10. Aldyn

Chapter 10

Aldyn

I wasn’t a fighter. No one would call me a warrior. There hadn’t been a need for it back home and I had never considered myself the violent type.

But of the four of us, I was the best option. Especially since I was the only one with a weapon, my retractable claws. I had to win. Or at least hold out long enough for Jody and Wendy to do what they needed to do.

I had to keep our captor distracted.

The claws that lived under my skin itched to come out, but I had to hold them in. I didn’t want Evil Santa to get a look before it was too late.

We thought we were going to need to start a commotion, to do something outrageous to get him to come by us. But in the end, he came back on his own.

Then all I had to do was stand up. He didn’t wait for me to say anything. It was on.

He charged at me, ready for the fight. Ready to push me back down alongside the others.

But this time I was ready, wasn’t willing to back down. Now it was time to battle.

I pushed back, and he was so surprised that he fell back two steps before he remembered to fight. And unlike me, he was a fighter. He caught me on the shoulder with a punch that was strong enough to make my entire body ache. I bit back a groan. I wasn’t going to cry out from one punch.

But it hurt.

Ouch.

Evil Santa had both the force field generator and the device that would open the portal. I had to get both of them to Jody and Wendy, or at least to get him to drop them. Then Jody and Wendy would do their best to destroy them. We each had our part to play.

Jeff was too injured to do much, so he just had to try and stay out of the way.

The portal opening device was in Evil Santa’s hand. Once he got close, I unsheathed my claws and swiped across his skin. It was thicker than I expected, kind of leathery and tough to get through. But I must’ve hit him just right. His fingers spasmed and opened, sending that device clattering to the ground. And before he reached for it, I was on again, punching and scraping and slicing and inflicting as much damage as I could.

I tried to keep an eye out for Wendy or Jody, to see if they had made a move to recover the device, but the second I stopped paying attention, Evil Santa was on me. He hit me hard enough that my vision went blurry for a second. And after that he had my full attention. We exchanged blows and it became clear that he didn’t need a weapon. He was a weapon. His fists were stronger than I’d ever encountered and he knew how to use them. I didn’t think I could win.

The second time he swung for my face, my shoulder didn’t save me. He got me right in the jaw and I went down. I heard Jody cry out. I wanted her near me. Wanted her right beside me, offering me comfort. It was selfish. She didn’t even know me. Didn’t know that I needed her. Didn’t know that we were meant to be together.

My body wanted to stay curled up in a defensive ball on the ground. I didn’t want to get hurt anymore. But I need to stay strong. I needed to survive. I needed to defend Jody. If I didn’t survive this, we would never see what we could be together. She was my mate, my denya, and I needed to do this for her.

With strength I didn’t know I possessed, I pushed myself up. Evil Santa had turned away from me and was moving to the women. I couldn’t let him have them.

“Is that all you got?” I taunted. I tasted blood with every word. But it was just a split lip. I hurt, but I wasn’t injured. Not yet. Not badly.

Evil Santa turned toward me. His robe gaped open and I saw the force field device sitting precariously in one of his pockets. We needed that if we were going to get out of here.

“Come on, big boy.” I wiggled my fingers, inviting him to come my way. He charged.

Something possessed me, the spirit of victory, the need to defend and win. I didn’t let myself worry about what he was doing to me, about the pain, about anything like that. I just had to get that force field device.

I got up real close and managed to slide my arm into his cloak and brush my fingers against the device. I didn’t get a hold of it, but it was enough to knock it out of place from where it sat in his pocket and send it crashing to the ground.

Evil Santa let out a roar. He was not happy about me doing that. Good. I didn’t want him happy.

But he hit even harder, and I was doing all I could to block the blows and defend myself. I got in a few hits of my own, and one even made him grunt and stumble back. But it was clear who was winning this fight. And it wasn’t me. I wished I had a weapon of some kind, something even sharper than my claws. But wishing for something in the middle of a fight like this was just going to get me dead.

He charged me again and I took a step back. My foot landed on something and I heard a crunch. The force field device. Santa didn’t hear it. He kept charging until he had me flat on the ground, where I landed even more fully on the device, shattering it.

At first I thought it did nothing. At first I thought we were okay. But a breathless second later, a shockwave punched through me and out through the rest of the store.

Something started to buzz as the force field went down. I heard Jody cry out as a large portal began to open in the middle of the room.