by Rae Foxx
Finn Noel
A Bloodwood Academy Novella
Rae Foxx
Text Copyright ©2019 by Rae Foxx
The Series, characters, names, and related indicia are trademarks and © Rae Foxx.
All Rights Reserved.
Published by Market Street Books
No part of this publication may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the publisher. For Information regarding permission, write to:
Rae Foxx at [email protected]
Production Management by Market Street Books
Printed in USA
This Edition, December 2019
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Continue the Bloodwood Adventure
Also by Rae Foxx
Semester Three Sneak Peek
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About the Author
Chapter 1
“Someone get off your asses and help me,” I half-grunted as I backed my way into the keep, using all of my shifter-fueled strength to drag the snowy tree in from outside.
“Ivy, my rose,” Saxon said from somewhere in the dark keep behind me with a bored tone, one he used when I had interrupted his reading. “What in the world are you dragging into my keep?”
“A Christmas Tree,” I grunted just as my hands slid against the stump and shot me back. Tommy laughed riotously and I spun around to glare at him and instead faced the confused faces of the rest of my mates. All of them staring from the tree to me in confusion.
Of course, they were confused over a Christmas Tree. Seemed no holiday was celebrated the way I knew it at Bloodwood Academy.
For all I knew they were going to spend Christmas stabbing each other with candy canes.
“I cut the sucker down and dragged it all the way here,”
“That’s what she said,” Tommy laughed from his corner, blowing perfect lazy circles into the air. “I can make you say that later if you’d like.”
Cue the eye roll. That guy only had one thing on his mind. Howl was instantly snarling. Finn shifted in preparation for an epic takedown.
As much as I liked watching the two of them wrestle from time to time, doing so when I was covered in sap and pine needles seemed painful.
“If you think you’re going to win yourself some pussy by being a dumbass you are sorely mistaken.” I folded my arms over my chest, puffy coat shifting loudly. “For that, I should make you get it in.”
Tommy stared at me, a tiny smirk playing around his lips. Bastard Demon.
“Don’t say it,” I snapped, turning back around to yank and pull the tree in the rest of the way. “I’ll bring it in on my own.”
“Or we could leave it outside. Which is, as you know, where trees belong,” Saxon teased as he focused on one of the thick leather-bound books. He turned the pages gently, pretending not to pay attention to the line of pine needles I was leaving behind.
He wasn’t very good at it. The side-eye he was currently shooting me was priceless.
Saxon loved to read and loved his keep to be clean. I was currently disrupting both. The side-eye he was currently shooting my way was priceless. It was a good thing he loved me, or he might be fangs out. And I would be dinner.
“And celebrate Christmas without a tree? Ha! Not going to happen. Help or not, this tree is going up!” My hands slipped around the trunk again, forcing me back against the tile floor with a hollow thud.
“Ivy!” Howl and Finn were up and rushing to me as though I had fallen off a cliff and not onto the floor.
“I’m fine,” I grumbled, checking that I hadn’t ripped my pants or sent my coat over my head. Both were a possibility, but I was good. Boobs and ass were covered if not a little bruised. “Just help me with the tree.”
We all turned; ready to get the thing in all the way, but it was already gone, wrapped in black smoke as it hovered above us.
“Thanks, Tommy!” I beamed at him and pushed myself back up. Guess the demon had a bit of gentleman in him yet.
“I ain’t doing this for you. The vamp doesn’t want a tree in his keep, so the more trees I can get in here the better.” Tommy winked at me, his smirk back in place.
Or not. Once a bastard demon, always a bastard demon.
“Where do you want this, babe?”
Ignoring the disgruntled look on Saxon’s face, I gestured toward the center of the room. Well not the center-center, seeing as that was where the fireplace was.
“Here, by the fireplace.” I framed my hands out, gesturing to where I had pictured the tree sitting for the last week.
When I had seen the perfect tree on my hunt with Howl last night I just knew I had to go back and get it. It was so fat and squat and ideal for the low ceilings in the Keep.
It was the perfect tree. And now it was all ours.
“By the fireplace? You can’t be serious, my rose,” Saxon chuckled, looking up from his book. “There is already a stack right there next to the hearth. That’s all a Christmas tree is, after all. Firewood.”
“Are you suggesting that she decorate a pile of wood?” Howl asked, pinching his brows together in confusion as he looked to the fat tree that Tommy had placed where I had indicated, and the pile of old dry wood. “Mortals don’t do that, do they?”
“No, we don’t,” I said, shooting Saxon a look. The guy just chuckled. Smartass. “You know it, too, Saxon. What could you possibly have against a Christmas tree? It smells incredible and there are ornaments and candy canes all over it—blood red is your favorite color and you can’t have Christmas without red.”
“And blood?” Howl perked up, ceasing his inspection of the tree. “How much blood is in this holiday? Are there to-the-death matches?”
“No, but I am fairly sure you stab people with the candy canes,” Finn said, pulling at the boughs of the tree and sending pine needles all over the floor. Saxon frowned and mumbled something about taking forever to clean that up.
God, I totally called it.
“Really? Why haven’t we been celebrating this all along?” Howl pumped his fist like he was going to a football game and not a murder holiday.
If there was a murder holiday, which there better not be.
“You don’t stab people.” I snapped, batting Finn’s hand away, it took work to get this tree here, I wasn’t going to let him mess it up now. “You give presents, and make cookies, and eat pies until you want to explode!”
None of them were having it. Saxon huffed out a dry laugh before shutting his book and leaning back, exposing his long, creamy neck.
Mmmm... creamy neck.
Yep. I totally thought about it. Totally wanted to bite it too. All the erotic biting Saxon was doing to me was having some unintended side effects. Side effects that weren’t totally creeping me out. I would have to take care of that desire later. Right now, I had a grinch to deal with.
“Ivy, the things you speak of are nothing more than a perversion of Saturnalia,” Saxon continued, pulling me out of my hunger.
“Saturmilla? Is that food?” Okay, maybe he hadn’t pulled me out of my hunger as much as I thought.
“Classes?” I laughed with dry humor and raised my eyebrow at him. “You’re funny. I haven’t been able to go to any of my classes with all the well, you know our lives... So, no, I haven’t learned about your Santa wine, or whatever it is you are talking about. Saturnilla...”
Still sounded like food. Nilla wafers dipped in milk or some other delicacy.
Well, a trailer park delicacy.
I looked around for some help, but Howl and Finn were smirking, and Tommy was too busy making the tree stand up straight.
“Okay fine, seeing as you all know what he’s talking about, do you care to share?”
Now they all, Tommy included, were smirking. Luckily Saxon took pity on me.
“Saturnalia is the Roman celebration of solstice. It was the holiday that predated Christmas.”
Clearly, I was going to have to actually start learning something at school. Luckily, this I already knew. Or kind of knew.
“You mean like the pagans?” They all nodded. “Okay, but I’ve had enough of solstice celebrations. I’m not talking orgies around fires and blood rituals.” God, a warmth was starting to spread and pool between my legs, a damp pool threatening to overflow, just thinking about it. I had too many good memories to totally disregard solstice celebrations.
I forced myself to swallow, “I’m talking about a fucking Christmas tree.”
“Well, if it’s a fucking Christmas tree, I think I can get behind that,” Howl said, the damn wolf wagging his eyebrows at me as he stalked his way over. “Or would it be under…”
“No fucking in or around the tree!” I snapped, taking a step back.
They were tainting Christmas. Bastards.
“In?” Tommy smirked, I shot him a look of warning, but the guy just broke down more.
“I quite agree,” Finn whispered, walking slowly around the tree and letting his fingers graze over the needles as if he was talking to it. Probably was. “This poor guy has been through enough. And even then, I would rather enjoy my time with Ivy and not worry about getting a pinecone shoved up my ass.”
“Noted.” I gasped, trying to stop my cheeks from turning a bright shade of red as my mind filled with a million unwanted thoughts.
“Ivy, we can celebrate Christmas, I have no problem with that. I just don’t understand why you are so focused on the tree in the first place,” Saxon said, putting his book down to join us around the tree, which was now standing.
I had clearly misjudged the size, the thing was too tall and the top was bent over against the ceiling, but it was still beautiful. I loved it.
“I just want a real tree for once,” I shrugged, trying to pretend like it was no big deal.
Even though it was. After years of broken trees from the thrift store, or toilet paper rolls stapled to the wall in a shape of a tree, or no tree at all - this year I was going to have a tree.
Damn it all, my eyes were getting all burny in threat of tears. Ugh!
“Aw, come on, Ivy, you’ve had real trees before. Remember that particularly shitty one your Mom brought in that one year. That was a fucking sight. It looked like she’d run over it, stopped, backed over it again, left it to dry out for a month and then decided to bring it home after the needles got nice and brittle. Remember, she flicked a cigarette at it when she was pissed that the charity wasn’t giving her that ‘personal massager’. The whole fucking thing lit up in one whoosh like it was a roman candle and nearly burned your trailer down. We called the fire department and then the next day you put that stinky chair right in front of the burn mark on the paneling to hide it.”
“Yes Tommy,” I said, shooting daggers at him as he lit another cigarette, sucking on it with a tiny smirk. “I remember. Which is why I want a real tree.”
I kicked at his legs, but the bastard turned to smoke and moved a good foot out of my already limited reach.
“In Saturnalia, Christmas trees were actual Evergreens, but the trees remained in the forests they belonged in,” Saxon stated, staring at the tree as though he had never seen anything like it. “They symbolized the return of life, green and red apples hung for decoration along the branches instead of plastic ornaments.”
“Ahhh… Is that why you are afraid? The tree is going to return you to life,” Howl teased the Vampire with a wink. Saxon’s nostrils flared, although he couldn’t bring himself to be mad at the werewolf.
There were times that the bromance between those two was just too adorable for me to get mad.
“Do you two need some mistletoe, or can you two kiss it out without it?” I guess I wasn’t the only one to notice. Tommy was in full demon mode, prodding the pair as he sucked on a cigarette.
“Mistletoe is not something for kissing under, it was hung by the Druids as it was an all-healing herb,” Saxon pouted, taking a step back and moving to the other side of the tree. “Even your spiced fruitcake came from Egyptians who put them in their dead ancestors’ tombs. It’s no wonder humans hate fruitcake. It was intended for dead people. Instead of saying Merry Christmas, humans should say Happy Human Distorted Pagan Holiday!” He added a ho, ho, ho to the end, but by then my ears were burning along the rims and my hands were fisted and propped on my hips. I was surprised steam wasn’t coming from my ears with a train whistle sound.
“Well, that wouldn’t fit on a fucking greeting card very well, would it?” I said, giving him a warning glare, but the guy just leaned in, his breath a whisper touch over my cheek before he kissed me.
“But if you want a Christmas, a Christmas you will get,” he tittered in my ear, barely loud enough for anyone to hear.
“I am not sure the tree will survive it,” Finn admitted, still caressing the tree, “but, if it will make you happy, then why not? It will be a good distraction from finals.”
I knew I would win—I always won--period.
“Hey, I’m all about the distraction,” Howl piped up, the three of them now circling around the tree like they did at solstice celebrations. They clearly had no idea what was going on.
Tommy and I shot each other a look, and he cracked up laughing, pulling their focus as I desperately tried to swallow my laugh and instead ended up choking on it with a sound like a foghorn.
“Christmas doesn’t involve worshipping a tree,” I said in an attempt to hide the foghorn sound. “And if you all start chanting about Tenenbaums, I’m making you watch Christmas movies until you explode.” They all looked at me as though I had just spoken gibberish, which I guess I did.
Tommy was still laughing his ass off; the bastard was no help. He had always hated Christmas movies, anyway, especially It’s a Wonderful Life. Something that now that I thought about it made perfect sense. Christmas was like happiness on crack and smothered with peppermint and chocolate. I wondered if Tommy would roll that up and smoke it.
“How would you like to celebrate, honeybee?” Finn pulled himself away from the tree, his large hand wrapping around mine and pulling me closer to them. “Should we exchange gifts? Humans do that, correct?”
“Gift exchanges?” Saxon piped up, interrupting my enthusiastic head nodding. His smug smile was back in place. “If you must know, Santa Claus comes from Dutch descent of Sinterklaas who gave gifts to children but there is a bit of Odin and Viking lore mixed in with that. But in Italy, they had Le Befana, the witch who delivers gifts to well-behaved children. Or my favorite, Frau Holle, a goddess in her own right, Mother Frost, if you will. She rode with witches and they attended Winter Solstice feasts and brought treats to their guests. I have no problem with giving my mate a gift, I simply don’t have to celebrate with a holiday in order to do so. Certainly not Christmas.”
I blinked at him. “How can you know all that and still be willing to dance around a tree like a wi
tch?”
“If I recall, witches dance around the trees in full nudity.” The vampire smiled. “Would you like to dance around the tree as the witches do?”
Yep, he was totally pestering me as much as the others were. No wonder they were all looking at me as if they were undressing me with their eyes.
They were.
I crossed my arms over my chest, intending to be defiant as fuck, no matter how much my wolf was panting, and my stomach was heating.
God, now I was undressing them with my eyes! Taking off their clothes piece by…
No. no. no. Christmas. Which seemed like a weird segue considering the need that was pooling between my legs.
“Well, ummm,” I sighed, taking a step back and clenching my thighs. “While that would be fun and all, I just want a superficial Christmas--one from the movies. You know, elves and a fun version of a modern Christmas. I want the tree and the presents and the stockings hung with care and Santa Claus and Jingle Bells sung at the top of our lungs. Mortal stuff.”
“Don’t you mean, Fae stuff?” Finn asked, giving me a mischievous grin as he finally stopped caressing the tree. “After all, the man you call Santa is my cousin.”
“What?” My jaw dropped like it was on a hinge, and I smacked myself on the forehead. I had completely forgotten. When we were in the Fae Kingdom, Melusine and Finn had said something about Santa Claus being his cousin.
“Wait,” Howl chuckled looking at Finn as though he was staring at him through a telescope. “Isn’t Santa fat and jolly and sporting a beard? I’ve never seen a Fae look like that before.”
“You guys really don’t know anything about this do you?” Tommy goaded, a cigarette hanging from his perfect lips the entire time, bouncing with each word.
