Page 8 of Some Swans Don't Swim
“I’ll go get your bird-sword,” Jacek said, heading back inside.
I pushed myself to my feet, Sawyer’s hand at my elbow since that was a blood-free zone.
Jacek came back with Night’s Fall, and I took it from him and shoved it up into the air with an order to find Krampus. And then the missing kids. Nothing.
“Shit,” I said. “He must be blocking that too.” It wasn’t as though we could knock on all the doors asking if their kid was missing or if there was a stockpile of them inside somewhere. We needed more information, and the one devil to give it to us had disappeared.
Eddie gazed at me, seeming to read my thoughts. “How about you call it a night, Sunshine, and I’ll tell you what I learned about capturing Krampus.”
“Yeah.” Still, the thought of leaving those kids out there somewhere for a whole, freezing night felt like a kick to the ribs. They must’ve been terrified. And bone-deep cold.
We headed inside anyway because there wasn’t much left we could do.
While expertly twirling Night’s Fall, Jacek peered closer at Eddie’s face as we made our way up the sidewalk. “Hey, you’ve got a little something...” He brushed his hand over his mouth.
Eddie sighed. “I do not.”
“I do,” I said, raising my hand. “Pretty sure I have goat demon in my mouth.”
Jacek winked. “Then that son of a bitch doesn’t know how lucky he is.”
“Thanks?” I said with a laugh.
He stopped on the porch to let me pass. “It’s where I want to be at all times.”
“Well, maybe that can be arranged, after I clean the goat out of it, I mean.”
“That sounds an awful lot like a promise.” He grinned and swept his hand through the open front door, gesturing me into the house. “Welcome to the slayer’s Christmas haven, also known as someone else’s house.”
And it was quite the haven indeed. It opened up onto a spacious living room with gray stone floors spotted with large, fluffy white rugs. A two-sided fireplace climbed toward the high ceiling, inside of which a warm fire crackled. Cleo lay on one of the white rugs in front of it, belly up, her tongue lolling lazily out.
I snorted. Silly dog.
On the other side of the fireplace was a large, stainless steel kitchen. In the far corner in front of the tall windows facing the street stood the most beautiful Christmas tree I’d ever seen. It smelled of pine and twinkled little white lights that reflected on the intricate, very expensive-looking ornaments. The people who lived here weren’t even in town to enjoy it, which was just bonkers, especially since they’d left piles of carefully wrapped presents underneath it.
The tabletop tree Mom and I had paled in comparison to this one, but... I shut that thought down, or tried to anyway.
Jacek took my free hand and squeezed, seeming to sense the direction of my thoughts.
“Belle,” Sawyer said softly from my other side. “Are you all right?”
I shook my head and forced a swallow, but my voice ended up creaky anyway. “Sorry, Christmas is kind of hard if I let myself think about it.”
“There’s no reason to be sorry.” Eddie appeared in front of me with a kitchen towel and dabbed the blood from my face, along with a few tears that sprang from happy memories from too far in the past.
I studied the kindness on his face to help anchor me here, with my loves, instead of reliving Mom’s excitement when she announced it was time to decorate, which was usually the day after Halloween, aka my birthday.
When I thought I could speak again semi-normally, I said, “I can’t imagine going somewhere that tree isn’t. What was this family thinking?”
Eddie nodded, folding up the bloody towel. “It is strange. I really hope they don’t come back tonight though.”
“Maybe that’s where Beelzebub went. To be sure,” Jacek said.
“No, he left mid-sentence, just poof. Gone. Likehewasn’t even expecting it. Maybe he was called back to hell for an emergency meeting to see if 666 really meant 999 this whole time.”
The three of them burst into laughter.
Hearing them was like a hug for my soul, and I couldn’t help but join in. “What an embarrassment that would be, huh?”
