Stealing Christmas

by Tegan Maher

  CHAOS AND TEMPEST MUST have seen us running back toward the tiki, because they beat us there.

  "What's up?" Tempest asked as we thrust our bag at Bob.

  "Can you hold that back there for us?" I asked him. "We're going to see if we can track this elf."

  Chaos slapped her forehead. "Duh. Of course. C'mon, Tempest, we're going hunting."

  There were very few things Chaos got excited about, but she loved it when I shifted. She always ran along beside me, and when she got tired, she'd just climb aboard like I was a pony. Though to be fair, she had decent stamina and could outrun me if we were in brush, at least when she was in shape.

  For the sake of convenience, I'd left my clothes in the bag and wore only my bathing suit. Regardless of what some fairy tales say, your clothes don't just disappear into some great ethereal dry cleaners, waiting pressed and folded for us to shift back fully clothed. Nope. If I wanted my new fifty-dollar suit to stay in one piece—or two as the case may be—I had to shuck it off before I changed.

  "Sure thing," Bob said, pulling it toward him. "I'll tuck it in the office in the back."

  Colin popped back around the corner right as he took it. "How's it goin'? Are you all enjoying yourselves at least a little?"

  "Not so much," I said, "though we did have an idea. I can't believe it didn't occur to me right away."

  "What's that?" he asked.

  I explained, and he shook his head. "I'm not sure Blake would approve. He usually asks us to take it over to the south beach if we want to shift. He doesn't want to scare anybody or risk a lawsuit."

  "You're kidding, right?" Alex said, disbelief written on his face. “In a place filled with vampires, trolls, and gorgons who hide snakes that can turn people to stone under turbans?”

  "Nope," Colin said. "Not kidding a bit. I shifted for a beach run one night and he about had a fit."

  I smirked at him. "Yeah, but were you by chance taking his ex-girlfriend out for a romantic seaside date and decided to flex your muscles?"

  His cheeks pinked. "Maybe. But he's not like that."

  "Well," I said, "This is a case where I think it's better to ask forgiveness rather than permission. I didn't see anything in the resort rules, so I'm going to assume it's okay until I’m told differently."

  Alex drew his brows down. "Did we really get a resort rulebook?"

  "Nope," I replied, smiling. "So I guess he's leaving us to the honor system. And I feel honor-bound to do what I can to save the Spirit of Christmas."

  Colin huffed out a breath. "Then wait up. I'm coming too. Three of us can search faster."

  We went a little way down the beach looking for a place to change. Unlike most beaches I'd been to, they'd somehow managed to get a massive forest to grow a couple hundred yards back from the beach. It was perfect for changing—and probably for hiding, too—and each of us picked a tree. Werewolves, or any shifter for that matter, didn't tend to have a ton of modesty, but we each picked our own clump of trees. I figured "I saw your Uncle Colin naked the first day we met" wouldn't be the best way to start a story to any future kids, assuming he made it that far with Destiny.

  We'd decided on a plan while we walked, so as soon as I changed, I took off at a trot in the direction we'd decided I'd search. Chaos and Tempest stayed beside me, their noses in the air.

  It was probably ten degrees cooler in the forest than it was on the beach, and I wondered if it was planned that way or was just a happy coincidence. I have to admit, the forest was a little freaky. It was like an entirely different environment plopped down on a beach resort. The more I thought about it, the neater it was though. I felt more at home, so it was a nice touch for those of us who weren't used to beaches and sand.

  The sound of canned Christmas music drifted toward me, so I figured we were close to skimming the tree line nearest the resort. The music put a little pep in my step and I sang along to it in my head.

  After a few hundred yards, Chaos stopped, then sniffed harder, turning a bit to the west.

  "Do you smell that?" she asked.

  The wind shifted and Tempest and I caught the scent at the same time. Peppermint and cocoa. I gave a little howl, the sign we'd agreed on, and followed the trail. Within just a couple minutes, the guys joined us, their noses in the air. The scent grew stronger the farther we went, and I was sure we were almost on top of him when it just stopped. Gone. We traveled in circles, but couldn't find it to save our souls. Or rather, the Spirit of Christmas.

  Frustrated, I growled. As a witch, I was telepathic and so was Alex. He, Chaos, and I had been working on communication skills for when Alex and I were in wolf form. Again, not a skill that comes naturally to every werewolf despite common human myth.

  Where did he go? I asked.

  Alex put his nose in the air again. No clue. It just stops.

  "It's probably some kind of elf magic," Chaos said out loud.

  Colin nodded, then motioned toward the direction we'd just come from.

  "Colin says maybe we should spread out from here and work our way back the way we just came,” Tempest said. “Maybe the elf turned around here but veered off somewhere else."

  That was a much better explanation that thinking he just disappeared, because that way we still had a chance to catch him. I nodded back. Tell him that works for me. I hope he's right.

  Hoping didn't do me any good, because we didn't pick up any sort of side trail on the way back. When we made it to where I'd first picked it up, we followed it until it took a hard right on the beach back toward the resort. Our search had been for nothing.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  WE SHIFTED BACK AND met on the beach. Destiny was waiting for us at the tiki, along with some guy I'd never met before but assumed was Blake. She made the introductions.

  "So where were you guys?" he asked. "What do you think of the resort? I mean, I know you didn't get off to a great start, but we'll get this solved and you can get back to your vacation."

  I glanced at Colin, who just shrugged. "We shifted to see if we could catch a trail on the beach," I said.

  Blake pressed his lips together. "I may as well just open that forest up to shifting.” He turned to Alex and me. “We ... suggest ... that guests shift down on the south beach. Mostly just to prevent accidental mooning, but the search was a great idea. Did you have any luck?" I noticed he didn't make much eye contact with Colin and wondered what was up there. I made a mental note to ask Destiny about it later.

  "Not really," Alex said. "We caught the trail, but it dead ended."

  A ruckus erupted from behind me, and I turned to see a tall woman wearing a turban practically yelling at Kris.

  "Three years in a row, my Susie's asked for a Barbie Dreamhouse, Corvette and Ken included. Do you bring it? No!" She crossed her arms and leaned over, narrowing her eyes at an uncomfortable-looking Kris. "It's because we're gorgons, isn't it? I'd heard you didn't like us because you don't like snakes."

  She reached for her turban and Destiny jerked me around so I was facing the tiki again.

  "What'd you do that for?" I asked, scowling and rubbing my arm where she'd dug her nails in.

  My cousin put her hand up near my eyes to block me from seeing what was going on. "If she whips that turban off and makes eye contact with you, we'll be hangin' tinsel and lights off you for every Christmas from here on out. It'll turn you to stone."

  Oh, well when she put it that way ...

  I kept my eyes averted because no matter how good the scene was, being a statue would suck.

  Carol's voice boomed. "You listen to me, Meredith Rowe, and you listen good. It has nothing to do with what species you are, and shame on you for even suggesting it does. It has everything to do with the fact that your kid's been a spoiled rotten little brat for three years running! Why, the last two years, she's been the first kid on the planet to end up on the naughty list. And she doesn't ever do anything to redeem herself, either."

  "You can turn back around," Chaos hissed. "You don'
t want to miss this."

  I did, and was surprised to see just how much sass Mrs. Claus had. She was standing facing he woman across the table, her hands on it so she could get right up in Meredith's face. Kris held a hand up. "Ladies, we can work something out."

  "No, Kris, we can't," Carol said, never taking her eyes off the woman in front of her. The gorgon's face was so red I was afraid she was gonna spontaneously combust, but Carol didn't back down. "If you pull that turban off, I swear to you, neither one of you will ever get another Christmas gift from us, and I'll curse you so that any Christmas light you try to hang goes out as soon as you touch it. And your Christmas cookies will always burn."

  Ouch. That woman pulled out all the stops when she got a mood on. I liked it.

  Meredith opened and closed her mouth a few times, then turned and stomped away.

  Carol gave a high-pitched hmph and sat back down, arms crossed. We hustled over to her table.

  "Wow, Mrs. C," Destiny said, "You have some serious stones for backing down a gorgon like that."

  One side of her mouth tilted up in a smile. "Not really," she said. "We're immune to gorgon serpents. Otherwise, Kris would have been turned to stone long ago. Gorgon kids are every bit as excited to catch him in the act as all kids are, and he's gotten busted a few times over the years. There are some clever kids out there."

  Kris frowned. "Every single time I've ever been caught, it's been toward the end of the night. I get tired."

  Carol snorted. "You mean every single time you've been caught, it's been after you finished up with Ireland."

  I couldn't help asking even though it seemed like an inside thing. "Why Ireland?"

  She turned to me and smiled. "What do you leave for Santa on Christmas eve?"

  I shrugged. "Milk and cookies, and carrots for the reindeer. Why?"

  "Every country has their traditions," she said. "In Ireland, it happens to be mince pie and a bottle of Guinness, or it used to be. Now they've tamed it down and mostly skip the beer in lieu of something non-alcoholic, though some folks in the rural parts still hold to tradition. I had to switch his route so that Ireland was last because he cut it too close on the timing a few times."

  "Well what am I supposed to do?" Kris asked, scowling. "Just leave it?"

  "Of course not," Carol said, softening her tone, "but you don't have to drink every single drop of every single beer, either. Leave part of it."

  The three men around us gasped in unison, and honestly, I was a little disturbed by her suggestion to leave mostly full beers across the entire country, too.

  "Absolutely not, Carol," he said, indignant. "Do you have any idea how many good beers would go to waste if I did that?"

  She pulled in a deep breath and released it, and rolled her eyes. "Then put them in the sack unopened, for mercy's sake. You know it's a direct route right back to the workshop. We could use them in the post-Christmas blowout party. That way the beer wouldn't go to waste, and we wouldn't have to work the guys at the brewery so hard all at once."

  I couldn't believe I was hearing Mrs. Claus tell Mr. Claus to stop getting wasted on the job. That was hilarious. Until his eyes shifted to me.

  "I heard that, missy. I don't get wasted. I may have a few snoots, but it's just so the kids' feelings won't be hurt."

  Well alrighty then. I wasn't about to argue with Santa, though I was a little freaked out by the fact he could read my thoughts. Unlike mean Susie Rowe, I'd managed to stay on the nice list, and I wanted to keep it that way.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  "SO AM I THE ONLY ONE wondering where Meredith Rowe was earlier today?" I asked. "Sounds to me like she has it out for you."

  "Yeah," Colin said, "but would she really have stolen the hat and confronted him?"

  "Maybe she wasn't planning to confront him," Bob said. "She came right after you guys left and had three Mai Tais. Said she'd had a horrible day and was just glad to be away from it all. She was rude from the get-go and stared daggers at Kris and Carol for ten minutes before she went over there. I didn't realize she'd recognized them; I just thought she was bitter because they were having a good time when she was miserable."

  "So we know she recognized them, and we know she has a beef with him," Destiny said. "I didn't see her yesterday on my shift. How long has she been here?"

  "I can find out," Blake said, then muttered a few words. A leather-bound ledger appeared in his hand, and he flipped through a few pages, perusing them as he went. He ran a finger down a page. "Here she is," he said, then sighed. "She just got here a couple hours ago. It couldn't have been her."

  "Could she have gotten here earlier than that? Maybe hung around for a while before she checked in?"

  He shook his head. "That's not how it works. Every guest is automatically checked in as soon as they come through a portal. And there's no way to get here without coming through one of them."

  "Did she come alone?" Alex asked. "Was there somebody waiting here for her already? Susie's dad, maybe?"

  Blake ran his fingers down the list until he found her name, then flipped to the back half of the book. "Nope. Room 335. Just her and her kid, and the rooms to either side of them are empty, so they didn't get adjoining suites with anybody."

  My shoulders slumped. That would have been too easy, so I should have known it wasn't the answer.

  "We're sorry you were disturbed. We're having some Christmas activities in the main lobby in an hour if you'd like to join us," Blake said to Kris and Carol.

  Kris smiled. "Thank you, Blake, but we're sort of here to get away from all that. You all have a good time, though."

  I shook my head in disbelief. "We're not just going to go to a Christmas party when your hat's missing."

  "Actually," Chaos said from her spot on the chair beside Carol, "maybe that's exactly what we should do. After all, this elf may be out to kill Christmas, but he's still a North Pole elf. Maybe he'll be attracted to the activities."

  "Yeah," Tempest said from beside her. "Or maybe he'll show just to see if his plan is working."

  That wasn't a bad idea. "Okay then," I said. "Let's get ready for some Christmas fun."

  We gathered our bag and the rest of our belongings, then headed back to the resort while Destiny and Colin went to her place to change. By the time we met them back in the lobby, it was time for the festivities to begin. What I saw when we got there shocked me. Rather than a bunch of people excited to do fun, silly things like make snowflakes and sing carols, everybody seemed to be there just for the heck of it, and it didn't get better as time went on.

  There was glitter and tinsel and plenty of cool things to do, but even the resort choir only seemed to be going through the motions as they sang. Kids started to get fussy and people began to pack it up and leave, projects half finished. There was no heart in it, and I started to panic. Christmas spirit was practically non-existent. Even I wasn't feeling it, and I loved that sort of thing. Destiny, too.

  "Are you picking up on what's happening?" I asked her as I halfheartedly shook some glitter out onto an ornament I was making.

  "I am," she said, "but I just can't muster enough spirit up to even really see the point in all this anymore."

  I tried to shake it off. Usually looking at the twinkling lights and shiny ornaments on a tree brought me back to some of my best memories, so I glanced at the giant spruces flanking the doors. I felt a little flicker, but it died almost as soon as it started. That's when movement behind the tree caught my eye, and I jumped up so fast I knocked my chair over.

  "There he is," I hissed to Destiny, pointing. "The elf. He's right over there behind the tree."

  Chaos and Tempe had been snoozing on the floor at our feet, but jumped up, startled when I knocked the chair over. I pointed a finger and summoned a spell to bind the elf before he could get away, but nothing happened.

  "That won't work," Destiny said. "No magic within the building other than small stuff like turning on the coffee pot or changing the channels on the TV. Ben
ign stuff. If we're gonna catch him, we have to do it the old-fashioned way—run him to ground.” I bound after him. "Stop that elf," I yelled to anybody who may have been listening. The guy made a dash for the front door, but Destiny muttered a few words and the doors clicked shut.

  "I thought you couldn't do magic," I said, panting as we sprinted across the huge foyer.

  "I activated the security spell on the doors. That's different," she huffed.

  The elf's eyes darted back and forth as he searched for an escape route that didn't exist. We had him dead to rights, and there was nowhere he could go. He held up his hands right as Chaos and Tempest launched themselves at him.

  "I give up," he said, cowering. "Don't hurt me!"

  "Don't hurt you?" I barked as I grabbed his arm and twisted it behind him. I reached for my cuffs, but they weren't there. I'd forgotten I wasn't wearing them, so I settled on just making sure I had a good hold on him. "What about all the hurtin' you've done? Look around you—are you happy?"

  "No," he said, a look of horror on his face. "I'm not happy at all. I'm miserable. That’s why I came down for the festivies. What's wrong with everybody? Why aren't they smiling and having fun? Why does it feel so sad in here? The carolers are serious buzz-kills, too. Do you people have no Christmas spirit at all?"

  "No," Destiny snapped. "We don't, and you should be ashamed of yourself for that. Tempest, go get Blake, please. We need a quiet place to question Mr. Snow."

  The elf, who looked to be in his mid-thirties, looked miserable. "Please tell me what's going on. Why is everybody so sad, and why do you think it's my fault?"

  "Just tell us where the hat's at," Destiny said, "and we'll go easier on you. The most important thing right now—"

  "Wait, did you say the hat?" he said, panic streaking across his face. "Don't tell me you meant the hat." He muttered to himself for a minute. "Oh great marshmallows, don't tell me Santa's hat is missing."

  "Great act," I said, but you need to fess up now so we can get it back to Kris before things go completely sideways all across the planet."