Wonder: A Soul Savers Collection of Holiday Short Stories & Recipes (13 page)

Chapter 4

Tony shot up straight, and his gaze flew to Claire then back to the new arrivals.

“What do you think you’re doing with this
beast
?” Claire’s grandmother demanded, her haughty voice as grating as her daughter’s.

Although he’d gained control over the change, Tony let out a growl. Claire’s grandmother simply turned her piercing blue eyes on him and lifted a silver eyebrow. One side of his lip lifted, but he repressed the snarl. Claire stepped in front of him.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, her gaze bouncing between the other two warlocks. As usual, their hair was pulled back into tight buns, but little curls sprang free at their temples. Her mother’s was still the same brown as Claire’s with only a few streaks of gray, but her grandmother’s was as silver as a teapot. Both were petite, as small as Claire, but much more intimidating.

“I can ask you the same thing,” her mother said, placing a hand on her hip. She glanced around the tiny cabin and sniffed with disgust. “I don’t know what you’re trying to pull here but your absence tonight was noticed. You disgrace the entire family for
this
?”

Her mother’s glare landed on Tony with the last word. Claire swallowed, and her chest tightened. She didn’t know how to respond. As much as she hated it, guilt and shame began to push away the contempt that had been driving her all day long. That had given her more courage—and more freedom—than she’d ever experienced before. And it could have led to many regrets, regrets worse than the ones she already had.

“Let’s go, Claire,” her mother said. “Come home with us before you make an unimaginable mistake.”

Guilt may have been trying to slide its way in, but the back of Claire’s neck prickled at this comment. Her eyes slid over her shoulder to Tony, who studied her closely, waiting to see what she would do. She remembered the welcome feeling in her stomach when his breath had mixed with hers. The tingle along her skin when he touched her. The way his eyes made her thighs clench. Was being with him really an unimaginable mistake?

“
Claire
,” her grandmother snapped. “Listen to your mother. It’s time to go, child. Do as you’re told.”

The younger warlock’s head tilted as that prickle on her neck became more like a needle in a nerve. Her nostrils flared. She stood to her full height and stared directly into her grandmother’s eyes.

“I am
not
a child,” she seethed. “And I will do what
I
want to do.”

“Do you know how childish
that
sounds?” her mother demanded.

Claire squared her shoulders and took a step toward her mother. She turned her full gaze on her. “No, Mother, it doesn’t, because I am making a decision for myself for once. I will suffer the consequences, but staying here is
my
choice.”

Her mother rolled her eyes and held her hand out. “That’s enough. We can discuss this later. Right now, people are waiting for you.”

“Like who, Mother? Nobody cares what I’m doing right now.”

“Like your friends Inga and Kath.”

Claire snorted. “They’re so wrapped up in having their own fun, they don’t give a shit what I’m doing. They’re doing what they want to do, and so am I, for once. Besides, they’re more than happy to keep me far away from
you
.”

Claire’s mother’s eyes narrowed as her gaze cut to Tony then back to Claire, and her jaw clenched. “At least do what you want with your own kind. Think of Barry!”

Tony let out a huff in the corner. Claire gave a slight shake of her head, her only way at the moment to tell him that he had no need to worry about Barry. Then she let out a sarcastic laugh.

“Barry is
your
kind, Mother! Cruel, controlling, and a pompous ass. Since you like him so much, why don’t
you
hook up with him?” She took another step toward her mother and grandmother. “Better yet, make a threesome of it. I don’t really give a shit. All I care about right now is that you both get the hell out of here and leave me alone once and for all. Stop trying to run my life!”

She lifted her hand toward them, and the other warlocks saw the threat. Their eyes grew wide as they stared at Claire daring to challenge them to a fight.

“Now go.” Claire pointed her finger toward the front door, which swung open at her silent command. Wind gusted and blew snow inside.

“Claire—” her grandmother started.

“I said to GO!” The youngest warlock bellowed. Her hand began to glow a bright orange as she prepared to launch a blast of magic at them. “If you don’t flash this very second, I’ll send you out myself.”

Both women’s heads tilted, and their eyes narrowed. Claire wiggled her fingers in a wave. Her mother and grandmother gasped as their bodies flew out the door and landed in a drift of snow. A small avalanche fell on top of them, and only their eyes, wide as grapefruits and shooting daggers, could be seen. After two faint
pops
hissed in the otherwise quiet night, the eyes disappeared, and Claire slammed the door shut. She spun to face Tony.

“I’m ... um ... so sorry,” she said, nearly breathless. She couldn’t believe what she’d just done. She’d kicked her own mother and grandmother out of her life! But she couldn’t believe they’d actually shown up here and made a complete ass out of her. She hoped they’d learned to stop sticking their noses where they didn’t belong, but she doubted it. They probably didn’t even take her seriously about leaving her alone for good. But at least she’d have tonight. Or did she?

“Maybe this isn’t such a great idea,” Tony said, his voice laced with apprehension. His teeth, hands, and the rest of him, including his voice, were back to normal, with no traces of the bear inside him.

Claire breathed in and out several times, wondering if she should agree with him. Wondering if she should just let him go, if that’s what he really wanted. But when he didn’t move so much as a muscle to leave, her insecurities vanished. She threw up a cloak over the cabin—she wasn’t making that mistake again—and without a word, she strode the three paces over to his place in the corner of the room, grasped his unruly hair tightly in her fist, and placed her other hand over his package and squeezed.

“This is a fan-fucking-tastic idea,” she breathed before slamming her mouth over his. He immediately grew hard in agreement.

Their lips parted, and their tongues intertwined. He tasted like berries and something erotically wild that Claire couldn’t get enough of. One of his hands cradled her head while the other clamped down on her ass. She continued stroking him, and he groaned into her mouth. Then in one swift moment, he spun her around, tore off her sweater, wrapped a hand around both of her wrists, and lifted her arms above her head. With his hips pressing against her, he backed her against the wall. Her heart pounded as he dove for her neck, and she moaned when his mouth found her breast. Within minutes, no shred of clothes remained on either of their bodies, and Tony held Claire’s hips, her legs wrapped around his waist and her back pressed against the wall as he pushed inside her. They both cried out ... several times as their passion built.

Claire had never experienced anything like this were-bear. He was beast and man at the same time. Wild yet considerate. Powerful yet gentle. He let her explore every bit of his muscular build with both her hands and her mouth as long as she let him do the same. His touch, whether his fingers or his lips or tongue, was so hot, and even the slightest caress made her body vibrate. The way he moved her, the things he did to her ... she’d never had such an erotic night.

Morning had come, although it was still dark outside, when they finally collapsed in each other’s arms on the rug in front of the fireplace. They spooned together, Tony’s fingers stroking lightly over Claire’s skin, down her ribs, over her hip, to her thigh, as they watched the sky turn pink through the window. The snowy scene outside went from gray to blue to dazzling white. A blanket of snow reached as far as their eyes could see, completely covering the lake and everything around it.

“Looks like the storm has passed,” Tony murmured in Claire’s ear. “I’m sure you’ll want to take off soon.”

Claire turned to look up at him, a smile dancing on her lips. “You know as well as I do that the storm wasn’t what kept me here. Just as it wasn’t what kept you here.”

“Didn’t you get what you wanted, though?” he asked, his voice cocky as he smirked at her. He traced his fingers over her cheek before kissing her forehead.

“Mmm ... yes, I did,” she answered, her eyelids becoming heavy as she stroked a hand over his hard chest and down his abs. “But I think ...” Her hand moved lower, and Tony’s eyes widened as he throbbed against her. “I think I haven’t had quite enough.”

He let out a growl while grinning at the same time. And then he devoured her ... well, devoured her body in every way she’d let him.

“Had enough yet?” he asked a few hours later.

“Not sure ...” Claire drifted off to sleep, and they both dozed for a while. When they awoke, it was snowing again. “Oh, damn. Looks like we’re stuck here for another night.”

“You are insatiable,” Tony said with a husky chuckle.

“I have a lot of being good to make up for.”

His chuckle turned into a full-out laugh. “Show me how bad you can be.”

“Are you sure that’s what you want?” she asked, her voice full of mischief.

He gathered her curls into his hand and pulled on her hair, lifting her head so she’d look at him. “I want whatever you want.”

She smiled. “Good answer.”

So Claire did what she wanted, and so did Tony, because they both wanted the same thing—each other. As many times as possible. And they both agreed on a twist to what the Normans preached on this holiday: It was better to give than to receive ... but it was always best when both happened at the same time.

MIRACLE:
A Vampire’s First Christmas

In this next story,
Miracle
, we get to know a secondary character from the Soul Savers Series, but in a whole new context. If you’re caught up with the series, you may find this story confusing if you try to fit it in somewhere in the timeline. If you’re new to the series or not quite caught up, you may think as you start reading this that you’ve been spoiled. I wouldn’t do that to you! I ask that you not worry about how these events and characters’ actions relate to the main series. They don’t. Many things here make no sense in the context of the main series. So I ask that you think of this as a parallel universe to the real one in the primary series. Yes, I just said that—the “real” one. Just go with it. Try not to read too much between the lines, and simply allow yourself to enjoy the miracles of Christmas.

Chapter 1

The blood-red card sat like a tent on the antique table in my suite, looking deceptively beautiful and innocent. No picture adorned the front, though. Only a flourish of script in black ink that reminded me of my pre-vampire days. None of this typed text of today’s world, or worse, the sloppy and shaky handwriting of someone who can’t be bothered to write cursive with a pen except when they have to. This was old school and gorgeous, like calligraphy.

“To Vanessa”

Curiosity didn’t just kill the proverbial cat—it had nearly killed the very real me numerous times, and it got me again. I snatched the card off the table and opened it, only to find:

“I’m watching you.”

“What?” I snarled at it. “What the hell does that mean?”

I looked around the room, but I knew that these walls may not have eyes, but this mansion did have ears. Actually, minds—ones that could hear others’ thoughts. Was this a threat from Katerina or Alexis? A reminder? Or did it come from someone else? A tingle ran down my spine, and I hated tingles with a passion. They signaled something was about to go wrong.

I stomped down the stairs and followed my nose to the grand kitchen, where I knew I’d find someone by the smells and sounds of it. The witch wasn’t exactly the one I’d expected to find—she was centuries younger and blond—but she might have been even better than Ophelia, the mansion’s head servant, to give me answers.

“I know I’m not exactly welcome here,” I said as I stopped at the butcher-block island, “but this is really uncalled for.”

Blossom stood on the other side of the island, messing with some kind of dough. She looked up at me with a raised brow, and I threw the card down in front of her.

“Who would do such a thing?” I demanded as she wiped her hands on her apron and picked up the card to investigate it.

“Well, it could be anybody,” Blossom mused as she studied the inside. “Even Ms. Katerina, for all we know.”

My eyes narrowed. “I doubt the matriarch would stoop to this level. She and everyone else have pretty much said to my face how they feel about me being here, and that they’re watching me.”

“Really?” Blossom asked, her tone curious but I sensed skepticism. She turned her back to me to pull something out of the oven. “That’s what they said?”

My body wanted to squirm, but I only shrugged and picked at a piece of dough stuck to the counter. “Well, not exactly. They were nicer about it. You know how the Amadis are.” I looked back up at her. “Which means this did not come from Katerina or Sophia. Maybe Alexis, but she
does
say it to my face every chance she gets, so I doubt it’s her. Some asshole has access to my suite and left me a threatening note, and I don’t like it!”

“Threatening?” Blossom sounded genuinely perplexed as she placed a metal sheet full of freshly baked cookies on the counter. “I wouldn’t call it threatening.”

My eyes widened. “Then what the hell
would
you call it?”

“Oh, come on, it’s kind of fun, don’t you think?”

“
Fun?
” No other words came to me, and I stood there staring at her, my mouth opening and closing.

“Oh, my God, you don’t get it, do you?” Blossom’s lips twitched, and then she giggled.

“What?” I demanded.

“It’s a game, Vanessa. Christmas merry-making.” She held out the card to me and pointed at a line of script that I had missed:

“From your Secret Santa”

“It’s like how the Norman parents tell their kids that Santa is always watching them to know if they’ve been naughty or nice,” Blossom explained. “Your secret one is watching you.”

My hands went to my hips. “I have a Secret Santa?”

“It looks like it. So stop worrying. It’s going to be fun.” She picked up a spatula and started scooping cookies off the sheet and sliding them onto a plate. I watched her while mulling over this news.

“I don’t like this Secret Santa thing,” I finally said. “It feels like a set-up.”

Blossom’s big, hazel eyes rolled up to look at me. She’d finished removing the baked cookies, and now she dropped mounds of dough on a clean sheet. “You need to relax.”

“Easy for you to say,” I grumbled. “I’m trying to remember why I’m here. Trying to be good. And not be selfish. But how am I supposed to return the favor to this Secret Santa if I don’t even know who the hell he or she is?”

The witch tilted her head. “You could pay it forward, you know, give something to someone else. That’s kind of what Christmas is all about: giving, not receiving.”

My stomach dropped. I was so not going to be good at this Christmas thing. Giving and not receiving? I’d been working hard at learning how to give, but I
loved
to receive. In fact, I loved to receive so much, that I pretty much always simply took whatever I wanted. I wasn’t supposed to like any of that anymore, though, so I’d resolved to never receive any gifts again. At least, not without giving in return. And now this whole Secret Santa scheme made everything so confusing.

“I’m so going to suck at this Christmas thing,” I grumbled.

“You’ll be fine. Why don’t you help me decorate these?” Blossom picked up the plate of white cookies and took it over to the table where bowls of colored frosting and all kinds of decorations sat. “It’s a very Christmas-y thing to do, and people love to eat them. It makes them very happy.”

I blew out a sigh and followed her over to the table. This was me: giving. Making people happy in return for nothing.

I picked up a cookie in an odd shape.

“I might have used my magic to create some new shapes,” Blossom admitted. “A trick Aunt Sylvie taught me when I was little. We used to make all kinds of cookies together throughout the Christmas season. She would make it so much fun! I took me a few years to learn how to use magic without screwing up the whole recipe.” Blossom paused when she saw my blank expression while I still held my cookie in the air. “Anyway, that one can be a face. See the nose and the chin? You can make it whoever you want.”

I wasn’t an artist, and I wasn’t magic. Making it whomever I wanted was impossible. So I did my best in at least making it resemble a face while Blossom told me stories of baking and decorating cookies with her aunt.

“Um, that’s, well, interesting,” Blossom said a few minutes later after looking over at my cookie.

Her tone made my brows push together, and I frowned at my artwork. “It’s not very Christmas-like, is it?”

“Well, the blood is kind of ... no, not really.”

I dropped it on the table. “I told you! I’m hopeless!”

“Relax. Just eat it and try on another one.”

I didn’t really want to eat it, but I didn’t want to disappoint Blossom any further after she’d been so nice to me. I could eat normal food, and my body could sort of digest it—my blood basically disintegrated it into nothing, kind of like acid does—but it always tasted bland and dry to me. Remembering I had a bottle of blood in the wine rack, I poured myself a glass.

“Oh my God, Vanessa,” Blossom shrieked as she jumped up from the table. The oven’s timer was buzzing, but she simply stood there, staring at my cookie with her nose wrinkled. “That’s so disgusting!”

I glanced at the cookie that was now stained red. Without realizing I was doing it, I’d dunked it in my glass of blood. Red juiciness ran down my hand, and I licked it up.

“Ewwwww.” Blossom shuddered and gagged before hurrying over to the oven. “Are you ... are you sure you don’t want a cup of milk?”

I popped the blood-soaked sweet in my mouth, and it tasted delicious. When I turned down the milk and Blossom frowned at me, I knew I’d screwed up again. I couldn’t even enjoy a simple Christmas cookie the normal way.

“I told you I suck at this.” I pushed away from the table and stood.

“I have an idea,” Blossom said. “Sheree’s in the media room, watching all those sappy Christmas movies. Why don’t you go join her? You could learn all kinds of things, so you won’t suck at it.”

She was probably just trying to get rid of me before I ruined anymore of her cookies, but maybe she actually cared about trying to make things better for me, too. Regardless, I followed her suggestion and left the kitchen, in search of the media room.