Page 6 of Silent Nights and Vampire Lights

I didn’t flinch. “He would have killed you. Which would you have preferred?”

She turned to me, those wide eyes swimming with something between disbelief and accusation. “That none of this had happened!”

I let out a low sigh, resting my arm across the back of the seat. “I understand. But leaving him alive wasn’t an option. He’d have come after you again. You know that.”

Her lips parted, but no words came. She swallowed, her gaze dropping to her hands in her lap. “Others will follow.”

“Maybe,” I admitted with a shrug. “But I’m betting he didn’t tell anyone where he found you. He wouldn’t have wanted his bosses to know he failed. For now, we have a head start.”

“You say that so easily,” she murmured, barely audible over the hum of the heater. “How can you… do that? Kill someone like it’s nothing?”

I leaned forward, resting my elbows on my knees. She had no idea. “It’s not nothing. But I’ve been an enforcer, a soldier, for a long time. I keep our kind in line, make sure we don’t overstep with humans—or each other. I don’t like killing, but I’ll do it when there’s no other choice. And tonight, there wasn’t.”

Her silence dragged on, tension crackling in the confined space. Then, quietly, she said, “Thank you. For saving me. Again.”

The corners of my mouth twitched, though I kept my tone flat. “You’re welcome.”

She hesitated, then blurted out, “When you drank from him?—”

“It could have been pleasurable for him or not,” I said, cutting her off. “Doesn’t matter now. I saw enough in his mind to know he wouldn’t have stopped hunting you. That’s why I didn’t wipe his memory—it’s never a guarantee.”

What I didn’t tell her was just how twisted his plans had been. The man was scum, and his death had been a mercy—for both of us.

Holly exhaled, slow and shaky, then straightened in her seat. “Well,” she said, forcing a brittle smile. “We should get backon the road. We’ve wasted enough time already. And the driver chooses the road trip music!”

Gods help me. I hadn’t known she was a walking Christmas jukebox when I’d signed up for this. If I had, I might’ve reconsidered—or ripped the car’s stereo out before we hit the road. But after what had just happened, I bit back my groan and let her have this one.

For an hour, maybe two, I managed. Then the third hour of festive chaos started to chip away at my sanity. Holly sang along to every song—off-key, I might add—and tried to rope me into her merry madness. I rubbed my temples as the grating lisp of “All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth” clawed at my brain. My gums ached in solidarity. Then came “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus.” The nasally whine was so unbearable I considered hurling myself out of the moving vehicle.

“You would think I was torturing you,” Holly quipped, glancing at me with a wicked grin. “What are you, some kind of grinch?”

“Something like that,” I muttered. “These songs are an assault on the senses. Like an icepick to the skull.”

She snorted, rolling her eyes as she maneuvered the car with frustrating ease. “Oh, come on. Imagine you’re a kid, sneaking downstairs to find your mom kissing Santa. That’s magical!”

“What’s magical about your mother cheating on your father?” I shot back.

She threw her hands up in exasperation. “It’s Santa! He’s on the list.”

I raised an eyebrow. “The list?”

“You know, the permissions list every couple has for who they’d, uh…” Her voice trailed off, and she muttered, “Not that I’d know. It’s been so long since I’ve had a relationship or sex, but whatever.”

That last part wasn’t meant for me, but my body reacted anyway. Her scent, her warmth, the pulse fluttering so enticingly beneath her skin—it was all too much. I’d fed recently, but the thought of tasting her, of feeling her blood course through me… It was dangerous. Maddening.

“A permissions list,” I said, seizing on the safer topic. “Never considered one of those. Intriguing.”

She shot me a suspicious look. “Do you have a Mrs. Impaler or something?”

“My name is Frost,” I corrected, “and no, I do not.”

“Then why would you need a list?”

I smirked, but before I could answer, she turned off the highway and onto a narrow back road. The sudden shift jarred me. “Why are we not on the highway?”

She avoided my gaze. “Thought someone was following us. Took a detour.”

I gestured to the bumper-to-bumper traffic ahead. “Brilliant plan.”

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