by Viola Grace
A dim memory becomes her only chance to save her nephew, but she will need the most terrifying of help. Krampus.
When Leda was a child, she was taken to a land of glitter and soft voices and told she was there to stay. In a rush of confusion, a creature appeared and demanded that she and others be handed over.
In the blink of an eye, she is back in her bed, but she remembers the creature, she remembers being taken, she remembers everything.
The day her nephew went insane, she had her suspicions, and when she ran a test, she knew. He had gone naughty right before the holidays, and she was the only person who knew why. She had a mission. She had a goal. She had to go talk to a monster known for abducting children.
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Kissing Krampus
Copyright © 2019 Viola Grace
ISBN: 978-1-4874-2712-2
Cover art by Martine Jardin
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Kissing Krampus
By
Viola Grace
Kissing Krampus
Leda parked outside of her sister’s house and tried to see a visual sign of the turmoil that was occurring inside. Nothing. It was a perfectly arranged home with neat Christmas lights and a cheeky inflatable snowman in the front yard.
Phoebe had been at her wit’s end when she called. Liam was in a state, and nothing she could do would calm him down.
The timing was too coincidental, but Leda had to see for herself.
She checked her pocket and verified that the coin was still there. It was stupid. Silly. She was probably being paranoid.
Leda unbuckled, turned off her car, and got out, standing on the walk and composing herself before heading inside. She really hoped she was wrong.
She knocked on the door and then rang the bell. Footfalls warned that her sister was approaching, but nothing was enough notice of what she saw when the door opened.
Phoebe hadn’t just been crying; her eyes were far too red for that. She had been sobbing.
“Leda.” She lunged forward, and Leda was caught in a hug that nearly strangled her.
“It’s okay.”
“No, it isn’t. I don’t think it is ever going to be okay again.” Phoebe sobbed against her neck.
Leda frowned and said, “When did it start?”
Her sister blubbered herself into some kind of control as she thought back. “We had just come back from Uncle Hector’s place in Germany.”
“Tony is still out of town on business?”
“Yes, he is out opening a new hotel.”
“What does he think of this?”
Phoebe blubbered again. “He doesn’t want to be around him.”
Leda nodded. “I will help as much as I can, but I actually need to talk to him.”
“I don’t know what you can do.”
“Let me try something, and then, I will have to find a consultant if it is what I think it is.”
Leda pulled away from Phoebe and headed into the area where the sound of crashing was echoing from the playroom.
She eased the door open and smiled at Liam. “Hey, sport. How are you doing today?”
He glanced at her with a narrow-eyed glare. “I am playing, Aunty.”
“Well, your birthday came and went while you were in Europe, so I thought I would give you something.”
She dug in her pocket and pulled out the exceptionally shining coin, an unlikely glittering medium grey.
Liam looked at the coin, and he smiled. “For my collection.”
“Indeed.” She held it out and kept her breathing normal as his fingers closed over the coin.
The shriek that he let out as he dropped the object was nearly beyond human hearing.
She scooped her coin up and put it in her pocket, looking at him and acting concerned at the burns on his fingertips. “What happened?”
“It burned me, you bitch!” He snarled, and she saw a hint of fang.
“How is that possible? I have been carrying it my pocket all day. It is barely warm.” She stood. “I’ll call your mom. She can put something on your fingers.”
“What did you do? It still burns.” He sobbed, and she picked him up.
“It is just an antique coin, Liam.”
He snuffled, and she carried him to his mother. “Here you go, Phoebe. He is calmer now and will be for a few days. I am going to meet with that consultant and see what I can do.”
Her sister had tears in her eyes as her son snuffled softly and laid his head on her shoulder like he used to. The hellion of the last few weeks was gone.
“He will be himself for now, but this isn’t a permanent solution. I will be in touch.”
Phoebe held her son tight. “I... thank you, Leda.”
“I will be in touch.” Leda smiled, patted her sister’s arm, and left the house, breaking into a sprint the moment she was out of their house.
The clock was ticking, and she didn’t even know where to find the cogs. She was going to have to go over her research and really hope that the creatures and beings she had met along the way were still there.
She stilled her shaking hands and buckled up, putting her car in gear the moment that it revved to life.
It was going to take her hours to reach the first of her destinations, but this was for Liam and Phoebe. She would drive as long as it took.
She parked at the roadside stand and looked at the path that was barely visible up the side of the mountain. Her boots were practical, but she had no idea if they were enough for the journey. Leda was going to find out.
She put on her gloves, mittens, scarf, and zipped up her parka. With the hood up, she started up the mountain, following the directions she had gotten from a garden gnome when she was eighteen.
With every crunching footstep, she remembered dealing with her memories, the flashbacks, and the horrible tension that every holiday season brought her.
She had hoped to never think of the name that resounded in her head right now. She never wanted to believe that what she had experienced was real, but if Liam was sensitive to cold iron, there was only one person who could help get the real Liam back. She had to find Krampus.
Her feet were frozen, and the endless crunching of snow was the only sensory input she was getting. Her right hand touched the side of the mountain now and then, but the whiteout that had struck when she had been walking for two hours wrapped her in dizzying blindness.
She was cold, so cold, but this was for Liam and Phoebe. What were a few toes if she could just find Krampus?
Her fingers were disappearing. Her hand was now a club, but she kept walking, pushing against the wind every
step of the way.
The storm halted so suddenly that she fell forward to smack against stone, and she was only registering that she was in a place that didn’t have ice biting at her face before everything went dark.
* * * *
The jingling of the bell got everyone’s attention. No human had dared to make their way up to this spot yet.
Krampus watched as the dwarf behind the bar sighed. He chuckled. “Stay put, Demetrius. I will go and find it.”
He got to his feet and pulled his hood up. His features never failed to elicit comment from the humans, so hiding them was in his best interest.
Pushing the door open, he looked to the left and the right. “Huh, they must have gotten stuck.”
He walked down the gentle slope of the path to see a surprising sight. A woman was face down in the snow, and despite her many layers, she was wearing more snow than the mountainside.
He leaned down and lifted her, grunting at the weight of the ice that coated her. Her ability to move this far was impressive.
He turned and headed back to the tavern. His burden wasn’t moving, she was barely breathing.
Inside, he called out. “Warm water, room by the fire, and dry clothes and towels.”
He walked swiftly to the fire and worked at shucking the layers of ice away from the woman. He didn’t know who she was there to see, but she had nearly made it under her own steam.
Demetrius brought the requested supplies and went to work on the ice over her boots. “The mountain made her prove her intentions, that is for certain.”
A few of the others were looking at their prize as she was chipped and peeled to pink skin. Demetrius held her purplish toes, and he focused, bringing her circulation back and healing the skin.
“I haven’t seen one this bad in a few years,” Demetrius muttered.
Krampus wrapped her in the towels and rubbed her skin briskly.
He murmured, “She knew what she was coming for.”
“What?”
“There is cold iron in her pocket. There are at least four of us in here who would have a nasty reaction to that.”
The dwarf paused. “Which pocket?”
“Her jeans. Right front.”
The dwarf went and found the article of clothing with the highly irritating coin. He held it up and whistled. “That is unexpected.”
Krampus scowled. “What?”
“It is one of yours. It is a telling coin.”
Krampus blinked. “You are joking. I haven’t handed one of those out for...” He looked down at the woman in his arms who had started to shiver violently. “Twenty years.”
Demetrius held the coin up, and there was Krampus’s annual form, outlined on a black background. He looked at the woman’s face and searched his memory to find her younger visage.
“Leda. She was a fighter.” He chuckled and moved her hair away from her face before pausing. “I wonder what she wants here?”
The lids fluttered, and she looked up at him with confusion. “Where am I? Where are my clothes?”
He leaned back. “You are at the Annual Tavern. Where did you think you would be?”
She clutched the towels to her and sat up, looking at every interesting face and not finding the one she was seeking. “Where is he?”
Demetrius spoke softly. “Who are you looking for, child?”
“Krampus. I need Krampus.”
Krampus was taken aback. “Why? No one in their right mind would come looking for him.”
She shivered, and he wrapped his arms around her, rubbing her arms to help her circulation. Her teeth chattered, and she said, “I am not in my right mind, I am looking for Krampus. Where is he?”
Demetrius gave him a look. “The gentleman here can help you. You might need to explain a few things.”
She looked at him, and her dark gaze pinned him in place. “I really need to see Krampus. It is urgent.”
He sighed. “Why do you need him? He will be walking the nights soon enough.”
She shivered violently for a few minutes, and then, she slumped back in his arms. She took a slow breath, and she began to tell her tale.
* * * *
“My sister has a rough marriage. He works away, and I am pretty sure he plays away as well. Anyway, she brought her son to Germany to visit our great uncle, and while he was there, something happened.”
The man with the white hair and rich blue eyes smiled at her, his pointed ears poking out of the silky pale locks. She pushed her admiration aside and continued her story.
“Phoebe called me last week and told me that Liam—her son—was acting up. He was getting wilder by the day, and screaming curses at her when she tried to calm him down. It isn’t like him. He has been invariably calm and good-natured.”
The man holding her shrugged. “Children change.”
“Not like this. This reminded me of some videos my own parents had taken when I was a child.”
The man looked shocked. “What?”
She struggled to sit up a little, and a burly man walked up to her with a cup of tea. She was still shivering, but he gathered up her sodden clothing and put them on a rack that he pushed close to the fire. “Thank you. I didn’t realize I was so wet.”
“You arrived encased in ice. Now, what of this dream when you were a child?”
She frowned. “It wasn’t a dream. A woman made of light and autumn leaves walked into my bedroom, and she told me that she was taking me away where I could live and play forever. She took my hand and walked me through the wall and into a shining hallway. Anyway, I was with her and some other children for a few days or weeks. Then, one day, Krampus came, and he opened a sack, spilling out children who looked just like us. There was an argument between the woman who had taken me and Krampus. She held onto me and argued that I was special, and she wanted to keep me. My doppelganger looked at me with hollow eyes. I was given the memory of what it had been up to over the time I had been missing, and I woke up in my bed. The two parts of my life that I had lived in my mind, still clear, with a third, placid few weeks now in its place. I remembered everything and was tense and watchful around the holidays after that.”
She dragged in a deep breath. “That is how I knew what had happened to Liam. I even double-checked it.”
The man with her asked, “How?”
“When I woke up after being kidnapped, I had a coin pressed into my hand. When I was a teenager, I found out that the coin would react to anyone from that realm. It would burn them if they were the wrong sort and glow if they were the right sort.”
“Who told you that?”
She smiled. “A gnome. A garden gnome. I laid a trap in my family’s back yard, and I caught one. He told me what the coin was for, and he told me how to find Krampus if I really needed him. I really do. Either my nephew’s changeling will kill my sister or her husband will. I don’t know, but I want to stop it from happening.”
She shivered again, but the spasms seemed to be retreating.
“So, you risked your life to come here? You have nearly died, chasing a mythical monster.”
She shook her head slowly and finished her tea. “He isn’t a monster. He’s a friend to children or at least an enemy to the elves that steal them.”
The man she was looking at smiled, and there was a shine in his eyes. “That is a very flattering description of such a horrible beast.”
She rubbed her forehead and tried to stay awake. “He isn’t... I mean, his features serve a purpose. The elves were terrified when he showed up. That has to be the effect of his appearance.”
The man nodded. “It could be. How are you feeling now?”
“Better. Still a little chilled. Very sleepy.” Leda blinked. “Too sleepy. Why am I so sleepy?”
The dwarf said, “Just a few little relaxing herbs so that we can get you somewhere warm without your mind going into shock.”
She frowned. “I need Krampus. Can you get
a message to him?”
The man who was holding her nodded. “He will get the details, and we will find a path to your solution when he does.”
She fought the sleepiness, and her brain shrieked that this wasn’t the way to deal with hypothermia, but darkness crept in, and she was out.
* * * *
When Leda went slack in his arms, Krampus exhaled. “We need to get her somewhere warm. Demetrius?”
“You will have to take her home, Krampus. We don’t have any place to keep a human.”
Eros got up and looked at her. “I can think of a few places to keep her.”
Krampus scowled at him. “Keep your eyes to yourself, bird brain.”
“Aw, you are going to have to fluff out with her around eventually. You really think she will take fur over feathers?”
Demetrius draped a blanket over her and hid her limbs from the eager view of the monsters who rarely saw a human that wasn’t in a state of emotional conflict. An unconscious woman brought out the predator in them all. They didn’t have to act on it, but here was a creature who would not turn away in revulsion at their cursed faces. Getting her away from the others was suddenly very important to Krampus.
He lifted her and glanced at the clothing.
Demetrius nodded, “I will get these back to her before you take her home.”
Krampus nodded and walked behind the bar with his burden. She was far lighter now that the eighty pounds of ice were off.
The door to his particular realm opened at his approach, and he walked through into the perpetual springtime that he had grown up with.
After a quick glance around, he carried her to his home. There was only one bed in this realm, and it was his. Now that he was here in his domain, he could assist her more effectively.
He settled her in the bedding and pressed his lips to her forehead, pulling the ice out of her body. He smiled when she spoke.