Total pages in book: 12
Estimated words: 11248 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 56(@200wpm)___ 45(@250wpm)___ 37(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 11248 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 56(@200wpm)___ 45(@250wpm)___ 37(@300wpm)
“I take it all back.” I unlace my boots and step out of them. Our century-old house didn’t have a garage, of course, so we added one, connecting it to the house by an enclosed breezeway. I’ve owned exactly two cars in my entire life and drove my previous car until it literally couldn’t run anymore. As long as the car gets me where I want to go, I’m good. Lucas, however, has been collecting cars since they were invented. He keeps most of his cars at one of our properties in California, but his favorites are here. “Kristy, Evander, and Ruby will be here shortly,” I tell Lucas. “They’re trying to find someone to cover teaching their classes.”
“Until then,” Lucas starts and gets up, coming over and taking me in his arms. “Let’s do another one of your oddly random Christmas traditions.” This is his way of trying to tell me to take it easy without actually saying it. We both know there’s a chance I’m not human enough to carry this baby to term, and I need to avoid stress while I can.
“They’re not random.”
Lucas raises his eyebrows. “If you say so, my love.”
“I do, and you’ve never made Christmas cookies before.”
“I’ve never made a cookie before.”
I smile, standing on my toes to kiss him, remembering how he had to watch a how-to video just so he could make me toast. “We better get to work. And I might have one more surprise for you.” I wiggle my eyebrows.
“We’re going to make cookies naked?”
“Actually, that’s close. I have a Mrs. Claus apron I was going to wear with nothing underneath.”
“I don’t know if I should find that as hot as I do.” Lucas cups my ass and pushes me against him.
“Let’s find out.”
“Who needs more cocoa?” I ask, dropping one more mini marshmallow in mine.
“No cocoa for me, but I would take another cookie.” Evander looks up from a large leather-bound book. I grab a plate from the kitchen and rejoin the others in the family room. Lucas adds another log to the fire and repositions the fireplace grate. The sun is just now starting to set, and he looks so handsome with the firelight flickering on his face.
Suddenly, tears fill my eyes and I blink them away, annoyed. Stupid hormones.
“You all right, sister?” Evander asks, reaching for a cookie.
“Yeah. Fucking hormones are making me an emotional mess, and I just think it’s really, really sad that Lucas will never eat a Christmas cookie.”
Everyone looks at me, probably thinking I’ve finally lost it.
“The thought of consuming human food is repulsive,” Lucas reminds me. “I’ve made it nearly two-thousand years without having even an inkling of wanting to eat a Christmas cookie. I’ll be just fine.”
“I know.” I sniffle and put the plate on the coffee table next to my cocoa. “I guess you kind of get them second hand.”
“Gross,” Ruby says under her breath. She’s accepted my relationship with a vampire but has made it clear the whole blood-drinking thing isn’t for her. “All right,” she starts. “So far, this is what we know.” She flips her notebook around, showing us what she’s jotted down about the demon. “We have one report of a homeless woman with horns and two victims both killed the same way. And our two victims, Hector Martinez and Kate Weber, have no obvious connections. Hector hasn’t lived in Thorne Hill long.”
“Demons don’t always need connections, just convenience,” Evander says. “Right place-right time or,I supposed, wrong place-wrong time in this case.”
“Yeah,” I agree. “These killings don’t seem to be part of a ritual either.” I sit on the couch next to Kristy and pick up a book to look through. This one is written in German. I quickly discard it to the side and find another in English. Lucas strides over to the window, looking at the sinking sun. He watches it a minute and then strides over.
“I’ll see what I can find out from the police station.” He leans down and kisses me before speeding out of the house. Kristy, Ruby, Evander and I get right back to demon-research. We make good time until Kristy gets an email notification that the last ticket to our store’s A Christmas Carol themed event is sold out. After the slight distraction, we hit the books again, stopping when Lucas comes home.
“I’ve come bearing gifts,” he says, striding over to hand me a police report. “The same blade was used for both victims, and both had traces of sulfur along the incisions. Both victims had bruising on their wrists, consistent with being tied up, yet no bindings were found.”
“Definitely a demon.” I open the folder and spread out crime scene photos. “What is this?” I lean in, looking at a rather gruesome photo of Kate’s body.
“That is another detail not yet released.” Lucas sits next to me. “Kate’s stomach was sewn shut. I’m curious as to how they’ll spin a wild animal working a needing and thread, which is what was used. A sample of the thread was sent out to a lab for analysis, but I can assure you it was wool.”