The Snowmaiden, A Bride for Krampus Page 6

  “But what about-” Ded started to protest.

  “She’ll get hungry,” Bels said with a much calmer tone, his voice almost soothing. “You don’t want her to get hungry, do you?” He was lying and Ded was buying it. I felt like a spectator in my own demise.

  “Well, no, but I thought-” Ded mumbled, ears drooping.

  “You better go then. Now,” Bels fairly hissed.

  “Ah- Well- Well...” The Elkfen’s shoulders slumped and he seemed to deflate. “Alright then,” he mumble-muttered. Reluctantly, Ded collected my things and placed them in my hands, his thick fingers brushing mine in the process, lingering. “I’ll be back,” he said with the reassurance of someone who didn’t really know. “Perhaps,” he said as he started to trot off to stop. “Perhaps there’s another-”

  “There is no other way!” Bels shouted, incensed. “And even if there possibly was, it’s too late now!” Glaring at Ded, daring him to argue further, the gross brown stuff was on his lips again. It was leaking from Bels’ mouth, as if he produced it naturally. Ew.

  Ded left after Bels’ outburst, leaving me to my fate with Bels and his friend in need Shnikel.

  With a deep breath, Bels put on a fake smile. “Well now then, shall we go and introduce you two kids?”

  NO! I wanted to scream, but just stood there idly, blinking. Tears started to well in my eyes and gently trail down my cheeks. They burned hotly, pricking my iced over skin.

  “No need for those.” Muttering lower, he said with an annoyed huff, “We’re long past that now. What’s done is to be.”

  Bels had me shuffling along beside him, his hand at my back leading me down a winding passage way.

  Grumbling, grunting noises issued from somewhere deeper in the catacombs looking maze carved out of this rock. The deeper we went, the harder to see it grew. The urge to flee was strong but the body was not willing.

  “I know what you’re thinking,” Bels said between rough clearings of his throat. “I’m not a monster,” he insisted, as something straight out of a nightmare came into view. “There’s nothing to be done of it. Shnikel is the only real friend I’ve ever had, and I’m not about to let him just slip off into oblivion, a mindless creature, to become- To be-” Bels throat worked and he was starting to look a little choked up himself. Shaking his head, sniffling a little, he tried to shrug it all off. “Nevermind,” he said on a laugh of a huff. “You’re here now.” Smiling up at me with a soft look, he took my hand in his and gave it a pat.

  The nightmare snorted and snapped its teeth, then slammed a hooved foot into the ground. It was just up ahead.

  Cells. The passage we took spilled out into a space as tall as it was wide. Cells lined the walls, carved right into the mountain. The cell with an actual occupant, a snarling beast stamping his hooves at the intruders nearing his pen. Thin lips pulled back over long teeth. The noise that erupted from him had my teeth on edge. And still yet, docilely I trotted alongside Bels.

  “I’ve brought someone, Shnik, that I’d like you to meet,” the Elf called out casually, like we were about to sit down and have a leisurely brunch.

  Shnik’s lips pulled up higher at Bels’ voice, an ugly noise rattling his wide chest. His chest was so wide it contrasted greatly, looking as if it popped out, in comparison to the sunken in appearance of his stomach. He was furred in a way that showed his Elkfen heritage, dark greys, lights, and browns of every shade mixing in with swaths of pure, thick, long white fur that was scraggly to the rest of its fluffy tufts. The white fur was thickest at his hips, thighs, over his shoulders, and down a bony spine that looked like it was about to burst from the stretched skin at his back. His ribs were in no better shape, skin stretched over them, visible where the fluff of fur had visibly thinned.

  I knew what that was. Mother used to tell Beau and me tales of such things, the stories her mother and grandmother told her and so on.

  “Krampus,” I garbled out.

  “Oh goody, you know what he’s turning into.” Bels let go of me to clap his hands together. I’d almost say he was enjoying himself. Maybe he was. Nasty little gremlin bastards, Elves were turning out to be. This one was, at least.

  We were right in front of the cage now. If Shnikel Krampus sniffing loudly over there, his nose turned up, a garbled rumble fighting with the deep, chest lifting deep breaths things, reached out, he might be able to touch us. His hooves shifted, drawing my attention to them as they scraped the ground. The bits of fruit chunks at his feet squished beneath his odd feet.

  Again, my gaze unerringly drew up, traveling up his towering frame to once more find his face. Where the Krampus I knew of from folk tales were depicted with ram looking horns, this one’s were still very Elkfen looking. The points’ main beams were curving funnily, unnaturally, the base of his horns thicker, the burrs sporting sharp looking spikes Elkfen did not have. Rings where the base had thickened were starting to show, the points along the very ends curlicued. Some of those curled ends were cracked and crumbling, one snapped off but still dangling there, flopping this way and that with every jerk of his head.

  Eyes as black as pitch met mine, held, and then his eyelids slowly blinked. Grunting, Krampus Shnikel began to weave on his feet. With another grunt, he stumbled backward. The thick tail sprouting out of the top of his furry arse flicked wildly behind him. He lost his balance, tripped, fell. When Krampus dropped back, horns cracking the ground as his head slammed backward, he just kind of passed out.

  “Apples are working,” Bels said with that creepy tone that literally made my skin crawl. “I was worried he wouldn’t take the bait, his humanity still with him enough to fight the Krampus instincts.”

  When I turned my head to him and just stared, the effects of his bite slowly starting to wear off and un-numb my addled brain, his eyebrows shot up.

  “Oh, I’m sure you have questions. I’ll answer some of them, but while we work.” Pulling out a ring of keys, he gave them a jiggle. Unlocking the door to the Krampus’ cell, he had to work to get the door open. It was iced over in spots. With a bit of elbow grease he had it open, creaking on its hinges.

  Then he was back to me, guiding me along. My feet felt like blocks of ice as I entered the beast’s cell. Everything in me was screaming for me to run. At the horrible noise I made, Bels grabbed my unblemished arm and sank his teeth fangs deep into it.

  When I was once again a dolly for him to lead, the Elf walked me right inside the Krampus Shnikel’s cell, maneuvering me right over the fat hooves on thick legs sprawled out across the space.

  “Over here, I think. This will do. I suppose it’s not necessary to tie you up, but the quicker we can hurry this all along and see if it works, the better.” My hands were once more tied up and then lifted over my head. This position left me completely open, vulnerable. Smoothing his hands down my arms as he released the ends of the rope he’d tied, he curled his hands and raked the short, pointed claws on the tips of his fingers down my forearms.

  A soft cry left me, but it was so weak it was barely a sound. The screams in my head were louder. Gripping my chin, he smiled into my fear filled eyes. “This isn’t going to be pleasant. You’ll excuse me for hurrying things along, but I really am on a race with the clock, and I’ve got an ignorant fawn to catch up to and distract so Shnikel can waken and partake of the Snowmaiden.”

  A clawed hand scraped across my cheek. It slid down my neck, past my collarbone, pressing until it hurt but leaving no more than a thin trail of blood. Down the middle of my chest that finger went, dipping over my lower belly. His other hand joined in when he got to my thighs and he scraped them down the thickest part, same as he had raked them down my forearms. My legs jerked but I was stuck, at his mercy.

  “Krampus hate surprises, loud noises.” Leaning in, he whispered in my ear, “I wouldn’t make any sudden movements.” Stepping back, admiring his handiwork, he licked his fingers one by one until they were clean of the crimson tipping them. Silver eyes flushed with green and gold and he
shivered. “Flesh, blood, organ meat, it never said in the old grimoire collecting dust in the archives what exactly was to be partaken of, and jingle bells knows everyone is such a tight lip about it all, but I’m sure it will be quick,” he said as if this was something I should be looking forward to. Stepping over the loudly snoring Krampus’ prone form to exit my new prison, he closed the door behind him and locked it.

  Cracking his knuckles, he rolled his shoulders.

  Sparing me one last glance, he tossed me a cheerful wink. Watching him stroll off, whistling a Christmas tune, that stupid whistling echoed in the large space long after he’d disappeared from my sight.

  I was trapped with a Krampus. My belly dropped as time passed, I wasn’t sure how much, and that thing began to stir. Oh god.

  Bels’ warnings fresh in my mind, realizing hypothermia was taking its sweet assed time doing me in first, I had some decisions to make, should any opportunities present themselves.

  By the time Krampus had fully roused, I was in save my life mode. At this point, I was willing to do anything if it meant I got to keep my organs and live to see another day.

  With a groan and a shake of that massive rack atop his head, the beast sat up. Three-fingered hands lifted, scratching at a scruff-lined face, and he chuffed. One deep breath, then a sudden stilling to deeply inhale, and I knew he’d realized he had company.

  Dark eyes blinked, glanced up at me. He froze at the sight of me. Oh god, oh god. Was he smelling my blood? Was his feral Krampus side going to just tear into me?

  Bel’s bite, that icky venom, was wearing off. If all Elves were like him, they were damned assholes and all deserved to be boiled alive in a vat of piping hot cocoa.

  The low warning growl that issued from my cell mate had me tensing up. I nearly jumped out of my skin as the frosted bars at my back bit into my bare flesh so hard it burned. I was surprised I had any feeling left in any part of my body at all.

  Crouching, his nose lifted and he sucked in huge gulps of air. Was he… testing it? Tasting it?

  As if he’d smelled something he found interesting, he jerked to his feet. His eyes still had a bit of a glazed look, his steps unsteady as he stumbled his way over to me.

  Adrenaline pumped through me. Of all the times for my Elf bitten ass to become functional, it was with the big bad nightmare before me that could probably smell the fear coursing through me. Horror filled me as he licked his lips, the longest tongue I’d ever seen slipping out between those thin lips flicking the air. His tongue was black and forked, fat and thick, competing with the long tail sprouting up from the top of his hollowed out melons for butt cheeks. Even out of it, he moved with a predatory grace that had my hackles up. Wide hip bones jutting out on such a thinned out frame, that flat stomach of his was looking even more inverted than before he’d passed out. The male looked like he was withering away right before my very eyes.

  If he croaked on me from crazy Krampus metabolism defect and I froze to death, we’d both be golden.

  I had zero faith my chances were anything less than slim. I was going to die.

  It’s terrifying, the thoughts that race through one’s mind as their imminent death looms.

  My imminent death was right before me now, breathing down my face. Hot breath that smelled strangely of cider, that heavy sweetness from freshly pressed apples tickling my nose, coasted over my bloody arm. His loud snuffling went from deep sniffs, to quick, short inhales, and then I felt a hot, wet tongue rasp up the length of my ravaged arm.

  I held so perfectly still I’d forgotten how to breathe. My skin itched to twitch but I didn’t dare. His tongue was hot, to the point my frozen over flesh felt like pins and needles were stabbing at it. He was beyond hot, giving off heat this close I felt my quivering frame slowly beginning to thaw.

  Bels’ words of warning kept rattling around in my brain. No sudden movements or outbursts.

  Thin lips closed around the flat of my forearm, right over the Elf bite and deepest of the gouges. What looked like a secondary layer of lips closed over his teeth as he began to suckle at my arm, as if to milk the treat he’d found for himself. He liked the taste of blood. I could only sit here in terror and contemplate what else of me he might like to get a taste of.

  The sucking on my arm grew harder and harder, until it hurt and I knew I’d have an enormous spot where the blood had come to the surface. His tongue lashed the spot as he worked. Once it seemed he’d gotten all he could from it, he began to growl. I knew then, as that low sound started up and grew, rising in his chest until it rattled him, and my arm as he kept his mouth closed around it, my time was up.

  Waiting for it, that striking bite, a small modicum of relief filled me as his ravenous suckling slowed, the laps of his tongue lashing my damaged flesh easing up. It was stupid of me to think it would offer some reprieve when he let my flesh go with a wet pop and pulled back to study it. Leaning in, he gave my forearm a sniff and then snarled at it, as if it’d done something to grievously injure him and he was giving it to the count of ten to apologize and then cooperate already. Moving so fast I didn’t catch it until I felt it, he snarled viciously and his teeth sank deep.

  A sharp cry left me, bordering on a scream, but I quickly muffled it. It was near to impossible, hissing the rest of it out through gritted teeth. Tears filled my eyes, blurring my vision as he tore into a chunk of my flesh. A soft cry left me, a plea for him to stop along with it.

  “Please!” I finally screamed, unable to hold it in a moment longer as hot, liquid heat began to burn the spot. Warmth worked its way up my arm. It hurt, hurt so bad I couldn’t see straight. I was a babbling, hot mess. I just hoped he’d get scared or pissed, sick of the noises I was making, and just kill me with one great swipe of one of those long clawed hands.

  As if that did the trick, the beast jerked, scoring my arm with his long teeth as he jerked back. Another scream of a sob left me. Wetness began to drip down my arm freely. Bleeding out quickly had never sounded like a better idea than it did now, hopefully before he began to attack vital organs. Lifting one of my legs, knowing it was no use, too weak to give up any pretense of fending myself off at any rate, I tried valiantly to curl it up near my stomach. Jerking on the ties holding my hands prisoner, there was absolutely no use. I was at the Krampus’ mercy.

  Did the beast possess any?

  Krampus began sniffing again, moving on to other things, curious about the noise maker with the leaky face, her mutilated arm momentarily forgotten.

  “Please,” I blubbered. Now was the time for begging, hoping as Bels had, there was some shred of the pre-Krampus Shnikel left in there somewhere. “Please, I want to live.” My tears fell hotly, crusting at my face as they raced down my cheeks.

  He was almost nose to nose with me, his thin, pointed noise brushing mine experimentally. His tongue was next, finding my tears to taste the salted sorrow. More fell. As if he liked the taste, he lapped at my face eagerly, his lips getting in on it as if he didn’t wish to miss a single drop. Finding the source, hot warmth raked over my eye. As soon as that one was finished and I’d calmed just enough I wasn’t outright blubbering in his nostrils flared, breathing down my face nightmarishness, he switched to the other leaking eyeball.

  That heat in my arm had spread, like fire in my veins. The pain had grown so intense to ease, until it was a tingling numbness that concerned me but not as much as the feeling filling my belly to dip lower. Warming on the inside, freezing on the outside but very slowly thawing, I was as jumbled up physically as I was starting to feel emotionally. My thoughts warred, body fidgeting in place.

  “Please don’t kill me,” I whispered, as long arms lifted, thin fingers gliding up my arms in a way that pricked and tickled my flesh. A jolt burst through me as the arm he’d just bitten was jostled. That pooling heat had found purchase in a very funny place on my person. Alarm shot through me as the Krampus laving my face began to make a strange sound in his chest. The noise wasn’t quite the angry growls of before,
but it was nowhere near anything I’d consider nice.

  “I’ll do whatever you want… I-” Words froze on my tongue as he suddenly began feverishly working his way down my nape, hungry, searching nips and laps at my skin that had me squirming in place.

  His hands slid back down my frame after pausing briefly on the ties on my hands, moving lower with him as he found my collarbones, the upper part of my breasts. My legs began to saw as if to ease the ache building at the apex of my thighs. My nipples were sensitive, hardened buds. His fur brushed my chest, tickling it as he moved lower, until that alien like tongue was closing over a breast, tasting teasing, and then his mouth had found a nipple to taste that too.

  A sharp cry left me as a long, drawn out groan of a moan rent the air. It wasn’t coming from me.

  A hiss left him, almost word-like noises, guttural, from deep in his throat, rumbling out of him. His hands shot to my waist as I began to squirm in earnest and he held me in place. His claws pricked my skin but didn’t dig in.

  He wasn’t killing me, or trying to. I could handle this. At least some part of me was on board, an entirely different reaction to a Krampus’ bite than an Elf’s sending my insides melting and my heart racing in more than mortified terror.

  Oh, I’d probably be pretty mortified later, sure, but if I played my cards right I’d be alive. Hopefully.

  Frosty air kissed my skin as he moved on from the breast he was worshiping to attack the next. I’d say he was disappointed to find there was nothing there to actually get from them but his reaction was nowhere near the meltdown over my arm. Glancing up, I noted the steady drip-drip from my arm had slowed to barely a trickle. Blue was starting to replace the red of my bloodied arm wherever his teeth had touched. It almost looked like old tattoo ink.

  As if he wasn’t a fan of my attention being diverted, my nipple was given a harsh nip. Yelping, my gaze shot down to the beast who’d decided it was more fun to pay homage to the maiden than eat her. Letting out a clicking sound, rattling the middle of his chest, he pulled his teeth back and snarled. A hiss left him as he gave me a lip curling sneer of a look I had no chance of deciphering.