What the Sleigh? (7 page)

“Mama! Look, she likes me!” she gasped, reaching out further to stroke Rudi’s fur.

“It looks like it, darling,” the mother replied. “Be gentle and don’t hurt her. She’s so pretty, isn’t she? I bet this is one of the very reindeer who pull Santa’s sleigh every year.”

You’re closer than you realize, lady.

Rudi moved closer, letting the child’s hand move tentatively over her fur until they reached her antlers.

“Ho Ho Ho! I hear there are some children here who have been waiting for me?”

Nick’s voice cut through the air and Rudi stiffened a little. The magic of Christmas swirled thick around the grotto, making it difficult to breathe as a pang of homesickness so complete hit her, she almost staggered. Thankfully, with Santa now on the scene, most of the children were more interested in him than her so her little movement went unnoticed.

“Bye bye, pretty deer.” The little girl leaned in, kissed her hand and patted Rudi’s nose. “I’ll make sure to leave you an extra carrot...” She grimaced, as though she couldn’t imagine anyone, even a reindeer, liking carrots. “Unless you’d rather have chocolate?”

Now you’re talking, sister.

Although she wasn’t supposed to, Rudi turned her head slightly to the side and winked at the girl. She gasped, her eyes wide, then grinned. When her mother pulled her away to see ‘Santa’ she gave Rudi a shy wave over her shoulder.

Rudi couldn’t return the wave, but the little gesture warmed her heart through. Turning, she shook her head again to make the bells on her harness jingle, delighting the children in the queue as they waited to meet Nick…err, Santa. Whatever.

While Darrick and his men kept an eye on the surroundings, her position was the ideal location to study the queue. She’d read the file the local police had sent over; they suspected the gang posed as visitors, then ‘unmasked’ themselves just before the critical moment.

In each of the previous attacks, the security cameras had all gone on the fritz at the critical moment, and forensics had ruled out any cyber-hacking of the system. Said it was more like the cameras had all broken at the same time. Rudi didn’t believe that for a moment, and neither did the technical department at the agency. Instead, they said it was far more likely the gang had a spell-slinger among them.

Settling into a relaxed stance, she gave her best ‘bored reindeer’ impression and watched the queue. They ranged from the glammed-up moms with perfect hair and nails, through to nannies, and into working moms and dads, all with excited kids in tow. She watched the patterns, seeing the ebb and flow of demographics until, suddenly, she frowned.

Something didn’t add up.

Standing upright, she stamped her back feet. A typical animal type movement but one the team around her knew meant she had a feeling. She didn’t know what it was yet, but she’d long ago learned to trust her instincts.

“Okay, furry girl, whatcha’ got?”
Darrick’s deep voice filtered over the comm, all trace of teasing gone. He could be an asshole most of the time, but when on an operation like this, he was totally professional.

Unable to answer, she looked at the queue. There at the front, fourth in line and then just inside the door… three groups who didn’t match with the rest of the visitors. Sure, their clothes were smart casual and blended in, but their shoes were wrong. Combat boots, heavy duty. Which wouldn’t have been enough to trigger an alarm but for two things… The kids they had with them looked terrified, and when the male fourth in line shifted his arm, she caught sight of the edge of a distinctive tattoo.

Pixies.
Shit
.

Before she could say anything, or sound the alarm, all four men threw open their coats to reveal assault rifles.

“Everyone down!” the guy at the front bellowed, firing a short burst over his head.

Screams filled the air as people panicked. Rudi sneezed as magic filled the air. Not Christmas magic, that she could handle, but other magic… magic that was sharp and abrasive to her heightened senses. A glittering fog arched over their heads, and she could hear Darrick shouting overhead as the armed team’s view was cut off.

“Give us your valuables, and no one gets hurt,” the ringleader, revealed as another pixie when he swept his hat off, shouted. “Resist and the kids get it first.”

Shit. That was why they were so effective. Rudi had to admit, they were slick and ruthless. Three of the men kept their weapons over the visitors, the fourth covering Nick and the werewolf elves, as the three kids with them collected watches, jewelry and wallets. Given the sort of clientele the mall attracted and the admission price for the grotto, they’d make a killing.

“No! You’re not having my mama’s things!” A shrill voice broke the silence. Rudi’s head snapped around. It was the little girl who’d waved at her. In a show of defiance, she was fighting off the boy who had hold of her mother’s purse, determination on her little face.

Fear ran a cold torrent down Rudi’s back as the nearest pixie turned, the muzzle of the rifle arcing toward the child and her mother. Rage burst through her, burning the fear out of her system as she exploded into movement. Gathering all her strength, she charged out of the pen, shattering the fence as she ran down the pixie about to shoot.

“Rudi!
NO!”
Nick roared, but it was too late.

Although average in height and weight as a human, as a reindeer Rudi had been one of the largest females at the Pole. So over three hundred and fifty pounds of pissed off reindeer thundered across the fake snow. Bullets from the other pixies peppered the air around her. Ignoring them, she dropped her head to bring her antlers down into the attack position.

The pixie turned, eyes wide and tried to swing around, but it was too late. She drove her antlers, as sharp as swords, up and into his stomach, picking him up and flinging him away from the girl and her mother. Spinning on her hooves, she bellowed a challenge to the downed man.

He had rolled to the side. Even though his stomach was gored, blood dripping scarlet onto the white floor beneath, his face was set in a snarl as he lifted the rifle. Each second moved slower than the next as the muzzle swung around. Rudi didn’t think. She just turned and dropped to the floor in front of the pair, protecting them with her bigger body.

Bullets slammed into her side, the pain indescribable as they sliced through fur and skin, then further. She lost count of how many as the scent of blood exploded on the air. Her blood, she realized, feeling strangely disconnected from the world around her.

Turning her head, she watched one of the wolves tear the pixie's throat out. Behind him, Darrick and the rest of the team swarmed through the door, weapons at the ready to take down the rest of the gang.

Satisfaction filled her. They’d done it. They’d caught the Grotto Gang and no humans had been harmed.

A wave of tiredness hit her and she couldn’t hold her head up anymore. She stretched her neck out, antlers clunking against the floor as she lay full length. Small hands wrapped around her throat. Opening her eyes, she realized the little girl she’d been protecting lay next to her.

“Shhh, mama’s gone to get help. You’ll be okay,” she whispered, tears in her eyes as she stroked Rudi’s fur. “I had a really bad cut on my knee and she made it all better. She’ll make it all better. I promise.”

Rudi managed a small chuff, moving her head to nuzzle the girl’s hand. It wouldn’t be okay; she’d known that as soon as she’d felt the ability to change drain away with her blood. If a shifter got too tired or injured, they needed to shift. If they couldn’t then the end wasn’t far away.

A sense of calm settled over her. She was dying. She was okay with that. She didn’t regret charging down the pixie and saving two lives even at the expense of her own. She was a bodyguard, it was what she did, who she was.

The only thing she regretted was not telling Nick… she still loved him. She’d never stopped loving him, even though he loved another. Sighing, she accepted it as part of her reality, for all of the seconds of life she had left.

Drawing the remainder of the Christmas magic she had left, she wrapped it in that single thought and let go…

Chapter Six

The attack, when it came, was like nothing Nick had ever experienced.

Sure, life as a Santa wasn’t without its hairy situations. Like last year when his deer team, led by a young buck, had overshot on a roof and he’d ended up dangling upside down with his sled wedged between two tenement buildings. Only his lap belt, a new-fangled safety device fitted by the health and safety department the month before, had stopped him taking an undignified nosedive onto the asphalt below.

Then there were the adverse weather conditions. Snow, sleet, hail, thunderstorms and torrential rain, Santa
always
delivered. Thanks to the generally high location of rooftops, and the fact Christmas magic acted as an impressive lightning conductor, more than a few of the Claus brethren came back from their run looking like they’d stuck their fingers in an electrical socket. Not a good look. Eyebrows took months to grow back…

But this… the mayhem, chaos and fear when the Grotto gang hit, was totally outside his realm of experience. He hadn’t even realized something was wrong, all his attention on the child, a young boy, sitting next to him. Then there were shouts and Rudi had charged out of the reindeer pen, shattering the fence to gore a pixie about to shoot a mother and her child.

Time had stopped for Nick as he watched the deer…woman…he loved face down an armed criminal with nothing more than her antlers and fur to protect her. His heart had swelled at her courage, but his brain hadn’t, the warning bursting from his lips without conscious thought.

Horrified but unable to look away, he’d watched the injured pixie raise his gun…then the nymph, a dryad, had thrown up a wooden wall, separating them and the group of kids around them from the gunmen and their bullets.

“Shitshitshit!”

Jumping up, he slammed into the wall, the sound of gunfire searing him to his soul. Rudi was on the other side and she was in danger. Gathering all the Christmas magic around him, he hit the wood with it but, rooted in the very floor, the thing didn’t move.

“Take it down!” he demanded, looking from side to side in desperation, but it stretched from wall to wall and higher in the air than he could reach. He tried, jumping up. If he could just catch the edge, he could haul himself over.

“I
can’t!”
The dryad shot back, her face pale. Every so often she flinched. Frowning, Nick realized each flinch coincided with something slamming into the other side of the wood.

Bullets.

Crap
… she was keeping them all alive, but it obviously cost her to do so.

“Right,” he strode forward, his voice a full-on Santa boom. “Everyone into the back.”

The parents and children behind the protective wall tentatively rose from their crouches and edged toward the door to the backstage area. His lip curled back as he noticed Ginger scuttling behind them. Behind, not in front like Rudi would have been. The difference between the two women couldn’t have been more apparent.

Nick nodded to the dryad as he ushered them all through. At least this way she didn’t need to worry if her shield wall failed.

“Come on,” he urged, holding out his hand when the area was empty apart from the two of them.

She shook her head, sweat streaming down her face as her fragile body shook with effort. “Can’t. Need a line of sight to the shield.”

Realization hit him. She needed to stay to keep the shield between them and the gunmen up, even though she was getting weaker by the second. And if it failed, she’d be the first in the firing line.

“Okay.” He didn’t say anything else. Instead, he stepped in front of her. She could still see the wall but if it failed, then she was protected behind his Santa-enhanced bulk. “Hang in there, you can do this. I believe in you.”

She flicked a quick glance at him and smiled. “Aren’t I supposed to be the one saying that? You’re…well, Santa.”

“Belief goes both ways…” he paused for a moment and reached inside himself. A list scrolled up in his mind’s eye, the names whizzing past too quickly for him to read until they slowed down and focused on one. Her name. “Aspen. I see you’ve been a good girl this year.”

Pleasure filled her eyes, but trembles overtook her entire body. Alarmed, Nick reached out just as she collapsed, scooping her up and preparing to run for it when the air around him filled with bullets. How the hell did Rudi do this all the time? His nerves would be shot within a week.

The wall behind them fell with a loud crack, shattering and disappearing as though it had never existed. He tensed, but there was no gunfire. Turning, he looked out over the grotto.

The armed team had swarmed in, Darrick shouting orders as the gang members were held at gunpoint. The pixie agent looked around, concern written on his sharp features, and his skin paled as his gaze latched onto a slumped furry figure to one side.

Nick staggered back as his brain made sense of what he saw. Fur and blood. Blood. So much blood. His heart thumped in his ears.

“Oh god,
Rudi!”

All but dumping the dryad woman on the chair he’d recently vacated, he sped across the space separating him from Rudi. Before he could get there though, Ginger grabbed his arm, stopping him by stepping in front of him.

“Ginger, get the fuck out my way. Or so help me Christmas, you won’t need any help to get back to the Pole,” He snarled, his fear for Rudi invading every cell of his body. She hadn’t shifted. Why hadn’t she shifted?

The elf sniffed, a show of hurt on her easy-to-read features. Nick knew her though. It was all an act. “I don’t know why you bother. She’s just a deer, no better than an animal.”

Darrick, hearing her words, whipped around as Nick glared and loomed over Ginger, invading her personal space in threat. “Oi, Santa. Get her out of my sight before I add another digit to the body count.
No one
talks about Rudi like that.”

A chorus of growls from the werewolves and several members of the armed team proved Darrick wasn’t the only one who felt the same. Ginger glanced around, her cheeks going pale, then she focused on Nick again.