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I nodded. “A trap, and Krampus is caught in a demon’s circle.”
“You four leave. I’ll find Santa.” Tatum took the lead, and I held Britta close to my side while Leven and Jax stood tall on either side of us like sentinels.
But the moment Tatum backed toward us, panic jolted through me. I shoved Britta behind me, and her whimpers tore at my heart.
The three men joined forces, but a repetitive tapping noise echoed out in the cave, a sound like dozens of tiny feet. When a beaver turned into the cave, hissing, its teeth exposed, a cry bubbled on my throat. The animals were back.Fuck!
I drove Britta to a back corner as an ocean of the furry monsters scampered into the cave, attacking the men who fended them off, standing like a wall between us and them. I picked up the pail as a beaver wriggled between Leven’s legs and scurried toward us.
Britta screamed, and I whacked the pail across the animals’ head, sending it reeling sideways, the snowballs falling out.
The men kept inching backward, and only then did I notice that Krampus stood in the opening to the cave, still wearing the red hat.
Fuck!I shook all over, terrified of the way his clawed fingers flexed, how he grinned at me and licked his lips.
My spell hadn’t lasted long enough.
The candlelight threw shadows across the room, disfiguring his face, and I quivered, holding Britta so tightly, she tried to pull her hand free.
But I couldn’t let her go. Not now or ever again.
I’d almost lost her once. My baby sister—she was mine to protect.
The goat-like man strode inside while so many beavers swarmed my men, bringing them to their knees.
I whimpered. “Please, don’t.”
But the monster didn’t stop his march. He snatched my hair and yanked me. I yelled, stumbling after him, losing my grip on Britta. With a wide swing of his other hand, he struck Britta, sending her tumbling to the ground. Her cries burst like a dam. The sounds of the men’s grunts, the beavers’ barking sounds faded in the roar of my speeding pulse. My scalp burned from where he pulled my hair, but none of that mattered.
He was going to kill all of us.
“Let me go!” I yelled, beating a fist into his arm.
He seized my neck and squeezed, lifting me off my feet. “When I finish with you, I’ll destroy everyone else close to you,” he spat in my face.
I kicked and gripped his fingers, trying to pry them free, wheezing for breath. Not caring if he was the lord of shit. I had to escape.
Nothing scared me more than dying right this moment. Not even during the times Dad had beaten me until I’d fallen unconscious. During those days, I’d begged for death to take me. So I’d never wake up again, never face my parents, never be hurt again. But now, I was all Britta had left. And I’d met three men who’d shown me what it could be like to be truly cherished and never be alone again. To be protected and loved. I’d painstakingly yearned for that more than anything.
I kept fighting, writhing in the beast’s grasp. His hand tightened more, my air passageway cut off.
He grinned in my face, mouth parted, teeth stained, and his eyes were the pits of hell. My knife was on the ground, but I had the sleep glitter in my pocket and fished it out. With trembling hands, I pried it open, yet the corners of my eyes darkened. The room tilted around me. My lungs burned from lack of oxygen, and part of me toyed with just letting go. To stop fighting, to give in to the struggle, like I had been my entire life.
But when Britta’s cries echoed in my ears, a new energy surged through me. With my last inch of strength, I lifted the plastic pouch and hurled the contents into his eyes and snarling mouth.
The bastard stumbled, and I fell from his hold. I coughed, gasping for air to fill my lungs. He staggered on the spot, rubbing his eyes.
“What do I do?” I recoiled. The men were bloody and torn up, punching and kicking the monsters. Jax kept Britta protected in a corner as he battled like a wild man, swinging at everything. And my heart went to him, to all of them. I spotted two snowballs in the corner, still intact, but spiked with the birch twigs. And hopefully still soaking in schnapps. Krampus grew weak from the stuff, so this had to work.
I whacked a critter with my foot on my way to pick up the snowballs. I tossed one right into Krampus’s face. He flinched and tottered backward, hissing like a viper.
The beavers stopped barking. They halted as if in a daze. So I threw the next snowball, striking the goat-headed demon directly between the eyes, the birch twigs leaving a scorching hot poker mark on his skin where it touched him.
He hollered in pain and dropped to his knees, his shoulders sagging. The animals scrambled out of the room, leaving us alone with the monster who’d been hunting me.
Tatum was at my side, his cheeks bleeding, his clothes shredded with bitemarks. He seized Krampus’s arm and bent it behind his back, Leven doing the same with the other, and tied them up to his legs with the cords from the hessian sacks. Jax ran from the room in a sudden flash, and I sprinted to Britta and crouched in front of her, hugging her.
She breathed heavily and fast.
