by Mina Carter
“Oh, I think your agency has done enough damage for one day. Don’t you?”
Frost’s voice was cold and hard as he rose to his feet behind Joy. Already the damage Nick had inflicted had begun to heal, the cuts and bruises looking days old. By nightfall he would be as good as new.
Taking his daughter’s arm, he looked around the room in a sweeping glance of contempt. “Now if you’ll excuse us, I want to take my daughter somewhere safe.”
And with that, a whirlwind of snow and ice filled the room. When it cleared, both Joy and her father were gone.
He’d lost her. The look on Joy’s face as she stood between him and her father haunted him, reached right into his chest and poked at the raw wound where his heart had been.
Nick sighed, leaning his head back against the dirty brick wall, and took another long swallow from the bottle in his hand. The cheap whiskey burned all the way down to his gut and settled there like a brick. He felt sick but didn’t have the energy to throw up. Instead, his mind worked overtime, going through the scene in the coffee shop over and over again.
The one moment that stuck in his mind as though it were permanently tattooed on the inside of his eyelids was the look of hurt and betrayal on Joy’s face. The knowledge that he’d been the one to put it there burned like fire in his soul.
He closed his eyes, shutting out the sight of the dirty alleyway he’d found himself in with a cheap-ass bottle of whiskey after Iliona had sacked him. Losing his job didn’t even register. Not when compared to the fact that he’d lost her. Lost Joy. His Joy.
The bitter laugh escaped his throat.
He was a fucking idiot. He loved her, truly and deeply, which made him a fucking idiot.
He’d started off with a mission of vengeance but somewhere along the way, he’d fallen in love with the woman he was using to get revenge on the man who had killed the woman he’d loved. And if that wasn’t fucked up, he didn’t know what was.
Lifting the bottle to his lips, he downed more of it. Alcohol didn’t affect him for long, but if he drank long and hard enough, perhaps he could actually manage to pass out for a while. If he was really lucky, some enterprising thief would knife him for his wallet and he’d manage to land himself in a coma for a while.
As he lowered his hand, though, magic swirled in the alley, the sound of sleigh bells announcing a new arrival. Nick groaned, closing his eyes. He knew who it was, the magic as familiar to him as his own. Perhaps because it was his own, at least in a way. He’d given the stuff to her.
“Nix, what the fuck are you doing here?” he asked, opening his eyes to see his daughter standing in front of him.
Tall and slender, with masses of dark hair, she was dressed in jeans and a shirt, casual clothes rather than the red suit of their calling. His eldest child, she was the strongest of his bloodline. When he’d quit the pole, the magic of Christmas had cleaved to her rather than her brother as everyone had expected. She squatted in front of him, her clear green eyes taking in every aspect of his disreputable situation.
“You’re just as beautiful as your mother, you know?” he blurted out and took another swig of whiskey.
Her lips quirked, an expression she’d inherited from him. “Yeah? And you’re the same idiot you always were. Frost’s daughter… really? That’s some low shit, Dad.”
He groaned, rubbing over his eyes with one hand. “Who told you? Dolph? That snidey-ass reindeer!”
“You leave Uncle Dolph out of this. He’s only trying to look out for you.”
“Son of a bitch wants to mind his own damn business.”
“Wasn’t him anyway. Your grandson grassed you up. He and Rudi were worried about you when they heard you’d been dropped by the PPA.” Nix plunked herself down next to him and grabbed the bottle to take a drink. She grimaced in disgust, coughing. “What the sleigh? This is cheap shit… what are you trying to do, poison yourself?”
“Chance would be a fucking fine thing.” Nick snorted bitterly and tried to get the bottle back from her.
“Grow up. You’re freaking Santa Claus. What would people think if they could see you like this?” Nix growled, yanking the bottle out of his reach. “Pull yourself together. So you got your ass whooped? Big deal. It’s not the end of the world. Suck it up and move on.”
Putting the bottle down on the broken asphalt next to her, she turned to him.
“Dad, you have to let this go.” He couldn’t look at her. He didn’t want the pity and certainly didn’t deserve the concern. But she carried on anyway. “Frost didn’t kill Mom. She died of exposure. It was an accident. A tragic accident, yes, but that’s all.”
Anger flared and he reached past her to grab the whiskey. “You think I don’t fucking realize that? Finally?”
She shook her head, her expression confused. “Then why all this…?”
He thunked his head back against the wall, and for a second saw stars. Perhaps if he did it hard enough, he might be able to knock himself out for a while and escape the misery of his reality. “Because in my fucking stupidity I missed something special. Destroyed it utterly and now she hates my guts.”
“Huh? She? Who she?” Nix gasped and her eyes widened. “Frost’s daughter?”
“Her name is Joy.” Even saying her name made his heart ache.
“And you’re in love with her?”
Nix’s careful tone made him look up to find her watching him with a weird expression. Fucking great. With a groan, he covered his eyes again and then scrubbed at the hair on top of his head. This could go bad, really quickly. “Your mother’s been gone a long time, pumpkin…”
She snorted with amusement. “You know you only call me that when you’re shit-scared of what I’ll do, right? And I know.” She waved dismissively. “Mom wouldn’t have wanted you to be alone. She was human. She always knew she was going to die before you, before all of us. Told me that a long time ago.”
She pushed his shoulder and made him look at her. “I’ve been waiting a long time for you to find someone else. What’s she like?”
Relief flooded him along with a sense of warmth for Eva’s understanding, even if he did realize it decades after she’d gone. That was his life all over, always late to the party when it came to figuring stuff out.
“She’s beautiful and sweet. Kind and good.” Despair hit him again. “And I tried to kill her father. She’s never going to forgive me.”
Anger and frustration flared, and he lashed out, knocking the whiskey away to clatter across the alley. It rolled and disappeared between the bins opposite. Misery overwhelmed him and he closed his eyes, ignoring the tear that tracked down one cheek.
He didn’t want the whiskey, didn’t want anything other than Joy.
And he’d lost her.
Forever.
8
She was a Frost, not half-human as she’d always assumed. Who would have thought it?
Joy sipped at her hot chocolate as she watched her father in the middle of a load of pixie kids. From the looks of it, he was pretending to be a giant and chasing them around, which had the net result of a lot of squeals and delighted children as they rallied around a man who wasn’t bloodthirsty and brutal like the pixie men that were all they’d known.
Warriors that were all gone now, either into hiding or arrested by the authorities as they’d dismantled the Krasniqi criminal empire. With them out of the picture, the women and children of the clan had moved into the barrow, which had expanded to add extra rooms to accommodate them all. Happily, or so it seemed to Joy. The place certainly seemed to be brighter and airier now, shedding the heavy wood and dark corridors it had displayed before in favor of light walls and larger windows. It was almost like it too was glad to be rid of the previous regime.
Of course, a few warriors still evaded arrest but… Joy’s fingers flexed and the air around them super-chilled… she could more than handle them if they decided to show up to hassle her or her ladies. If she could deal with a Claus elf like Nick, a creature i
nfinitely more dangerous than any pixie, she could deal with whatever shit those assholes wanted to throw at her.
But for now, she’d put that from her mind and enjoy the evening. The first proper Christmas party the clan had ever had, complete with a twelve-foot tree courtesy of the barrow. Sleigh bells rang and excited children ran to the door, swarming the new arrival in a bright red suit.
Jack appeared by her side, hot chocolate in hand. “Huh, a female Santa. That’s novel. I mean, yeah, the real Santa is female but I didn’t think the humans were so forward thinking…”
“I think it’s great. Just what the girls need. Girl power and all that.” Joy smiled. Then what he’d said sank in. “What do you mean, the real Santa is female?”
He slid her a sideways glance and she was caught by the otherness in his gaze. The emptiness of winter reflected back at her for a moment until he blinked and smiled.
“Nix Claus? Nick’s daughter? She took over for him when he left the pole after Eva’s death.”
Joy was frozen in place. The floor yawed in front of her, the crowd around the Santa at the other side of the room seeming miles away.
“Nick is the real Santa? I thought he was just a Claus elf.”
Jack shook his head. “Why do you think I had to stay away for so long? He’s the original Nicholas Claus. Well, that wasn’t his first name. Like me, he’s had many identities over the years, shaped by human stories. This version? It’s a lot less dangerous than earlier ones…”
She nodded dumbly. She wasn’t so sure he was any less dangerous now, not after what she’d seen of his dealings with the pixie warriors.
“If he’d known about you before, you’d have been in so much danger.” Jack ran a hand through his hair. Most of the time it was sandy blond, but when he was agitated, it turned white. “It almost killed me to stay away from you, but I had to, to keep you safe… he’d have killed you to avenge his wife’s death.”
“No, he wouldn’t have.” Joy’s voice was soft, the words past her lips before she really thought about them. But as she spoke, she knew they were true. “He wouldn’t have hurt me. He’s not like that. He’s not a killer.”
Sleigh bells rang softly in the air and both Frosts turned. For a moment Joy expected to see Nick, but the Santa from the agency stood there instead. The woman was tall and slender, with masses of white hair curling around her shoulders. Hair that was either the best wig Joy had ever seen, or was real. As soon as Joy looked into her eyes though, she knew. The other woman was the same kind of creature Joy was—otherworldly.
“Nix Claus, I presume.” Jack swept a courtly bow, but the mockery was evident in every movement. “Wondered how long it would take one of you to show up.”
“Dad,” Joy said softly, putting her hand on his arm. “I got this.”
Frost grumbled, looking from one woman to the other before he walked away, muttering under his breath.
“Seems we both have daddy issues.” Nix smiled and held her hand out. “Nichola Claus, most people call me Nix.”
“Joy Kra… Joy Frost,” she corrected herself quickly, taking the other woman’s hand and shaking it firmly. Tilting her head to the side, she considered Nix. “You’re a lot like your dad.”
“Are you calling me an asshole?”
Joy gasped. “Huh? What… no! You look a bit like him is all.”
Nix grinned, a sly quirk of her lips that was so like Nick’s it took Joy’s breath away. “Calm down. I’m just teasing, hon.”
Joy breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank heaven for that. So…” she asked after a long moment. “Social call or are you here for a reason?”
How is Nick? She managed not to ask the question hovering on the tip of her tongue and reveal how truly pathetic she was. For all she knew, he’d already moved on with a gorgeous elf woman and forgotten all about her. After all, she had been just a means to an end for him.
“Both. I hear you’re the badass pixie lady who took down the Krasniqis. Do you know how long my naughty list is thanks to those assholes?”
“I’d like to be on your naughty list.”
The grumble came from the nearby buffet table where Jack was loading a plate.
“DAD! Inappropriate much?” Joy sighed and shook her head. “I’m sorry about him.”
“Don’t worry about it.” Nix chuckled and then called out. “Don’t worry, Frost. I’ve got you down for a lump of coal, if you’re lucky.”
There was another grumble that neither of them could make out and he walked away, a plate of Christmas pudding in hand.
“He seems nice actually,” Nix commented as she watched the tall man walk away. Joy ignored the fact her gaze seemed to linger on his ass. “I’m sorry the issue between my dad and yours took him away from you for so long.”
Joy reached out and put her hand on the other woman’s arm. “It’s not your fault. We both lost a parent that day, but I got mine back, eventually. I’m so sorry about your mom.”
Nix smiled sadly. “Thanks. It was a long time ago, but I think I’ll always miss her.”
“Yeah.” Joy thought back to her own mother and the ache of losing her. “It never goes away, does it?”
“Nope.”
Silence fell between the two women for long moments as they watched the party in full swing. When it became apparent Nix wasn’t going to say anything, Joy cleared her throat.
“You said ‘both.’ What was your other reason?” she asked.
Nix turned and looked at her, gaze direct. “Figured I should come meet the woman who’s going to become my step-mother.”
Joy just blinked at her, shocked into stunned silence.
“Excuse me?”
“Step-mother? It’s what happens when you marry someone’s dad?”
Joy shook her head, putting her mug down on the sideboard behind them in case she dropped it. “No, I’m sorry, but I think you have the wrong impression. Nick and I… aren’t. He doesn’t…”
“He’s in love with you.”
Joy closed her eyes. She hadn’t thought those words would hurt so much. “No, he’s not.”
“He is,” Nix insisted, grabbing Joy by the upper arms. The gentle shake made her open her eyes and look at Nick’s daughter. Her expression was honest, her eyes free of deception. “And I think you’re in love with him. In fact, I’m sure of it.”
“He only used me as bait.”
“Yeah, because he’s an asshole. He is in love with you,” Nix repeated. “But like a typical man, he’s fucked up and doesn’t know how to put things right.”
Understanding blossomed. Joy’s lip curled back a little. “So he sent you to plead his case for him? What is this, the schoolyard?”
Nix snorted, so like her father Joy’s heart ached. “Hell no. Left to his own devices he’d bury himself in a bottle for the next twenty years.
“Joy, if you have any feelings at all for him, at least tell him you forgive him.” Letting go of Joy’s shoulders, she reached into her pocket and held out a coiled belt.
“If you do, this will help you find him. Please… don’t let me lose my father too.”
What the hell was she doing here?
Joy paused in front of the rough looking bar, with its lines of motorcycles outside, and seriously questioned her sanity. What sane person wouldn’t when they were faced with walking into a downtown MC bar on the say-so of a scrap of leather. Yeah, officer, I went into the bar because the belt told me. After that… She sighed and looked at the belt in her hands. It vibrated slightly, as though it knew she was looking at it, and then faded from view.
Great, just great. Now even her weird-ass excuse was gone.
That’s right, officer, then the belt disappeared… you know, the one that was supposed to lead me to Santa Claus?… well, it went *poof* gone, but I still went in there.
She was an idiot. Pure and simple.
Gathering her courage, Joy pushed open the door and stepped inside. Instantly, conversation from the men near the door stopp
ed, all eyes turning in her direction. A few weeks ago she’d have quailed under their hard-eyed scrutiny and fled, but not now. Not ever again.
Her chin lifted as she allowed her frost to surround her. The wooden floorboard beneath her feet iced over, the breath of the bikers nearest billowing white in the air. Quickly, they backed away, clearing a path for her. Nodding her thanks, she walked through the bar, ignoring most of the occupants. She wasn’t here for them. She was here for Nick.
It didn’t take her long to find him, his familiar deep voice slowing her steps as she neared the back of the room. She paused just before turning the corner, hidden behind a pillar near the bar.
“It’s no good, Dolph. I’ve fucked everything up, good and proper.”
“Can’t be that bad, bro,” another deep voice spoke, and Joy frowned as the harsher tones pulled at her memory. Edging around the corner, she spotted the big, cruel-looking biker leader from the coffee shop. His gaze flicked to her for a moment but rather than raising the alarm as she expected, his eyelid dropped in a flicker of a wink.
For a moment, he seemed to have horns on his head, there one second and gone the next… Joy paused and shook her head. No, they hadn’t been horns, they’d been antlers.
Quickly, she looked back at the men she’d passed and touched the power of her frost. Her gasp of understanding was soft as she realized who and what they were. They were the biker gang from the coffee shop… and they were all reindeer. In human form, yes, but with her new abilities, she could easily see the potential of their other forms and hear the sleigh bells on the air.
If Nick was Santa… then these must be his reindeer. Which made Dolph… Rudolph? Shit. It all made sense now. She and the other customers in the coffee shop had never been in danger. These were Nick’s friends.
One of the hard knots around her heart eased off and unraveled. She’d been so pissed off that he’d put innocent people in danger to get to her father, but he hadn’t. He’d gotten his friends to play along, and of course, since everyone always expected the worst of bikers, they’d all fallen for it hook, line and sinker.
