Page 12 of His Winter Wonderland

The skin thief snarled, revealing his sharp teeth. His red gaze burned brighter.

“Don’t do that,” Winter told him. “If you get angry, your eyes will get brighter and your nipples will no longer match your eyes.”

“Shut up, witch!”

“Now, that’s just rude. Has no one ever told you it’s not polite to yell?” She knew she was irritating him. She was doing it on purpose.

“I was going to make this quick, but…”

“I’d rather have it drawn out,” Winter interrupted. “It’s been a while since I’ve had some good exercise.” Her extracurricular activities in dreamland didn’t count.

Cocking his head to the side, the thief frowned. “What?”

“I don’t want this to end quickly. Let’s try to go for at least thirty minutes.” Winter stared him up and down. “Then again, I don’t think you’ll last that long. Let’s shoot for ten. You should be able to handle ten minutes with me. I’ll take it easy on you. No magic. Just these hands.”

“You bitch. I will…”

“Creatures here really enjoy using the word bitch when they talk to me. I’ve recently learned what that term actually means. I was getting called that so much that I thought it was a compliment. Turns out, it’s not. Do I look like a dog to you?” Winter shook her head as her inner leopard purred in disapproval of being referred to as a dog.

“No, I don’t look like a dog,” Winter continued when the thief didn’t respond to her question. “I should be the one calling you a bitch. You know, considering the way you look at all.” Her words only made the beast angrier.

“I only wanted your skin. Now, I want that sassy tongue of yours too.”

“Do you? Okay. Come take it.” Winter stuck her tongue out.

The creature released its claws. They pierced through the stolen skin covering his frame, causing the skin around his knuckles to tear. Blood dripped from the flesh as his true skin started to show. From what she could see of it, it was grotesque. Scales covered his hand and the space between his fingers were webbed.

Because of that webbing, for a long time, she’d thought his kind had evolved into some type of aquatic creatures. Later, she saw a horde of them fall through cracked ice and realized they couldn’t swim at all. Though her aquatic theory was wrong, she did later find out that skin thieves did have aquatic connections.

The day that she saw them drowning, she tried to help the bastards. Being a good Samaritan was supposed to bring you good luck. At the time, she’d been willing to try almost anything to get rid of her nightmares. Truth was, being a good Samaritan didn’t bring you good luck at all. But it could get you killed.

Though she’d been trying to save the creatures, a sting in her neck let her know that they were trying to steal her flesh. Even as they were drowning, dying, they remained true to their nature. In the face of imminent death, they’d rather kill than receive help. For her, that was the true definition of evil.

That, or either their mind couldn’t comprehend anything other than killing. Either way, the events of that day were the reason why she couldn’t leave here without killing the skin thief before her. He wouldn’t let her. He’d fight until she had no choice but to end him. As more of the stolen flesh peeled away from the creature, the foul odor his kind were known for filled the air.

“I’ll be taking your skin now, witch.”

Damn, he stinks. Responding to him would require her opening her mouth. Opening her mouth meant she’d have to stop holding her breath. Stopping holding her breath meant she’d have to breathe in his stench. Not today.

Instead of talking, she simply nodded and motioned for him to bring it on. Her act only angered him further. With a roar, he rushed forward. His roar caused his stolen lips to peel back, revealing his own thin cracked lips. The marking on Winter’s neck tingled.

“Calm down, buddy,” she told her partner in crime who was begging to be released. “I can handle this guy on my own.”

Though her beast lowered its head and resigned to let her handle this, she knew why War was eager to step in between her and the skin thief. If this creature pierced her neck with one of its long claws, it could paralyze her within three minutes. And if she wasn’t able to get away from him before her entire body went numb, it would brutally kill her.

Then it would carry her back to its den and proceed to meticulously remove her skin from her body. Neither her nor her beast wanted that. Winter wasn’t going to let it happen. As the skin thief neared her, she crouched low and flexed her fingers. Her nails elongated, sharpening, turning into claws.

The beast’s eyes jerked to her hands. Winter smiled. Yeah, my claws are sharper than yours, she thought. The skin thief’s gaze returned to hers. He wasn’t going to back down. Typical of his kind. After their long back and forth, she now had about ten minutes to spare for a fight. It was best to get this over and done with quickly.

Plus, holding her breath was becoming harder. She desperately needed to exhale and inhale again. She would have to risk breathing in the stench of her opponent. Just as he reached her, she exhaled and took another deep breath. Fuck! What did she do that for? The stench was so strong she actually started to cough.

Stumbling back, she barely dodged the thief’s claws that were aimed at her throat. The mark on her neck heated up. “Don’t do it,” she ordered her beast. “Don’t come out. I got this. It’s just, when I inhaled, his scent got in my mouth. I could taste the smell. Ugh. It made me want to vomit.”

The mark at her throat cooled. But the demon spirit inside of her heated up.

“All you do lately is whine,” the demon told her. “Shut up and kill.”

Ignoring the demon like she normally did, Winter dodged another attack. She was too slow. He struck out with his foot, kicking her in her stomach and knocking the wind from her. She landed on her ass in the snow. Her mark heated again. “Don’t worry. I’m done playing with him. No one knocks me on my ass and lives.”