The Snowmaiden, A Bride for Krampus Read online

  Tensing, I waited for the hidden figure to emerge, exposing itself.

  I couldn’t explain the relief that filled me as the bloodied, hulking figure of the Krampus who’d claimed me popped into sight. I also realized then Bels had stopped screaming.

  Pausing to stumble his way, I still hesitated. His lips pulled back and he snarled at my standoffishness. Jesus, could anyone blame me?!

  Waiting, silently praying I wasn’t next, the thought occurred to me, Do Krampus succumb to bloodlust? Did this one? Was I next?

  A startled yelp left me as he came storming right up to me, scooped me up, and continued on as if that’s all there was to it.

  “I don’t know where we could go-” I started to say, for the hulking beast to pause midstride, glance down at me, and hush me. A long, “Shhhhh,” aimed my way had me snapping my trap shut to stare up at him dazedly. I blamed the Elf venom and my innate need for self-preservation. Shutting up it is, then.

  My hand at my nape began to slip and slide through all that lovely blood, and it quickly grew harder and harder to hold my hand there. Eventually my head was so light it was fuzzy and my limbs felt heavy. My head started to slump, then loll there limply.

  The Krampus cocooning me in his arms began to shake me, jargling me, but my eyelids were heavy and sweet oblivion was calling me. It was sounding pretty nice right now.

  When I thought that was it, this would be the end of it, I felt a sharp pinch, claws jabbing into my side. Opening my mouth with a yelp, I noted several things at once as something wet and spicy, like hot tomato juice, was forced into my mouth. Swallowing reflexively, I gulped, choked, then forced whatever the hell that was down so I could breathe. Cracking my eyes open, I found myself on the ground, a strange, purple ceiling with lots of sharp points dangling down from it, a thousand spiked bits of amethyst, royal purple, frosted with white. We were in a cave, but it wasn’t the prison one, and unlike our icy, shared domicile, this one was actually a bit warm. Warmer, I should say. It was cold in here but nothing compared to the icy crush of the prison caves.

  “Where are we?” I mumbled, then shivered. Staring up into the scowling face of an altered version of the Krampus I’d escaped with, his fur cleaned now and much more tan and brown, bits of grey throughout his coat, than the Shnikel of before.

  “Ssssafe,” he said slowly, then scowled harder as if that was the understatement of the millenia. “Sssafe withhh Sssshnikel,” he compromised on.

  It was then I noted we were in fact in another cell, the bars to my left making me want to cringe and then climb up them screaming for help. Farther about the space, my gaze spanned, noting the keys Bels’d had near us, our cell locking us in to protect us from the crowd of Krampus looming near a large cavern opening.

  Safe with him. For sure.

  Starting to count the sets of horns and white furred bodies, I stopped at twenty. “There’s so many of them,” I whispered. Glancing from Shnikel, the Krampus gathered to check out the newbs who’d locked themselves in a cage, and back to Shnikel again, my eyes widened in wonder and a pinch of horror.

  “Saffffe with Shnikel, Loo-me,” Shnikel insisted.

  “Thank you,” I whispered, absently reaching out to pat him.

  Aches and pains came to the fore, my breasts among them. Grimacing, the chill of the floor on my back starting to really seep in, I smiled up at him sheepishly.

  “You, uh, wouldn’t be hungry by any chance, now, would ya?”

  Shnikel’s grin was feral. Leaning in, he shocked the figgy pudding right out of me when he leaned in, cautious of his horns, and rubbed our foreheads in some weird beast friends with benefits head hug. And then he was on to better things, like offering me a sip of piping hot freehanded-pocket-pool-demonstrating man meat and taking a crack at emptying the jugs.

  By the time he’d finished with me and we lay cuddled up on our sides, the beasts at our door literally grunting and growling their dismay we were out of reach as we tended our needs and then screwed like bunnies, were just background noise. I had no idea where things were supposed to go from here, what the hell I was supposed to do next. I promised myself that first night I’d be taking this one day at a time, one thankful moment to be alive and whole, like my miracle neck healing and Shnikel’s much easier going demeanor, and hope for the best.

  Chapter 12

  The best I could hope for, watching Shnikel fight off yet another Krampus for the meat from the beast he’d killed and dragged here, some kind of caramel corn reeking giant of an ox looking creature with horns on its head like a triceratops, spikes down its spine like a stegosaurus, and a thick, fluffy, cream and mustardy colored coat like someone had just murdered a pack of shaggy-haired baby seals. Snuggled up in the first pelt he’d cured and brought to me, using all kinds of the animal’s bodily fluids and a few of his own and we weren’t going to talk about it, I knew he was doing all he did for me.

  Tossing a hank of cooked meat my way, snarling viciously with pride when I caught it and held it up to show him, he wrestled the pelt free and gave up the rest as yet another loss.

  Female Krampus began to crowd him as he strode toward me, hissing and flicking their long tongues, trying to rub up on him enticingly. She devil beast ladies were hoochies. By the time he reached me, he’d thrown several off of him, and had to snarl threateningly at the lot to get them to back off.

  Opening the door to the cage, letting him in to quickly lock it behind him, I dutifully handed the keys off to him. The second he set down his burden, taking the meat from me to toss it on the coals in our little space, he was scooping me up to nuzzle his forehead along mine. My lips found his and he groaned.

  His teeth were sharp but not as sharp as they had been, just a few of his teeth before and after his canines sporting points. His horns had fat new points like he was getting back to his old Elkfen self. I’d never tell him, but the more he became his old self, the more I worried how well he’d be able to fend off the more vicious, adamant anti-Christmas-y beasties we shared space with.

  “Almost didn’t get it this time,” he muttered, a worried frown marring his tan eyebrow fuzz covered dark brown brow. Shnikel was speaking full sentences, his voice deep but not gruffly so like before, and while he was large, strapping and muscular, going back to his Elkfen self he’d lost that edge the Krampus side of him had loaned him.

  At the look on my face, he smiled and pecked a kiss to my lips. “Don’t look so worried. It’ll be fine.”

  But would it?

  He’d also discovered in a fun twist of events he no longer possessed the ability to keep me warm as he once had, ahem, by certain means. It was a trait that solely belonged to a Krampus. The thick pelts I huddled up in helped but it just wasn’t the same. Days had passed since that first night. So many I’d lost count. A month or two at least. There was a strange buzz about the caves today. Something was off.

  There were other beasts among the Krampus mountain dwellers, large, Abominable looking Yeti types. Insanely tall and built like a brick wall, wide shoulders, long arms, thick trunks for thighs, covered in a fluffy mass of white fur, with fat tusks jutting from their lower jaws, I’d only seen a glimpse of one myself, though from the sounds of it there were others. They tended to keep to themselves and allowed the Krampus to share prime real estate with them so long as they kept to their designated area. Shnikel had run into more than I cared to think about but insisted that despite the thing they did with their mouths—some thing they did with their faces to warn off others that Shnik let slip before he’d realized I had no clue what he was talking about, and now he wouldn't tell me, like he didn’t want to frighten me—and how they might look, they were mostly harmless. Their roars were distinct from a Krampus’, loud and bellowing, like a long blasting horn. That howling bellow was deep to a Krampus’ rasping warning growls and chest vibrating snarl.

  A Baumbel, as the Krampus called them, you felt their anger from across the cavern. Cave walls shook.

  Had one of them g
one postal and killed a Krampus and now they were all on edge? Even Shnikel, who wasn’t prone to fits of anxiety, was looking anxious.

  “What’s going on?” I asked.

  “You remember that pit I dug?” he asked, glancing over in the secret compartment’s direction.

  “Yeah,” I said slowly, a curious look overcoming my face.

  “Well, I dug another one just in case, and found an entrance to one of Hinter’s old underground tunnelways.” Another look at the secret compartment. “I think I have a plan, but I’ll need some time. There are some things that need to be done first…” His ear cocked and he jerked his head towards the tunnelway that led to the main cave mouth. There were several mountain cave exits but the largest one was used the most and the easiest to navigate back from. “About that compartment,” he whispered, right as a loud thudding sounded and a mess of fruit began shooting into the room.

  I watched as fruit after fruit pelted the room, until there was a pile of them.

  Curling his hand around my mouth, mouthing for me to keep quiet, he crept to the compartment he’d dug, lifting the snow dusted top, and dropped me down inside it to jump in after me. Scooping up handfuls of loose gravel, grit, and snow that was blown in over the lid, sliding the top firmly shut, he motioned for me to go down to the farthest end of the tunnel, until the crystal bits embedded in the dirt walls of the crawling room only space this far down grew dark.

  Turning back to realize Shnikel was still near the lid, staring up at something from the gap spilling light in with a tense look on his face, I quietly scooted back down the way towards him.

  It sounded like a frenzy out there, snarling and snapping, chomping and crunching as the fruits, mostly apples with a few plums mixed in, were all gobbled up. And then, as fast as it had all started, there were heavy thuds and then nothing.

  Glancing down the tunnelway to find me a few feet from him, Shnikel scowled but put a finger to his lips.

  Soon the steady breaths of incapacitated Krampus reached our ears. Minutes passed and I wondered if that was it, and then it was like a parade of quick steps. The staccato of them, sharp clipping clicks, like small footed marching feet, echoed. My ears pricked. Holding my breath, I strained to listen.

  A foot separated us now. Another glance at me and Shnikel gave me an exasperated look. Shaking his head as I gave him a sheepish smile, he turned back to whatever he was watching. A strange, steady snick sound rent the air. Shnikel winced at whatever he was watching. Grimacing, glancing away, he found my gaze once more.

  ‘What’s going on up there?’ I mouthed, but he just shook his head.

  Louder, heavier steps issued, a single pair that fell with loud stomps. Shnikel stiffened. Swallowing thickly, he looked like he was forcing himself to watch as those steps were loud enough I knew the person, being, was in the main cave room we resided in.

  There was the sound of shuffling, like something being dragged, and weird popping noises.

  Shnikel swallowed thickly. He looked ashen, pale even beneath all that fur.

  Our gazes met again and held.

  Ignoring the question in my eyes, he dropped down, motioning for me to go with him further down into the tunnel. Just at the mouth of the point we’d need to duck down for crawling space only, he gathered me up, wrapping my pelt around me tighter, and just held me close.

  Wrapping my arms around him, realizing he was trembling, whatever he’d witnessed shaking him to his core, I pressed a kiss to the middle of his furry chest.

  There, huddled in the dim light from the crystal-like bits, he whispered those three little words that I’d found creeping in on my thoughts more and more of late. Was it too soon? Could it happen that fast? All I knew was, I cared about the male, dearly, and couldn’t imagine myself without him, even if it meant staying in Hinter so we could be together.

  “Love you, too, Shnik,” I whispered back. Tilting my head up, his mouth met mine in a sweet, tender kiss.

  After more time passed, the odd popping noises and dragging sounds ceasing for a tinkling, shuffling sound, and then retreating steps and nothing, he stared at the lid to our hidey-hole with a haunted look. “You trust me, don’t you, Lumi?” he said finally into the silence that followed the odd turn of events.

  “Yes,” I said simply.

  Letting out a deep breath like he’d been holding it, he nodded. Dragging me into his lap, until we were both snuggled up in the pelt around my shoulders, he nuzzled and then pressed a kiss to the top of my head. “Good.”

  Chapter 13

  Maybe it was just me, but Shnikel was being weird today. He’d been off kilter, in fact, since we’d climbed out of the hidden compartment a few weeks back to find the Krampus’ numbers were significantly diminished, at least by half, and a strange layer of sparkling silver stuff, like a glitter confetti, craft herpes tragically gone wrong of epic proportions let loose, had overtaken the place.

  Even now, if I ran my finger along the cave floor, it would come away sparkly.

  Shnikel had been leaving for longer stretches. He was searching, was all he’d tell me. He seemed lost. I left him to it.

  Left in the cell with the keys, only myself and the random curious Krampus come to rattle the cage bars and snarl at me, it wasn’t an ideal situation, but Shnikel kept insisting he was trying to find a way out of here for us. By out of here, I had no idea if he meant safely out of the mountain or Hinter. I didn’t ask because I was afraid to, if I was being perfectly honest. I was too absorbed in trying to get by now to even think about the future.

  Ded had come up a few times in conversation. Shnikel said he’d gone full Krampus but had yet to track down his friend, only to find signs of the places he’d denned down long after he’d left. Ded’d yet to venture this far down the mountain. I couldn't be sure I’d recognize him now either way.

  In the back of my mind, should Shnikel find him, would he ask me to try and help his friend become Elkfen again, return him to his old self? Considering how long Ded had been Krampus, I had a feeling Shnik hadn’t even bothered to ask because it was a lost cause.

  Shnik still wouldn’t talk about what had happened all those nights ago, the brief chaos that had taken over the cavern to disappear just as fast. For weeks after, the Krampus huddled in tight groups, muttering about ‘Claws’. Was there a beast roaming around out there worse than a Baumbel or Krampus? For the sake of being able to fall asleep at night thinking there wasn’t, in the end I felt like I was better off not knowing.

  Shnikel had left early this morning with the very familiar shovel he’d come back with one day. I knew then he’d been back to the main caves. He was either digging yet another backup of stow away compartments or excavating and exploring more of the underground tunnels he’d found. Shnikel helped me fall asleep at night murmuring old tales he was told as a fawn, of worlds connected by portals, civilizations underground. He was certain they weren’t just children’s tales anymore. From what he told me of the hidden underground caverns he’d uncovered, I believed it.

  Was that what he was looking for? A way to a portal? The tales said there was a key involved. He wasn’t sure what kind of key, literal, words spoken, a spell. He’d spoken once of going back to his carriage house to try and see if he could find more information, but had stopped when I’d grown upset. He couldn't just go traipsing up in there with me in tow and I knew he wouldn't for fear of what would become of me.

  I had a very real fear he was planning on leaving me soon to do just that. Stores of dried food surrounded me, fruit cake clumps and meat he’d cured and dried, candies and treats enough to rot my teeth plucked from the wilds, hidden in compartments as well as in cubbies he’d carved out of the walls. It was not lost on me, the irony that I couldn't really eat any of the healthy fruits and vegetables that grew here, most but not all off limits to me, but junk food was perfectly fine. Hinter was a little kid’s dream. I’d die of diabetes if Shnikel wasn’t bringing meat and edible plants and roots back from his adventures.<
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  Shnikel’s love juice held absolutely no sway over how warm I was, and try as he might when I finally agreed to it, he couldn’t persuade a Krampus to come join us in our den. They were opposed to his presence but tried to approach the cell bars and do that snarling purr stuff after he’d left.

  Most disturbing of the changes of late, Shnikel had caught onto this, and was trying to convince me to go to one of the less aggressive ones in offering so I didn’t starve and or freeze to death. Which was insane, because we both knew once I put myself in one of their care, they wouldn't be just handing me right back. There were female Krampus. They were heavily protected, served and were serviced by three to four males, whoever was in her main grouping. Shnikels’ obsession with them, while insightful, had me worrying why he was trying so hard to get me to agree.

  Glancing at him from across the fire crackling loudly later that night, I blurted, “You want to go back. You’re trying to get rid of me.” Snuggling up better in the blankets, my gaze slipped back to the flames. “Tell me I’m wrong so I can stop feeling like the floor is about to drop out from beneath me at any moment.”

  Pulling a piece of meat off the spit, he murmured, “I care for you. I’d do anything for you if it kept you safe.”

  Taking the meat to sit back down, I took a bite of it, feeling ravenous, but waited until I’d finished chewing and swallowing to speak. “You didn’t answer my question.”

  Setting the meat on the spit off to the side, propping it along the cave wall, pausing as he turned, cocking his head to study me, he slowly crawled his way around the fire. Coming up on me from the end of my pelt cocoon, he slowly pulled back the folds as I stuffed the rest of the piece of meat into my hand into my mouth. I chewed as I watched him grab my ankle, urging me to lie back so he could prowl up my length. The silly rumbling noises he made were all for show. The real noise that followed when I swallowed the food in my mouth and laughed, had his Elkfen happy noise erupting from his throat in loud bursts. I called it his moose call, which he hated—he was an Elkfen, part human, part Santa’s reindeer, though he refused to shift in front of me—but it also made him snort out a laugh and smile every time.