In Love by Christmas: A Paranormal Romance (41 page)

“He’s not coming in my house without clothes,” the old lady barked.

Soon, Diego was wearing a short, green wool dress and leggings.

“That’s fine, boys,” the witch waved at him and Lopez. “You’ve returned Diego to his home. We’ll call you if he gets out of control.” Glaring at Diego, “
Or we’ll deal with it ourselves.”

“Great, Dr. Schierman. Glad to help. Merry Day after Christmas.”

“Thank you, Officer. It’s called Boxing Day. You come back when you have those tickets. I’m having an Easter egg hunt on the lawn in a few months. You’re welcome to that.”

“Thank you, ma’am. I’ll keep it in mind.”

“Holy fucking shit,” Lopez said as they shot for the exit. “What kind of a nut house was that?”

“The real kind, Lopez. They’re all real. Did you look through the front window when we drove up?” Lopez shook his head “Will Duane was in there. Richest man in the world. The old lady owns everything on the planet that Duane doesn’t. And there was a whole
tribe
of Indians behind them.”

“My son, you will stay with me tonight,” Grandfather led Diego to his room and sat him on the spare bed. “And tomorrow, we will travel together. We will go everywhere. Would you like that?”

“You aren’t afraid of me?”

“No. You aren’t afraid of
me?”
Diego shook his head. “Now my son, tell me all about what happened. What Leroy did, and what your brother did to try to make you bad again.”

Diego told the shaman everything, including Enzo’s reconstituting him after he ate him and shit him out.

“Oh, that’s terrible.”

“Yes. It hurt my feelings very badly.”

“But you didn’t turn bad again.”

“No.”

“Good. I’m going to have someone bring you some food. Then you will sleep in this bed until I call you in the morning.”

“I get to stay?”

“You get to stay with me.”

“Oh, Grandpa, that’s so dangerous. You can’t travel with Diego. Enzo will be searching for you.”

“He’s already searching for me, Leroy.”

“What if Diego eats you?”

“Hah! If he eats me, he will eat an old bag of bones and skin. The Great One will protect my soul and I will be fine. I
am
fine.
You are not fine.”
He indicated the group assembled in Vanessa’s living room, looking petrified.

“You
are afraid of the monster, but I am not. Why?” the shaman began to speak, as only he could. Magic filled the corners of the room, draping the garlands and lights.

“I am not afraid, because Leroy created a miracle! You are great, my grandson! You will be the greatest of our entire lineage! It is true!”

Grandfather whooped a bit, which set the warriors whooping. “Let me tell you what has happened.” They sat back in Vanessa Schierman’s weird living room and listened aptly.

“This miracle comes at a great time. This is the day after Christmas, the day the Christ came into the world of flesh and sticks and darkness. God loved us so, that he sent—Himself. His entire Self—to this place, in the form of His son. Think of the gift that was. Light. Knowledge. Love. Forgiveness. The healing balm. God gave us
everything,
in the form of a little baby.”

Grandfather’s eyes swept the group. He nodded as he entered the trance state. “People forget that I am a Christian. They see how I look and think, ‘Oh. An old barbarian.’ I am an old barbarian too. I follow my People’s ways. They are my ways.

“But I am a Christian. Jesus came to me the night I was taken from my family. He stayed with me every moment. Bad things happened to children in the Indian schools. The extent of it is just being acknowledged, but Jesus saved me from it. He is not a comic book figure for me; He is my Savior and my Lord.

“Diego came to us the day after Jesus’s birth.” He waved at the huge Christmas tree, bristling with ornaments and colored bulbs. “We don’t really know which day Jesus was born, so we agree that it was December 25th.

“Really, the merchants and store owners picked a day so they could turn it into a sales event and make money. They make us feel—
we
make ourselves feel—‘I have to get Auntie Trudy a new TV or she won’t think I love her.’ And I must buy everyone else something good enough, expensive enough. Then I can have a good Christmas.

“What most people celebrate is not Christ’s birthday. What do you call it, Vanessa?”

“The Teutonic-pagan winter festival.” The old witch smiled.

“Yes, that is what people celebrate, with their Santa Claus and reindeer and naughty and nice. And that’s what it is—a pagan festival.

“What we have seen this year is
real
Christmas. We saw the decent of the dove, of our beloved Ashley, into a new life. That was a miracle. We saw our friend Will forgiven and remade.” He waved at Will in his wheelchair, a brace around his neck and his foot in a cast. “Sometimes, being remade hurts.” Grandfather threw his head back and laughed. All the bells on the tree chimed with his laughter.

“We have come together for a wedding of two great dynasties. When the time comes, you will have the greatest children, Ashley and Leroy. The greatest! They will combine the best of both of you. Oh, what you will do for the world. You will be
so
happy.” His eyes rolled toward the ceiling and he chanted a few syllables, lost in joy.

“You found that this old man, who everyone thought was dead, wasn’t. Here I am. I get to feel the joy of this earth a little longer. Did you know that human joy humbles the angels? They can’t feel what we do in our bodies of flesh and blood.
Angels
want to feel our human love.

“And now, tonight, the greatest miracle. They say that the devil, Satan, is an angel who fought with God and got kicked out of heaven.” He flicked his forefinger with his thumb. “Pfft. Sayonara, devil baby.” Grandfather raised his hands and shoulders and looked around in mock dismay.

“No one ever talks about a demon going the other way,” the shaman pointed his finger upward and spun it in little circles. “Back to God, O fallen one. Back to your real home, O monster.

“That’s what Leroy did. Who would stand on a street faced by demons that wanted to kill him and save their souls? That’s what Leroy did. He set twenty-one demons free. He made them free to know their true natures, free to know goodness. Free to know God.

“We all belong to God. You know that, yes?” His eyes scanned the crowd. “We pray for sinners, that they will see their errors and repent. We pray for ourselves, that our petty errors may be erased. We pray for criminals and drug addicts, those who are truly lost.

“But does anyone pray for demons? Does anyone see a demon ready to kill him and say, ‘You are good?’

“No one has done that, but Leroy. Diego tore his way out of a sunken airplane and came to Leroy for protection. He called Leroy his father. And he is.

“We rejoice when the Prince of Peace, the Son of Man, the Lord of Heaven is born, but do we recognize the miracle of a son of evil returning to the light? Do we truly believe in the miracle of redemption? This is a story of Christmas, the real Christmas, the one that beats with your heart and moves with your blood.

“That’s what I leave with you. The glory of Christmas, the miracle of redemption, and the possibility of a life of exaltation beyond your dreams. That is what the Great One offers, through himself, his Son, and the love that binds us. We need only open our hearts to receive it.

“As Diego did.”

ABOUT THE BOOK AND BLOODSONG SERIES FROM AUTHOR SANDY NATHAN

In Love by Christmas
is Book Three of the Bloodsong Series. The way I had the Bloodsong Series laid out in my mind originally, it started with a trilogy about the richest man in the world meeting a great Native American shaman. Their lives intersect at a huge spiritual retreat the shaman holds every year in the New Mexico desert.

I wrote and published the first two books of the trilogy, and had one more book set at the New Mexico retreat to go.

But after publishing
Mogollon
, I read the book again and thought,
People will want to read more after they finish this. What can I write quickly so folks don’t have to wait another year for a “big book”?

I wrote
Leroy Watches Jr. & the Badass Bull,
a novella, which is the first time I introduced Leroy Watches Jr. The great shaman Grandfather leads the spiritual retreat in the earlier books. Leroy is his grandson. Where did he come from? In my book drafts, I found a three paragraph reference how Leroy became the FBI’s Most Wanted because of that bull.

Bingo! The Bloodsong Novellas were born. I’m going to write more novellas, featuring the “faces on Bloodsong’s cutting room floor”—Doug Saunders, Janice Coto, Gil Canao, Delroy West, and Marina Selene. I may write about Grandfather and his wife Rebecca. Theirs was the only marriage between soul mates that failed—but that marriage produced Leroy’s mother, and hence, Leroy.

When I started writing about Leroy Watches Jr., he grabbed my soul. I wanted to find out more about this fascinating man—who is also a hunk. I’ve always wanted to write a Christmas book too. One of those warm, glowing things that made you feel good and had a sweet cover.

This is that Christmas book—
In Love by Christmas
, starring Leroy Watches Jr. as he searches for the love of his life. Unfortunately, I am constitutionally unable to write anything soft and fuzzy.
In Love by Christmas
is the most badass Christmas story ever written.

In Love by Christmas
also rammed all other books on my hard drive out of the way, demanding to be published first. By sheer power and beauty,
In Love by Christmas
became Bloodsong 3.

This book is a romance, a biracial romance, and a Christian book. Most of my books contain powerful love stories, but in this book, the love story is a central theme.

This book is essentially, fundamentally, Christian, as I am, but it treats other religions sympathetically and as equals. One of my friends, a Christian writer who writes to a particular denomination, said it was “spiritual” because of my broad acceptance. OK.
In Love by Christmas
embodies the feelings and thoughts I have as I contemplate Christmas.

But what happened at the retreat?
Mogollon: A Tale of Mysticism & Mayhem
ends on Wednesday night. The retreat is over Saturday,
anything
could happen—and it does.

Are all those people are still camping in the New Mexico desert, dodging demons? Will they ever get home? You’ll find out in
Eagle’s Flight: A Tale of Mysticism & Miracles,
Bloodsong 4, which will be published in 2015.

When I sat down to write in 1995, I wrote drafts for the original trilogy and maybe seven or eight related novels. Since then, my brain has kept generating stories. I keep popping out books with new characters and locales. Because of that, the original trilogy will probably end up being dozens of books.

The coming Bloodsong books move. They don’t stay in the Mogollon Bowl, however fascinating it may be. They are set in different places: Silicon Valley, southeastern Oregon, Montana, and Vanessa Schierman’s magical kingdom on top of the Coastal Range in Woodside, California. The tales spin out in Spain, Italy, and Iceland, in addition to the good old USA.

The cast of characters changes and expands. In addition to our familiar billionaires and Native Americans, future works include socialites with secrets, a poet with a past, assassins, warloc
ks, lots of witches and demons, and musicians who rock the world.

And—while you’re waiting for the fourth installment of the Bloodsong Series, I have more for you to read.

While wrestling with writer’s block over the Bloodsong books a couple of years back, I pumped out another series of books.

The Earth’s End Trilogy is sci-fi adventure set in a future world, right before we nuke it. The first book,
The Angel & the Brown-Eyed Boy
is about a young man trying to make sense of a senseless world, and a beautiful alien trying to save her planet.

The second book of Earth’s End,
Lady Grace & the War for a New World
, features the survivors of the Armageddon in the first book. They crawl out from their hiding places and find themselves in prehistoric conditions. Also, the neighbors have mutated and are downright hostile.

Finally,
The Headman & the Assassin
is a love story throughout. It’s the lifelong romance of Sam Baahuud and his soul mate. It takes place in a huge bomb shelter and features a new cast of characters, plus a few from the first book,
The Angel & the Brown-Eyed Boy.