We were about to move when I sensed an energy signature that made me want to destroy everything around me.
“Astaroth,” Nain growled beside me.
“Well, this just got interesting,” Sean said, shifting into his wolf form.
Chapter Eleven
“What are you, little girl?” Astaroth asked as he flowed out of the shadows. He looked the same as he had back when he’d thrown my life into chaos. Dark hair, nearly-black eyes. He gave Nain a look of absolute loathing.
“This one’s a step up for you, Nain Rouge,” he said. “Such power.” He signaled at the car, and several men who had been heading for the water’s edge to help with unloading the boat came running toward us instead. “You can’t really believe I’m going to let you mess up another shipment. It’s bad for business.”
“Like you care about money,” Nain growled.
Astaroth laughed, a slick, oily sound that made me want to wash my hands. “Of course not. I care for all of the corruption and destruction that money can buy. You still haven’t learned that lesson.”
He waved his hand, and the other men charged at us, guns firing. Nain and Sean went to work, punching, kicking, biting, throwing the Purples, sending them crashing into trees. Nain kept trying to get to Astaroth, but the other demons were keeping him busy as Astaroth and I circled one another.
“A girl like you could be so useful,” Astaroth said, and I glared at him.
“I could be. Why don’t you come over here and try me?”
He laughed, still circling me. “You seem to hate me a little extra. Surely we’ve never met. I’d remember a sweet little thing like you.”
“Nah. I just have a good sense for people. And you’re a piece of shit.”
“Now, is that nice? That’s not how ladies talk.”
“No? Fuck you. What, are you going to tell me to smile next?”
He got a disgusted look on his face, and I bared my teeth. Nain and Sean were still fighting, closer to the beach now.
“They’re distracted. You really think I’m going to just let you wander away now that I’ve found you. You don’t have to like being useful to me.”
“You’re not going to ‘let’ me?” I laughed, and it did exactly what I expected it to. People like him are all the same, small-minded, easily offended if you don’t bow to them immediately. Human, demon, shifter, it didn’t matter. Assholes are assholes. He lunged for me, and I sidestepped it, making a show of taking my time about it, embarrassing him even more. He lunged again, and I smiled, held up one hand, and let a ball of fire form in my palm.
It had been a long time since I’d done this. I’d forgotten how good it felt to see the terror in an asshole’s eyes when they saw what I can do.
“What’samatter, tough guy?” I taunted. His face became a mask of rage, and I let the fireball fly toward him. He barely jumped away in time, and I tossed another one at him. This one caught the edge of his jacket and flames immediately started licking up his body. He screeched and started rolling around on the ground in a panic, trying to put the flames out. I walked around him, watching him. Just as he was getting ready to stand up again, I used my power to hold him down. I stood over him, arms crossed over my chest and watched him struggle.
The fight was dying down behind me.
“Are you afraid, little demon?” I asked, that cold, hard voice I often heard from myself when dealing with the worst of the worst. “How does it feel, to be at someone else’s mercy?”
And then, because I could, I broke into his mind. I punished him, made him live his worst fears, feel the pain I knew he’d caused over his lifetime, both present and future.
“Is that fear?” I asked when he screamed. “Damn, does it feel good.”
His nose was bleeding, his ears. The effects of my mental assault on him were becoming clear, and he was crying. I pushed harder.
Molls. Pull back, baby. He’s not going to be able to fight anything for a long time. Pull back, Nain said in my mind. I was somewhat aware that the fighting had stopped, that Nain and Sean were both standing behind me.
No him, no us. Remember, Nain said in my mind. Calm, loving. Patient.
“No him, no us,” I whispered. I closed my eyes and let my mental attacks on him come to a halt. He whimpered. I bent down. “You deserve everything you just got, and more. You’re lucky I’m not in a killing mood tonight.”
I stepped back and Nain wrapped me in his arms. I glanced toward the beach, where the Purples were picking themselves up. A few of them lay still. Probably not dead, but badly hurt. Some of them would be hurt badly enough to reconsider what it was they did for a living.
Not a bad night’s work.
“Let’s go home,” Nain murmured in my ear, and I nodded. I teleported us and Sean back to Sean’s apartment, and I watched Nain and Sean hug. Nain knew it would be the last time he’d see Sean. I could tell Sean was starting to consider the things we’d told him, and he hugged Nain a little harder.
“It was a pleasure to meet you, Miss Brooks,” Sean said to me. I hugged him, and gave him a small smile when I stepped back. “You’re scary, but I think I like you.”
I laughed. “Thank you.”
Nain and Sean shook hands, and then it was time for me to rematerialize us back to Nain’s rooms to get our luggage, and then back to the hotel so we’d be in the right place when we ended up back in our time.
Chapter Twelve
We both changed back into our modern clothes and stood in front of the windows of our hotel room, looking down at the snow-covered street.
“It was a good trip, baby. Thanks for that,” he said.
“Thank you,” I said.
“For what?”
“For reminding me that there’s so much more than what I was doing with my life for these past several months. I’m missing so much… I don’t want to miss anymore.”
“Then you won’t,” Nain said, putting this arms around me. “We’ll figure all of this out together.”
I nodded. “I loved this. All of it. I feel like I know you better now.”
“Me too. And I want to know you even better than this,” he said.
I leaned against him. “Are you ready?”
“I’m ready.”
“Then let’s go home.”
We climbed into bed and held each other, and just before I felt ready to drop off to sleep, I pressed the stone in the center of my amulet, thinking a fond farewell to 1927.
When we woke up the next morning, I immediately missed the weight of the amulet around my neck. I could hear the sounds of sirens, traffic on the street below.
I rolled over and looked up at the ceiling. We were home. And it was Christmas Eve.
I looked over at Nain to find him watching me. “Should we go see our babies?” I asked him. He grinned and pulled me toward him, kissed me as if it’d been years instead of hours since he’d last done so. We got up, dressed, and in less than a half hour, we were back in my Barracuda, heading toward the Netherwoods.
As soon as we walked in the front door of the palace, Zoe ran for us, screeching. She jumped into Nain’s arms, and he laughed and hoisted her into the air. My mom came, carrying Hades, and greeted both of us with a hug as Hades held his chubby little arms out for me.
“We need to get a tree. And we need to let Ada and Stone know they might need to set a few more places at the loft,” I said. My mom smiled and hugged me.
“On it, Mistress,” Dahael said. I hadn’t realized she’d been with my mother and the kids. I smiled my thanks. We had a few hours to get ready for our Christmas party, and it went by quickly. I got the kids dressed and packed a few bags for each of us after calling Ada to tell her that not only would we be there for dinner, but that we were moving back into our old rooms. She gave a cheer and shouted it to Stone.
We were really doing this. We were going to live from now on, not just get by.
When we got to the loft, our friends were already there. Ada and Stone, Shanti and
Zero, Rayna, Ronan, Jamie, Brennan and E, Hephaestus and Meaghan, my aunt and mother… all of these faces who had been with me through hell and back, who I knew we could count on no matter what… this was what made it all worthwhile.
I stood talking to E and Meaghan as the kids all ran around the loft. My gaze went back to Nain, who was talking to Brennan, Zero, Stone, and Heph. His eyes met mine, and I could see my past, my present, and my future in the look he gave me.
Friends made it all worthwhile. And the demon I was married to made it as close as I’d ever get to heaven. That much, I knew for sure.
When the party was over, Nain and I sat in front of the huge Christmas tree in the living room of the loft. All of the lights were off, except for those on the tree. We sat in front of the windows that looked out over the Cultural Center, Christmas carols playing low on the stereo. I was curled up in Nain’s arms, when he patted my hip and shifted, sitting up. I sat up, folding my feet beneath me. He reached behind the tree and brought out a big box. I smiled and pulled out a small box.
“You already gave me my gift,” he reminded me.
“I know. But I had another idea, too.”
He shook his head and handed the large box to me, and I handed my little box to him. We didn’t say a word as we unwrapped our packages.
I looked at Nain, gauging his response to his gift.
“It’s a…” he said, looking at the small charm on a silver chain that the had pulled out of the box.
“It’s a dampener,” I said. “It’ll prevent you from slipping into your demon form. I know you don’t like doing that… so I asked Heph about this earlier. It turns out, he was kind of already working on one.”
He shook his head, a small smile on his lips.
“What?”
“Did you see what your gift is?”
I shook my head. Shit. Had he not liked it?
I opened the flaps of the large cardboard box and pulled out what looked like an old-fashioned feather tree, but crafted from a light, luminescent metal that showed Hephaestus’s skilled hand. I could feel power emanating from it.
I glanced at Nain. “It’s pretty!”
“It’s more than pretty,” he said, smiling. “It’s enchanted.”
“For what?”
“To protect whatever you hang on it,” he explained. “I was thinking of your ornaments… no matter what happens around this tree, it’ll keep them safe. They can’t fall, they can’t break… what?” he asked, noticing the tears that had come to my eyes. I threw my arms around him.
“God, I love you,” I said, sniffing like a fool.
“I love you too. What’s wrong?”
I shook my head. “Nothing.”
“What is it, baby?”
“I had to use the ornaments to harness the power to make our trip to the past,” I said quietly. “It had to be something that had a lot of sentimental value.”
Nain looked stunned. “Molly. Baby, you shouldn’t have done that for me.”
“I wanted to.” I glanced at the tree he’d given me, felt the power. It was familiar. “What did you give up for this? Enchanted stuff always requires a sacrifice.”
He shook his head, looking at the charm in his hand.
“Nain?”
“I gave up my demon form,” he answered quietly, raising his face to meet my eyes. “I gave it up right before I got hurt.”
I felt like I was about to pass out. “You… what?”
“I hated it. The strength it gave me made me a liability. I lived in fear that I’d hurt you—”
“But it made you stronger. Almost invincible.”
“And I’d trade it all again for the chance to make you happy. I just never expected that you’d trade those ornaments for me.”
We sat, each looking at our gift. I wanted to be mad at him, to call him a fool… and yet, I understood. He’d give whatever he could to try to make me smile, and I’d do the same for him.
“It’s a nice charm anyway,” Nain said. “I’ll still wear it. And then there was the trip, which I’ll never forget.”
I smiled up at him. “Yeah. And it’s a pretty tree. We can start collecting ornaments to hang on it. New ones that we pick out together.” I laughed, and soon, he was laughing, too. I reached up and put my arms around his neck. “I love you, Nain.”
He put his hands on my waist and bent down. “I love you, Molly,” he whispered just before his lips met mine.
And I knew this would be the first night of many in which we’d put one another first, in which we’d stand together through misunderstandings, confusion, and just generally trying to navigate life’s ups and downs. All I kew was that I had him, and I had our kids. With them, I had everything.
THE END
* * *
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Note from Colleen
Thank you so much for reading. I absolutely loved writing this novella. It was wonderful to spend time with Molly and Nain, to delve a little more into their relationship and really look at some of the things they’ve been through together. It was also a lot of fun to write about vintage Detroit.
A few notes: my grandparents lived in the same Poletown neighborhood Nain lived in in the twenties. Detroit, like many of our largest cities, was a city of immigrants, and we have those immigrants to thank for the rich cultural history in our city. The Fisher Building is another example of the cultural genius that came together to create this city: the Fisher brothers, car magnates, paid for the Fisher, vowing to make it the most beautiful building in the world. I think they came damn close, and a lot of that is thanks to Hungarian artist and artisan Geza Maroti, who makes a brief appearance in the book. If you ever find yourself in the Motor City, I hope you’ll pay the Fisher a visit — it’s one of my favorite places in the city.
The twist in this book is obviously inspired by O. Henry’s “Gift of the Magi.” It’s still one of my favorite holiday stories, and it was fun to write my own take on it.
Thank you for reading, and if you enjoyed this book, I hope you’ll consider leaving a review.
Happy holidays to you and yours. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your support.
If you want a little more Hidden holiday fun, read on for a vintage Hidden short story: Christmas in the Loft.
XO,
Colleen
P.S. If you have a moment, would you consider posting a review on Amazon? I would really appreciate it!
Christmas in the Loft
(Note: This story takes place between Lost Girl and Broken. I think that, taken with the story told in Demons of Christmas Past, it brings Molly’s Christmas stories full circle. It was originally published on my blog, and I’m sharing it here for anyone who missed it the first time around. Enjoy!}
I laid in bed, curled on my side, Nain’s pillow, as always, crushed tight to my chest. I hadn’t slept. Hadn’t needed it. So I’d lain here and watched the red digital numbers tick by on the alarm clock.
His scent was fading.
Part of me thought that maybe, it wasn’t such a terrible thing. It was as if my heart was sliced in two each time I smelled his familiar scent upon opening a drawer or his closet. At the same time, I wasn’t ready to let it go. Not just yet.
I could feel Ada and Stone moving around in the kitchen, hear their low tones as they talked and joked with one another. I could feel Brennan out there, too, hear the sound of the coffee maker percolating.
It was Christmas Eve. Stone had gone out the night before, after taking care of a vampire problem, and come home with a great big Douglas fir. It was the first time I’d seen Ada truly smile in weeks.
I pulled the pillow over my face, flopped onto my back. I didn’t want to ruin it for them. Didn’t want them to look at me and remember his death. How anyone c
ould separate the two….you couldn’t. I’d killed him. He’d lived over three hundred years, and it took someone like me to end him. It didn’t matter that I didn’t know it would happen. Intent was bullshit. All that mattered was that he was gone.
I stayed like that for a while. Maybe I’d just stay in my room all day.
Almost as if on cue, there was a knock on my door. I took a deep breath, pulled the pillow off of my face. I sat up and pushed a hand through my tangled mess of hair. Brennan.
I got up and pulled the door open. He stood on the other side, a huge mug of coffee in his hand.
“Hey,” he said, slate blue eyes seeming to take in every detail of me, the way they always did. He held the coffee cup out to me, and I took it with a nodded thanks.
“Can I come in and sit with you for a while?”
I gave another small nod, turned and walked back into the room. I sat back on the bed, against the pillows, and he eased himself into the chair next to the bed. This had been our routine for the last month or so. He’d bring me coffee, and sit and fill me in on the day ahead, and I’d listen. Sometimes, we’d sit in silence, and that was okay, too.
I drank a few sips of coffee. “You didn’t sleep last night,” he said after a while. I shook my head.
He didn’t say anything for a while. His emotions said everything for him. Sadness, anger, worry, love. It was the love that threatened to destroy me. The way he felt about me….I already knew it. Even if I couldn’t feel it, the Puppeteer had laid it all out for me when she’d used him against me. In our own way, we were still working our way through that, too, patching the damage done by the Puppeteer with nothing more than shared moments of camaraderie and kindness. Nain’s death had brought us together in our grief, as the two people who had been closest to him.
Demons of Christmas Past: A Hidden Novella Page 10
