“Where are the dogs?” she asked distractedly, looking behind him for any sign of the team of Huskies that she’d grown to love.
“They are fine, rohi,” he smiled warmly as if pleased by her question and she wanted to kick him in the shins, “some of your friends took them from me outside and promised to feed and water them. I trust they will be cared for.”
Medjed spoke calmly and assuredly as if he knew how much it meant to her that they were safe. Fine. Easy guess, she figured. After all, she was a softy for most animals.
“Yeah, the Elves will take fine care of them,” she exhaled and turned her face so as not to have to meet his unrelenting stare.
Medjed had the most infuriating way of seeing exactly what it was she wanted whenever he looked at her. Of course, mostly what she had wanted was him naked and making love with her. The wonderful bliss that she had experienced in his arms had been better than anything the inexperienced Christmas Elf had ever known.
Jingle balls, she was so screwed. Sure, she’d snagged a kissed or two under the mistletoe after so many hundreds of holiday office parties, but Candy was a hopeless romantic.
She’d saved herself for her one and only. The thing was, her one and only already had a mate. Pain rocked her to her core and she wanted to cry but managed to hold herself together.
That no good toffee-toothed snow blower! Rrrr.
How had she come to love him so completely in so short a time? And he’d lied to her! Completely pulled the wool over her dazzled and gullible gumdrop green eyes! Candy bit her lip and exhaled through her nose..
“Please don’t gnaw your soft lips that way, rohi, you will do yourself injury, and I cannot abide that,” he said, cinnamon scent growing stronger and she gasped, realizing he had somehow moved and was now right in front of her.
“How did he get there?”
“The guy blinked!”
“That is so hot!”
“Check out his assets in those snow pants!”
Her fellow Elves needed to learn to whisper, she thought grumpily. Candy turned to give the two she-Elves nearest her, the ones who were currently checking out his taut bottom in the tight white ski pants, the stink eye.
“Back off,” she growled at them and that earned her a similar sound from Fluffy who was currently nestled in Medjed’s hands.
Their little penguin chick was quite possessive of the Egyptian warrior. Almost as much as Candy was. If only she had the right to be.
She still could not believe it. But it was true, she’d heard it with her own pointy ears! He belonged to another. She was just another flake on his mountain of snow.
“What is going on here? My Elves, why is no one working? We have to get ready, it is almost time,” a large booming voice called out and Candy turned to find herself staring into a pair of twinkling blue eyes.
“Is that him?” Medjed whispered suddenly right next to her, and she slapped a hand over his mouth and nodded.
It really was him. Her boss. The big man himself.
“Santa,” she swallowed down her nervousness and smiled up at the cheerfully corpulent chairman of Christmas himself!
Larger than life in his exquisite red velvet suit with hand-stitched golden thread and pristine white fur trim, Kris Kringle, aka Santa Claus, looked down at Candy and the stranger who was currently trying to push her safely behind him, with an amused expression on his pink-cheeked face.
Of course, his expression changed to startled when a very large, very sharp, curved sword, a khopesh to be exact, appeared directly in front of his nose, held by the stranger who was of course, Medjed, the warrior of Osiris.
“Put that down!” Candy hissed angrily and grabbed Medjed’s unmoving wrist as Santa blinked and backed up slowly with his gloved hands raised high in surrender.
“You are he? The fiendish oppressor of the young? The one who seeks to punish children with your lists and your erred judgement! I know of you San Ta Claws.”
“Son,” swallowed Santa, “the name is Santa Claus. And just who are you?”
“I am the Warrior and Guard of the House of Osiris, the Sword of the Underworld. I am Medjed and I will put an end to your nefarious practices thereby freeing the children of the world from your cruel voyeuristic games,” growled Medjed.
“STOP!” shouted Candy.
“But rohi, I am sworn-”
“You listen to me, Medjed,” Candy said in her best no-nonsense voice, “drop that sword or I swear on everything sparkly and tinsel-y that I will never speak to you again,” she narrowed her eyes and turned swiftly, placing herself between his sharpened khopesh and Santa.
Medjed immediately put the weapon down. Narrowing his eyes, he snapped his fingers and disappeared the thing entirely.
“Candy, please,” he begged, but she was really mad now.
“Now, you two seem to be having an issue,” Santa said and stepped between the arguing couple, “I think I can help. Mrs. Claus does say I have quite the knack for mediation. Now, Candy, and you too, son, why don’t we sit down and take this thing from the top over some hot cocoa and cookies?”
“But Santa, if you don’t leave soon-” Jolly began.
“I have time for this,” Santa said, and beckoned the two angry and confused lovers towards a table that had somehow just appeared.
“Start at the beginning,” Santa said as he poured steaming cocoa into Christmas tree shaped mugs and handed one to each of them.
Candy, being one of his Christmas Elves, felt that she should go first.
“Well, it all started when…”
Chapter 1
Two days ago…
“Candy Margaret Kane come back here!” yelled Mrs. Stripes as Candy rushed out the back door.
But it was no good, the young Christmas Elf had to make a break for it. The North Pole only existed on the Earthly plane for the week leading up to Christmas Eve and she’d already squandered half her time doing the same old chores. She was a helper, not an official title, but as she had yet to choose a specialty that meant she went where she was needed.
Research and development, building toys, wrapping gifts, even fetching cocoa and cookies. She’d once been assigned to product testing, but after the whole tinsel incident of 1889, she’d been asked to not come back there again.
As if it was her fault they’d used flammable oil to separate each string of tinsel! Bunch of snowball sniffers! How was she supposed to know everything would catch fire when she lit the firepit next to where they were testing that and other products on a stand of Christmas trees? Total freak accident.
All those misunderstandings aside, Candy knew that Santa’s Magical Christmas Village was her home, but this was it. Her only chance to escape and discover for herself if her old Granny Elf had been right about her future.
Candy Kane sucked in a deep fortifying breath. The smell of clean snow, hot chocolate, and sugar cookies filled the air. It always reminded her of Granny Elf and she bit back a sob. She missed the old woman fiercely even though she’d been gone for some time now.
As Christmas Elves, her people tended to live extremely long lives as the time space continuum worked differently for them. Her grandmother had finally gone to that workshop in the sky after almost a thousand years of hard work and service to Santa and to Christmas itself, but not before she’d imparted a secret to her favorite granddaughter.