CHAPTER 16

WARM WATER LAPS up my bruised body. After unchaining me, Krampus carried me to the hot springs. Rather than leave me to soak, he’s tenderly washing over the marks on my buttocks. I try to not wince with every touch, but without the fire to keep me focused, all I can feel is the pain.

“This should help,” he says and unscrews a jar. I sit up off of his lap to watch him dig a claw into gray mud. Gritting my teeth, I brace as he reaches for my ass. Instead of the same sharp sting from the hot water, cold relief curls over my skin.

“That is so nice,” I moan, unknotting so fast my face plunges into the spring. The sulfur scent stings my nose, but I stay underwater, letting the minerals soften my skin while he tends to my flaming ass. When his fingers drift off, I sit back up, hands pressing into his soggy thighs. “How’s it look?”

“There’s some welts that have turned white, and the skin is pink, but none of it broke.”

“Really?” Despite having a human spine, I try to turn around and stare at my own ass. My hand slips off of his knee and I nearly go hurtling into the water. He catches me. Picking me up, he reorients me until I’m staring into his eyes. Slowly, he places me down in his lap and spreads his thighs so my blistering ass is touched by only the bubbling spa.

Krampus curls a hand under my chin and lifts my face higher. “How are you feeling?”

“Tired. Sore.” I run my hand down the forearm that’s holding me, not to get him to stop, but just to feel him.

His gaze drifts to my wrist. “Does it still…?” He cuts himself off and looks away.

“I don’t know.” Moment of truth. I circle my fingers under my wrist and slowly draw them up. Everything tonight was perfect. He was perfect. Surely it fixed my stupid… “Ouch.”

Damn it.

No. I won’t believe it didn’t work. I clamp my hand around my wrist, willing the pain in my mind to go away. It’s not real. He can’t hurt me anymore. He’s…

“Amaya.” Krampus’ claws slip between my fingers and starts to pry them off of me.

“I really thought it would fix everything. A night with you, knowing you wouldn’t hurt me. That should have been enough.” I don’t want to cry, but I can’t stop.

He runs his palm up my cheek, but I lunge forward. Burying my face in his chest fur, I stop him from watching me cry. I don’t want an errant touch of my wrists to yank me back to that night. For his toes to glance against my ankle and leave me terrified of death. I want to be unbroken.

Cradling the back of my head, he says, “Give it time.”

“What? Just wait two weeks and boom, all that trauma’s erased from my head.”

“Or maybe it’ll take more sessions.”

More…? I pull myself out of his nest and stare into his eyes. He’d been reticent about this whole thing but now he wants to try again? “How many more are we talking?”

He rubs the side of his horn up my cheek. The water stirs as his cock twitches. Then he kisses my forehead. “As many as you want.”

“So all that talk about you just going along to help me…”

“I…” He coughs and shifts in place as if neither of us can see his periscope climbing out of the water. “May not have realized how much I would enjoy it. After so many years cutting women free, giving in to my urges and taking you while you scream for me is exhilarating.”

Krampus bends closer, his lips parting. They’re nearly on mine when he says, “And your backside is perfect in firelight.” We kiss. Despite our bodies being bruised and drained, the heat kicks to a boil. I reach up to run my fingers through his hair and hit a horn instead.

Rather than hang on, I trace my palm up the curve. He moans in my mouth and I almost return it when the air jingles. There are those damn bells.

I pull away and stare around the room. “Do you hear that?” I ask.

“Hear what?”

“Sleigh bells. I swear, every time we’re fucking bells jangle from somewhere close.” While I know I sound like I’m going mad, I don’t expect him to throw his head back and laugh from the bottom of his chest.

“What?”

“You don’t know about the bells?” He brays harder.

I cross my arms over my chest and glare. It has little impact as my nude body is balanced by his thighs. Still chortling to himself, Krampus takes my hand off of his horn. “Here,” he says and guides my fingers toward his cock.

“I know all about that,” I assure him, but he plunges me lower. Our twined fingers brush over his furry scrotum. My legs are strained so wide apart, my face is nearly in the water. He’s messing with me. This is so…

Metal touches my fingertip. On instinct, I thumb it, and a little bell jangles. “You pierced a sleigh bell through your taint?” I cry out in shock.

“Two of them. They’re on a bar.” He jerks his hips and, sure enough, the two bells sing out even underwater. “How did you not notice?”

“Maybe because your huge balls were in the way.” I cry out in frustration but also a strange laugh. He has jingle bells tucked behind his balls. Of course, he does. He’s the Krampus.

Letting the bells fall silent, I leap up and drape my wet arms around the back of his neck. I strain my head up to kiss him but pause. “That thing’s grown another two inches.”

He frowns and toys with the beard that’s nearly reached the water. “I know.”

I drop my hold on him. “What’s wrong?”

“This only grows when my time is nearing.”

“Meaning…? Oh.”

It’s nearly Christmas. He’ll have to leave to gather up all the naughty children and put them to work. To return to that damnable mansion and save another girl while the bastard gets away for another year. It isn’t fair.

“I didn’t realize…”

“My doe.” He cups my cheek, keeping me from turning away in a rage.

“He can’t keep getting away with this.”

“I know.”

“You have to stop him.”

Krampus closes his eyes and sighs. He can’t. If he ignores the girl, she’ll die. And, by some stupid decree of the cosmos, he can only bring one person back with him. So either leave an innocent to her fate and take the kid, or save her and the brat gets another year to torment people.

A thought strikes me. “What if you have help?”

He laughs. “From who? A squirrel?”

“Me.”

His breath catches. “You’d have to go through the red door to join me. It…” Squeezing his eyes tight he stares up at the ceiling. “It could take all your memories.”

“Or it might not,” I say. The one night he scours the earth, when he isn’t trapped on his mountain, is Christmas Eve. If I went with then maybe I’d be a part of him. A helper.

“Amaya…” He’s pleading with me to give this up. To stay with him in our rugged, simple bliss. A part of me aches to agree, to spend Christmas Eve sitting by the fireplace waiting for him to come home.

But then I remember that night when I hung by my wrists, terrified I was going to die.

“He can’t get away with this again. Another girl, like me. Scared out of her wits.”

“She’ll forget.”

Closing my eyes, I can see that shadow hearing my screams for help and shutting the door. “Are you sure?” Being terrified without remembering why sounded worse than knowing the reason.

He hoists me up his body until my legs dangle around his midsection. Still, his eyes remain closed, his breath shallow. I reach out to take his horns, but he intercepts me. Holding my hands, he presses his forehead to mine.

“I love you,” he whispers as if the fight’s already over.

“I love you, too.” A strange thing to tell a man with hooves and horns, but I mean it from the bottom of my heart.

“And…” His hands sweep up my back, pinning me tight to him. “No matter what happens—” Krampus lifts his head, his gaze burning into mine. “I’ll never forget you.”

I wish I could tell him the same, but all I can do is kiss him. If I walk through that door and forget him… “I may not be able to keep you here.” I touch my head, then pull my hand down to my heart. “But you’ll always be here.”

We hold each other, listening only to the fall of snow outside the dark windows. I couldn’t hazard a guess for how long, but as I lift my cheek from his chest, I peer out to find the northern lights gleaming in the sky.

“How long do we have?”

“One day,” he says.

“Then…” Putting on a smile, I gaze into his eyes. “We’d better not waste it.”

The red door waits. For so long it was a piece of the wall, and now it haunts my every thought. My heartbeat pounds through my soul, each thump rocking me on my feet.

“Well…” Krampus drapes his hand on my shoulder. I can only see his eyes and nose through the thick black fur that’s sprouted overnight. It hides his face better than any hood can. He taps his staff and sparks skitter across the floor. “It’s time.”

I tug my coat tighter, my fingers running up the furred hood. As I clench to the top and start to pull it down, he takes my hand. I spin to face him as he crumbles to his knees.

“You can still remain here,” he says, offering me one last out.

Oh did we argue for the past day well into the night, then back again. I know he’s scared of me losing him because I feel the same. Will I walk through that door and stumble dumbfounded into my apartment with a broken heart and no way to understand why? Or could his love find a way to weave into my soul and keep me warm through the longest and coldest of nights even if I never see him again?

I pat his cheek, my fingers tousling through the thick fur below. “Whatever happens…” I begin.

His face clenches, and he takes my hand. My knuckles smash to his lips as he kisses my fingers one by one before wrapping them in his palm. “I love you,” Krampus says.

“I know,” I say, quietly swallowing the ‘for now’ in my head. My fingers drift lower, combing through the beard that reaches his chest. At the edge, I wrap it around my hand and give a little tug.

His jaw drops, but the eyes glow hot under the shadows. Using his beard, I pull him to me. Krampus is willingly led to my waiting lips. As I ruffle through his fur and take his horn, he kisses me.

The red door opens.

Impenetrable white light waits beyond the threshold. It hides the answers to all of my questions. Can I go with him? Will I remember? Will it take me from his side? Will it take all of him?

With a grunt, Krampus uses his staff to rise to his towering height. He heaves his empty sack over his shoulder and makes one step toward the door. It would be easy for him to run on through and leave me behind—make the choice for me.

But he pauses and holds out his hand.

“My queen?” He bows his head.

Putting every fear aside, I tug up my coat, slip my fingers through his palm, and step beside him. As he wraps an arm over my shoulders, I lean against his chest and whisper, “Time to punish some very naughty boys.”