Wicked Winters: A Collection of Winter Tales

by Lucy Smoke

  Leven drew open the door, and an intense gust of icy wind slammed into me, sending me several feet backward. The air whistled, and before me stood a small parking area with several cars caked in snow.

  “Take this.” Tatum was at my side, pushing my wet and torn coat into my hands, and I hurried to drag it on and chase away the frostiness. He handed me my gloves too.

  “Thanks.” I turned to look up into intense green eyes that pushed away the worry about the storm, and reminded me spring would soon follow. I liked the way the corners of his eyes crinkled when he smiled, and I found no malice behind his gaze. He was telling the truth about having helped me.

  Leven licked his top teeth and looked at me before staring outside.

  Right, we were headed out. I zipped up my jacket and bent my head forward to meet the onslaught as I stepped outdoors into a biting, stinging wind. The snow fell sideways, hitting my cheeks like tiny bullets. With hands deep in my pockets, I stayed near the wall and marched right. I passed several rooms. Each window had lights on and voices leaked out from inside. Maybe this motel was booked up, but there was bound to be others in town. Up ahead was a sea of white. Pines. Posts. Fences. Icy dust hugged them and they loomed in my vision, then disappeared, swallowed in white and the encroaching night.

  How long had I been passed out? And the three men still hadn’t taken me to the hospital?

  When a whistle came from behind me, I twisted around to find Leven standing feet away, his arms stiff by his side, not trembling like mine.

  With a flick of his hand, he strode in the opposite direction, and I tracked after him. My direction had led nowhere anyway.

  Around the corner, we crossed a road filled with a handful of stores and homes. A few streets branched out on either direction. The wind pelted against my jacket, jeans, and face. My eyes teared up, and all could think about was home, a fireplace, and a hot drink.

  My boots sunk into drifts up to my ankles. My ears were icicles, as was my nose, and what I wouldn’t give for that warm Santa’s hat. Well, right now, it lay somewhere in the woods, as that creature had ripped it off my head. Maybe it was a deformed animal that hated the color red. That could explain why it had gone ballistic all of a sudden. Yet, it had carried a goddamn chain. What kind of animal did that?

  Leven seized my wrist and hauled me closer to him, buffering me against the ferocity of the weather. With an arm around my waist, he pressed me close to his side and practically carried me as we marched faster down the sidewalk. No one was outside, and the moment we stumbled into the diner, I let out a frosty exhale.

  “Holy hell, the weather’s insane.” I shook myself and stared up at Leven, who brushed his hand through his hair, sending snowflakes everywhere. We both removed our coats and placed them on the hooks provided on a wall near the door.

  “And this is why you won’t make it home in this storm.” His words were clipped and direct, and he might as well have said told you so.

  I walked deeper into the diner that was practically empty with the exception of two people sitting in the corner eating their meals. Leven followed behind me. My jeans jangled with each step I took, drawing the waiter’s attention.

  Leven grabbed a couple of menus from the counter and took a seat at a booth while I approached the counter where a young man with a blue apron was changing the filter on the coffee machine.

  “Excuse me,” I asked, and he looked up, greeting me with a practiced smile that carried no emotion. “I’m looking for a place to stay in town. Any recommendations?”

  He pointed his chin toward the door. “Pine Motel. Full.” His English was broken, but I understood.

  “What about another place? A room above a bar perhaps?”

  He shook his head. “No. Pine Motel.”

  I huffed and gave my thanks, then turned around. Through the window, the snow traveled sideways, and the buildings across the street were barely visible. The door rattled, yet in here, warmth from the open fireplace against the back wall wrapped around me. If the weather were better, I’d search through the town, but now, I’d freeze.

  Leven studied the menu, not watching me in case I ran away, not that I’d get far. Maybe they knew this and didn’t bother trying to keep me prisoner, or was I overreacting? They’d offered me shelter and cared for my shredded arm, had brought me to town, which meant they had a car. A vehicle to take me home in the morning perhaps. Why hadn’t I thought of that earlier? Well, because my head was a tangled mess of confusion. I was the one needing to thank them for offering to let me stay in their room. I’d offer to pay them once I got home again.

  I took a seat across from Leven. I bent a leg and tugged on the bells on my pants. “Why did you sew these to my jeans?”

  “Leave them. They ward off evil.” He reached over and took my other hand, his calloused palm tender and warm. “Please, Nickie, don’t remove them.” Then he handed me a menu.

  Something about the way he said my name had me leaving the bells in place, and I liked the sound of it on his tongue.

  “I’ll pay you back later, since I don’t have my bag, phone, or anything.” My cheeks burned, though it wasn’t the first time I’d asked someone for money. Still, I hated doing so.

  Leven met my stare, his mouth curling into a smile, chasing away the shadows beneath his eyes. “I’ve got this covered.” The softness behind his gaze showed a different man than the one I’d seen back in the motel.

  “Thanks for helping me.” I lowered my attention to the menu, reading the first line several times, and yet I couldn’t remember a word. Not when I felt his eyes on me.

  “What are you ordering?” he asked. “I’m getting kransky mit brötchen for the guys and me.”

  Looking up, I said, “I’ll have the same. Extra curry ketchup, please.”

  With a nod, he climbed to his feet and strolled to the counter. Instinct clearly controlled my body because my eyes fell to his ass without hesitation, how firm it looked in his jeans, how his body tapered upward to his shoulders. How his muscles moved under the shirt that hugged his body. Who exactly were these men?

  When he returned, he carried a cup of coffee and hot chocolate, the latter he placed in front of me.

  “Thanks.” I wrapped my hands around the mug, warming my fingers. “So where are you guys from? Are you and your friends traveling the country? Brothers?” Though in saying that, they didn’t look similar.

  “Friends, and we work together. We’re searching for someone.”

  I took a sip of my sweet drink. “Oh, really? What happened?” So many questions swirled through my mind—who they searched for, did the three of them work for a detective agency, and where were they from—but he responded before I sorted through my thoughts.

  “Our friends went missing a few weeks ago. This was the last place they were seen, so we’re here to find them.”

  I leaned forward. “Crap. Are the cops searching too?” Maybe I’d been wrong to think I’d left behind the crime world when I’d arrived in Hirschheim.

  He shook his head. “No police. It’s a personal situation. And unfortunately, you are now drawn into it.” His voice dipped, yet his attention remained on me.

  I couldn’t find my words at first, but his admission settled in my thoughts like a brick, sinking through me. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  He ran a hand over his mouth, a gesture I’d seen people do when they weren’t sure how to say something—something important. And my gut tightened because clearly everything seemed to be going way too easily. And my life was never smooth sailing. Nope, that would be too much to ask, and now I was stuck out here with strangers, with no other place to stay, and running away seemed impossible with the storm outside.

  “Relax,” he said, as if sensing my panic. He licked his lips and leaned toward me from across the table. “So back in the woods, when you put on Santa’s hat, did you feel anything? Did it come in contact with fire? That would have connected the hat to you.”

  I stared into L
even’s green eyes and movement whirled behind them. “So you didn’t find me just lying in the snow? Were you watching me getting attacked? Did you see the creature too?”

  “Did you feel anything when you wore the hat?” he asked again, his voice climbing, clearly ignoring my earlier questions.

  “I don’t know what you want me to say. That it was a warm hat and heated me up? That it fit perfectly? Who cares about the hat? A freaking goat monster attacked me. It ripped open the roof of my car with its claws!” I shook in my seat, remembering the fear, how I’d thought I’d been facing my death. And he was asking about a stupid hat.

  “We sensed the magic of the hat when it found its new owner. But we didn’t arrive in time to stop your attack. Krampus was after the hat, and that was why he targeted you.”

  I huffed and reclined in my seat. “Wait, back up a bit. Did you just say Krampus? Like the mythical anti-Santa who scares kids? Are you feeling all right?” I set my mug down, trying to read his expression, waiting for him to break into laughter any second. Except a scowl swept over his face.

  “This isn’t a joke. He would have killed you if we hadn’t interfered.”

  I gave him my best are-you-kidding-me look. “Pretty sure I get some credit. I burned him before running away.”

  “And if we hadn’t driven him back, he would have ended your life.”

  My mouth dropped open and closed again. “Nothing you’re saying is making sense.” It sure as hell wasn’t gelling in my mind. “You’re joking about this, right?”

  His brow creased. “No! But if you say the hat flooded you with warmth, and it came in contact with fire while you wore it, then your life’s about to change forever.”

  I inched out of my seat, my skin crawling, my hand in my pocket, except I didn’t have my pepper spray or phone. Hell! Standing there, I growled, “Don’t you dare threaten me.”

  The waiter approached our table, placing a bag of food in plastic boxes on the table. “Vier kransky mit brötchen zu gehen.” He stared at both of us with a raised brow, then backed away. Great.

  “Danke.” Leven was on his feet, then turned toward me. “Let’s go.”

  “I’m not going anywhere with you.” I stood my ground. “Diners are usually open twenty-four-seven, so I’ll stay here all night until morning.”

  “You’re no longer in America as I assume that’s where you’re from with your accent, and this place closes at nine.”

  I glared at him, hating my lack of options. His threat sat heavily on my mind.

  “I’m not going to hurt you.” He broke the silence between us. “We’ll explain everything to you in the room. And the sandwiches are getting cold.”

  “Just tell me everything now, and I’ll decide if I want to return with you.”

  He jaw twitched, but he simply picked up the bag and snatched my elbow before hauling me toward the door. Fear spiked through me, and I ripped out of his grasp. No one looked our way despite the argument we were having in a public place.

  “I’ll scream if you touch me again,” I warned.

  He grabbed my coat off the hook and tossed it at me. He got dressed, and I held mine in my arms.

  But when Leven closed the distance between us, I recoiled until I hit the wall. I was trapped between him and the wall, and all I could smell were the damn kransky in his hand that had my stomach growling for food. “I’m here to protect you.”

  “Against what? Krampus?” I whispered loudly, unable to believe I was having this conversation.

  “You have no clue what you’ve gotten yourself into.” His whispered voice came out deep and guttural, his face so close to mine, I could study the golden flecks in his pupils. The tightness of his stubbled jaw, how handsome he was, and how small I felt next to him.

  “There’s no such thing as mythical creatures.” Yeah, I’d seen something disfigured in the woods, but everything had a logical explanation. My mind flew to my departed grandma, Dad’s mom, and her practice of warding off demons. Drawing circles on the earth with whiskey as part of her belief in the supernatural. My parents had put it down to her old age and dementia. Yet Dad had practiced something similar with rum.

  “Let me show you,” Leven growled.

  He ripped open the door, and a deluge of wind tore into the joint. He seized my arm and yanked me outside so fast, my head spun. The howling winds stole my scream. I spun away from him, pulling against his hold, reaching for the shut door. No one inside even looked our way.

  But Leven dragged me down the sidewalk as the weather hammered into us, the cold piercing through my clothes, chilling my bones. We rounded the buildings and emerged in an open park. No homes were nearby, no potential witness should he butcher me.

  “Put on your coat,” he barked before setting the bag of food near my feet and backing away a couple of steps.

  My teeth chattered and my response froze in my mind as I trembled, threading my arms into the sleeves. I recoiled along the wall in hopes of darting back to the diner to ask them to call the cops, or polizei as they were called here.

  But as I zipped the coat, my attention fell on Leven, who dropped onto all fours in the snow. His body trembled violently, and I swore his legs and arms were growing in size. His torso lengthened. Fuck, something was growing out of his temples.

  I stepped back, the brick wall catching me. I needed to run, but I couldn’t look away. Frozen on the spot, I watched with fear pounding in my chest. My world tilted around me because I couldn’t make sense of what I was seeing.

  Leven’s body was morphing, twisting, enlarging. He groaned as if in pain, and my heart went out to him. Why was he doing this if it caused him pain?

  Within moments, Leven was twice his size and still growing, his clothes evaporating before my eyes, replaced with… fuck, was that dirty white and brown fur?

  I gasped and hugged my stomach, bile hitting the back of my throat. He was transforming. How could this be happening?

  Before me stood a deer with enormous antlers, exactly like the one I’d almost run over, the ones in my backyard, and the ones that had surrounded the monster in the woods. I rubbed my eyes.

  The world whirled around me, and everything swayed because this couldn’t be real. I was shaking my head. “No, this can’t be.”

  Yet the deer stood proudly in front of me, scratching the ground with a front hoof, its head bowing up and down.

  But instead of trying to make logical sense of what the heck I was staring at, my vision blurred, and my knees gave out. On my next breath, my world blackened, along with the notion that Leven had just shifted into a reindeer.

  5

  I startled awake with a dull pulse thumping in my ears, while sweat trickled down my neck. Each breath raced as I stared up at the white ceiling again. I lay in bed, a heater at my feet, and outside, nightfall had taken over the landscape. The familiar déjà vu sensation washed over me. But my thoughts circled back to Leven and me outside the diner, leaving me shaken and confused. What had I witnessed? Him turning into a reindeer? I must have hit my head really hard. And the unease returned and coiled in my gut again when that delicious, savory aroma of the kranksys found me.

  The three guys sat at the table near the couch, not saying a word, but the sounds of their chewing and lips smacking filled the room. My stomach rolled with such hunger. I was ready to march over for my portion, and I’d fight Krampus right now to get my food. But unfamiliar warmth engulfed me, as if I were in the company of friends with these men. No, not friends. But like people I’d met recently and had clicked with at once. We’d talk for hours about nothing, yet have the time of our lives. I didn’t know what it was about these three, and especially with how Leven had manhandled me, yet here I was, once again in bed, cared for by strangers. Maybe they weren’t so terrible?

  “You better not be eating my kransky sandwich,” I said. I dropped my legs over the edge of the bed, the bells on my jeans jingling, and the world swaying.

  “How’re you feeling?” Leven pa
tted the chair next to him. I remained seated, waiting for my head to settle down.

  “Like I’ve been run over by a bulldozer.” Winds whistled outside, and the walls creaked, the windows rattling. Considering the icy weather, I had no plans to leave the confines of this room right away. Especially with nowhere else to go for the night, even if I was stuck in here with three strangers who kept rescuing me from the cold. I got up and walked over to them, then took a seat next to Leven.

  I glanced over at him, remembering the way his body had contorted and twisted, the snap of bones, his groans. The deer he’d somehow morphed into before my eyes. We exchanged a knowing look, one that indeed confirmed he’d allowed me to witness something personal and private. Sure, the whole incident hadn’t sunk in, but then again, the stuff he’d said in the diner hadn’t either.

  Jax slid a sandwich wrapped in foil in front of me. “So you’re a fainter?”

  I unwrapped my meal and sighed at the nonexistent curry ketchup. “Not really. Apparently, today is a day for firsts.”

  Leven rummaged in the plastic bag on the table and produced a small tub of curry ketchup. He pulled the lid off for me, and I poured it onto my sandwich. “Thanks.”

  The meal melted on my tongue; the spicy sausage and ketchup in chewy bread were heaven, and I ate half before I noticed everyone watching. “What?” I wiped my mouth with a tissue. “I’m starving.”

  “If there weren’t a blizzard blanketing everything in sight, I’d get you another,” Tatum said, scrunching up his wrapper.

  “Why are you all being so nice?” I asked. “What’s really going on? Leven said some weird stuff in the diner, about you all searching for lost friends. And then outside…” My breath hitched and only one word came out. “Reindeer.”

  Tatum glared at Leven. “Fuck! You showed her, didn’t you? Even when I instructed you not to.” His voice boomed.

  “It’s the only way to make her believe.” Leven sounded levelheaded, not at all bothered by Tatum’s uproar.

  “She fainted.” Tatum’s voice climbed.