “Yes. You woke up for a short amount of time so I thought you’d like to know how it ended.”

  “I know how it ended.” It was just as well too. Tempus was all about spoiling the endings of stories. “What else did you watch?”

  “A movie about a man killing Santa Claus and becoming him.”

  “Okay. That’s classic. Everyone should probably see The Santa Clause once in their life.”

  “Then, I went to a channel that had movies with silly music. They were a lot like your romance books.”

  “The Hallmark Channel?”

  He wrapped his hand around a stubborn tangle and bit his lip as he tugged at it. “Yes. They ended up together. Which I’d guessed from the beginning. It seemed obvious.”

  “Those movies aren’t really mysteries.”

  “Well, not to me. It was too easy. After I guessed the second m
ovie right from the beginning, I switched channels. There were a few black and white movies on, but they were boring, so I switched to a movie with a policeman stuck in a building that had explosions. That was good. You’d like that one. He wins.” He triumphed against the snarl and started brushing her hair in long strokes. She wanted to close her eyes and moan. It felt so good. “Your hair is the color of fire.” He lifted up a strand and sniffed it. “It smells sweet—like peaches.”

  She cleared her throat. This wasn’t real. Guys weren’t usually this nice in real life. Then again, he was an immortal. “That’s my shampoo.”

  Leaning in, he placed his mouth against the crown of her head and breathed in. “I once had peach cobbler,” he said against her hair, the heat of his breath bringing back that desire to moan. “I think you might taste better.” He drew his tongue along the base of her neck.

  She gave up. With a sigh, she tipped her head back onto his shoulder and moaned. This was the best Christmas morning ever. And that included the Christmas she’d spent with her friend’s family when she’d gotten a bike.

  “You do,” he murmured, not lifting his mouth. He wrapped his arms around her waist. “Should we eat breakfast?”

  “Maybe. I mean, sure. Okay.” He’d scrambled her brains like a couple of eggs. Ugh. Could she be any goofier? She met his gaze in the mirror and his smile was just shy of sinful before he turned away.

  “I think I heard them drop our trays off at the door.”

  She didn’t even want to think about how much this all was costing. Her savings account might take a real hit when she paid her half of this.

  “Oh, gifts too,” he said after opening the door. “It looks like they’re from... uhh, it says Santa.” She loved how unconvinced he sounded about that. The lodge must’ve dropped them off for anyone who didn’t see Santa last night. “You’ll need to help me bring them in.”

  She grabbed one of the trays and a red wrapped gift with her name on it. “I have a gift for you too.”

  His smile was just as wide as any child’s she’d ever seen. “I have something for you too. I got it last night.”

  “Last night?”

  “We agreed I could summon clothes to this plane. I think this is similar. I got it while I was picking clothes from commercials. I also got you something I saw on a commercial that you put in your laundry to make it softer. And something you can use to cook bacon in a microwave. I thought maybe you’d be less likely to start a fire with only microwave cooking.”

  “Oh you think that, do you?” She set the tray down and lifted the lid. The breakfast casserole smelled heavenly.

  “Why? Are you not?”

  “You know, during a normal year, not every rag within a mile of my stove would spontaneously burst into flames and overcooking cupcakes by twenty minutes doesn’t turn them into molten Molotov cocktail flameballs. That’s the Fates.”

  He snapped his fingers and pointed at her. “The fire. The fire in the book last night. It’s the sheriff.”

  “Tempus! We’re not even halfway through it yet.”

  “You know I’m right.” He sat down at the table with a pleased look on his face. He probably was right. She’d been too busy mooning over him reading to actually pay attention to clues. “My throat hurt last night. I might need that mortal medicine today, but I saw conflicting commercials last night on the efficacy of different brands. Also, I have some of the symptoms of throat cancer.”

  “What?” She stopped with a bite halfway to her mouth. Maybe she shouldn’t let him watch late night TV.

  “One of the mortals on that Hallmark Channel film had it. I felt like that last night.”

  She shook her head. “Not every sore throat turns out to be throat cancer. There’s pain and then there’s a lot more pain. You can take some ibuprofen and be fine.”

  “That’s more effective than aspirin? In a recent study, six out of ten doctors said they’d choose…”

  “Stop! Okay.” She went to her luggage and shook two ibuprofen tablets out of a bottle into her hand. Setting them beside his plate, Lacey said, “Swallow these and let me do all the talking for a few hours and you’ll be fine.” His voice did sound hoarse this morning. It was sweet. “Also, don’t literally or figuratively buy everything you see on TV. They say all sorts of crazy stuff. It might be time to cut you off, if you’ve summoned enough clothes, before you end up with banana peelers and rotisserie ovens to pack back with you.” He should probably summon more luggage to carry his new clothes back in.

  The breakfast casserole was so amazing that neither of them bothered speaking until they’d scraped their plates clean. Then, she retrieved her gift for him from her luggage as he pulled a jeweler’s box from his luggage. Jewelry? Wow. Jewelry was the last thing she’d expected from him. It was too... romantic. He said he wasn’t romantic.

  They brought all the gifts over to the hearth where they sat down on the rug in front of the fire.

  “So, shall we open the lodge’s gifts first?” she asked.

  He nodded. “I’ve never had a Christmas gift before, but it seems simple enough.” He shook it and listened. Then, he turned it slowly in a three-sixty. “There’s another box in there, but they’ve disguised it by wrapping it in fabric to deaden the sound. I think the fabric is a gift itself. Possibly socks. That seems generic enough to please a larger audience. I don’t know what the boxed item is.”

  He was going to love her gift if he looked for the mystery in a wrapped present.

  Sighing, he set the box in front of him with a frown. “That’s not really fair to put a box inside another box.”

  “No, it’s definitely cheating. Here. Guess mine.” She handed him her gift from the lodge.

  He held it up to his ear and shook it. Then, he turn his head and smelled it. “Whatever it is, it smells like... ginger... and other spices. I think one of the items might be a gel.” He rotated it slowly. “Yeah, something definitely shifts like a gel.” He handed it back to her. “I’m guessing bath items. I think that’s a reasonable guess based on your gender too. I think it’s what mortals would call a safe bet.”

  “Okay. Let’s see if you’re right.” He looked pretty smug about his guess. She unwrapped it slowly just to annoy him. It was fun to see him get antsy. Of course he was right. There was gingerbread bath gel and then a giant loofah sponge shaped like a gingerbread man. “That’s a bit kinky.” She held up the gingerbread man. “I wonder if Mrs. Cowper considered I’ll be rubbing this guy all over my naked body.”

  Tempus didn’t respond.

  “I’m just saying... hopefully this was only for the adult women.”

  “I’m going to open my present now.”

  “I’m not stopping you.”

  He was right about the socks. They had tiny snowmen all over them. Additionally, there was a chocolate orange in his box.

  “I wonder if she got this idea from Zeit,” she said. “He had like ten of them in here a year ago when we visited his room.”

  “I should have been able to smell it,” Tempus said, clearly disgusted with his deductive abilities. “I mean, they used the socks to contain the scent which is also cheating, but I should have tried harder.”

  “On that note, here’s my gift. Don’t shake it or smash it.” She handed him the flat rectangular box. Most mortals would guess what it was.

  “Hmm. Fragile.” He tipped it from side to side.

  “It’s what is on it that is technically your gift.”

  He sighed and frowned at her repressively. “I don’t need hints yet. Well, clearly it’s electronics of some kind.” He raised his eyebrows. “I’m guessing, since you’ve noticed my propensity for reading that it’s a book reader of some kind.”

  “E-reader.”

  He nodded.

  “You know, it’s not as fun when you guess it, but open it up anyway.”

  His wide grin made it feel fun again.

  After he’d opened it, she explained, “I put a bunch of Agatha Christie boo
ks on there for you. I’ve yet to guess hers so if you manage to figure out the murderer before the end of any of them—you’ll have beaten me. She’s pretty good though.”

  “I’ve gotten really good in the last year.”

  “And you’re humble too. Girls love that.”

  Still smiling, he handed her the jeweler’s box.

  “It’s jewelry.”

  Tempus rolled his eyes. “It’s not. This is why I always beat you at guessing. You fall for the red-herrings every time.”

  “Oh, how do you know?”

  “Because once they’re revealed as red-herrings and are eliminated as suspects, you turn down the page.”

  Hmm. Maybe he was right. “Well, I don’t know what it is, so I’m opening it up.” She opened the lid and bit her lip. She could feel him watching her so she didn’t get all weepy and emotional. “Keys.” Two silver keys were attached to a ring with a charm nestled between them.

  “They’re made out of platinum. The jewelry ads on at night say that platinum is a good metal to make things for mortal females from. I’m not sure why, but I did it anyway.”

  “And there’s a little... rocket charm.”

  “It’s a firework. When I asked you last night what you wanted for Christmas, you said you wanted fireworks. There was a commercial for charms last night. I didn’t think you meant actual fireworks.”

  She let out a nervous laugh. “I think I was asleep.” Fireworks? It was sweet of him to try to give her what she’d asked for. “Thank you. I love the charm. What are the keys to?”

  He leaned toward her and the intensity of his gaze was almost hypnotic. “The first one is a key to my car so that you can drive us home on New Year’s Day.”

  Her breath caught in her throat.

  “The other is a key to my house so that you don’t have to knock when you come over.”

  Lacey swallowed. “I think I know what I meant when I asked for fireworks.” They were going off in her heart right now. She closed the few inches between them and kissed him, holding his face in her hands. She was madly and completely in love with this crazy immortal. Even if he broke her heart, it was worth taking a chance on him. “Fireworks,” she said against his mouth, the word a vibration. Then, she bit his lower lip. He groaned and pushed his hands up through her hair, cupping her head. Unlike when he’d brushed her hair, his hands tugged just enough to make her feel a little wicked.