A Fantastic Holiday Season: The Gift of Stories (33 page)

“Shawna told me that the date went okay,” said Bruce. “I didn’t see him, but Shawna said he was handsome—and you guys did an awesome tango.”

There was something funny about Bruce. Kelly had seen it from the first—but he’d done his best to ignore it, figuring it for a light case of autism or just the awkwardness that went with being a teenager. But when Bruce smiled back at him, he recognized it for what it was for the first time. Bruce was pretending to be human, but, like a second-rate actor, he got it just a little wrong.

Kelly forced himself to stay engaged in the immediate task. In response to Bruce’s question, he nodded. “He’s a cool guy. He was upset at what Trace did to me, and very kindly agreed to play along. But it might not have been okay. I’m getting out of the group—grad school means I don’t have time. I guess that’s why I decided to do this. To teach Trace a lesson. There are kids like you in the group and you deserve to be safe from that kind of pointless harassment. You might call it my Christmas present to them. To you.”

“Why pick me?”

Kelly grimace. “That’s easy. Who else could I trust? The people who aren’t panting after Trace are panting after his girlfriend.”

Walking into the dark with a vampire at his back was the scariest thing he’d ever done in his life. The woods got dark pretty fast as they tramped through the snow. His breath steamed out of his mouth in the cold air. He was going to regret having left his jacket in Asil’s car before very long. He hiked about a quarter mile in the darkness until they came to a fence. Far enough, he thought, that the sounds of a fight wouldn’t travel.

“Here,” he said turning around.

“It is very dark,” said Bruce, who was just a shadow in the shadows.

“It’ll do.” Kelly hoped he sounded resolute.

“So while we are waiting for them,” Bruce said, his voice changing just a little, softening into an intimate tone. “I think I have something we might do to pass the time.”

He took two steps closer. Kelly’s back was against the fence and he had nowhere to retreat. Even if he could have, his feet felt oddly heavy and he swayed toward the vampire.

“We have done this once before,” said the vampire. “Shawna is dying—I need another servant. You’d like to be my servant, wouldn’t you? Just say, yes. It would be an early Christmas present for me.”

Kelly forgot to breathe as Bruce’s words threaded through him like a hook laced with happy-thoughts. He just
knew
that belonging to the vampire would be the best thing that ever happened to him, like winning the lottery.

“I like Christmas,” Bruce continued as Kelly took a tentative step forward. “So much misery for humankind as they scuttle around spending more money than they can afford on gifts no one wants or appreciates. Christmas is a time when no one feels that their life is good or worthwhile. Christmas is a fitting remembrance for a gift humans despised so much they hung it on a cross so it wouldn’t bother them anymore. I was a priest once. I know, who’d have thought, right?”

Bruce’s face was revealed for a moment when the clouds opened around the half-full moon and silvery light illuminated their private space. His eyes were focused on something other than Kelly and Kelly remembered, viscerally, the marks that Asil had found on Meg’s neck. The marks that had set Kelly on his task—one he was failing.

“No,” Kelly said, the word dragging out of his throat—but the word broke the vampire’s hold, and he could move again.

Snarling, Bruce whipped his hand out and wrapped it around Kelly’s wrist. Kelly’s response was instinctive, born of fear and six years of training. He twisted his arm until the narrow boney edge of his wrist was at the weakest point of the vampire’s grip and jerked it free.

He didn’t even pause—he ran, crashing blindly through the underbrush and the uneven, snow-covered footing that threatened to trip him at every night-blinded step. And behind him, keeping up easily, the vampire followed.

“Run, yes, run,” the vampire chanted to himself. “You ran the last time, too. I like it when my Christmas presents run.” He laughed, a weird half-hysterical laugh and then said,
“Run, Kelly, run.”

Finally the inevitable happened and Kelly put a foot wrong, crashing to the ground in a tangle of snow, tree-root and bush. He rolled until he could get some leverage for his feet, then crab-walked frantically backward until the solid trunk of a tree hit his back.

The vampire stayed where he was, laughing quietly—not out of breath at all. The only way Kelly could tell it was Bruce was Bruce’s suit, because the creature who wore it had only an incidental resemblance to the human he had aped.

His eyes were either glowing or they caught the light of the moon differently than human eyes did—like the Siamese cat Kelly’s older sister had. Red and shiny, they held him in a hungry grip more sure than the vampire’s hand on his wrist had been. Flesh pulled away from the bones of Bruce’s face until no one looking at him would see anything but a monster. If any doubt about Bruce had lingered (and it had), the fangs both delicate and sharp that Bruce was displaying were an answer.

“Not that I didn’t enjoy that,” the vampire said, “but we need to take care of business before Meg and Trace show up, don’t we? Never fear, Kelly, I won’t let Trace bully me, though it was good of you to be concerned.”

“I wasn’t actually worried about you,” Kelly managed with more bravado than he felt. “I just needed you outside.”

The vampire stilled. “Why is that?”

Sometime while he was running, it had started to snow again and white flakes drifted to the vampire’s shoulders. The snow brought with it the deep feeling of silence that was so much more than just a lack of noise that Kelly had only ever felt on a winter’s night in the woods.

Kelly’s senses told him that they were alone in the silence. He heard nothing, sensed nothing that told him differently. He had only Asil’s word that he was not alone in the night with the vampire. Somewhat to his surprise, it was enough.

Kelly stood up slowly, keeping his back against the tree for support, because he wasn’t sure that his legs would hold him. There was a tear in the knee of his trousers—he’d have to have Meg sew him a new one.

“I do have a Christmas present for you,” he said with more cool than James freakin’ Bond.

The vampire jerked his head to the side as a great shadow emerged from the darkness tucked under a thicket of leafless aspen. Before Bruce could move closer, the werewolf was upon him.

“Merry Christmas,” said Kelly his voice lost in the roar of the attack.

He hadn’t actually seen Asil as a werewolf, apparently it wasn’t as fast as it was in the movies to change from wolf to human. He wished Asil would stand still or that the sun was out so he could get a better look. If he had to describe the werewolf right now, it would be “gold eyes and huge.” Fast and strong and graceful. And very, very huge. The vampire looked like a toy in his jaws—not that the vampire wasn’t fighting back.

He didn’t hear anything—the fight was unexpectedly loud—but his eyes were drawn away from the fight by some instinct. On the other side of the battling monsters, Meg stood with Trace. They were close enough to watch without becoming collateral damage—or so Kelly hoped.

Trace was a big guy, but Meg was three inches taller and a lot meaner. She had a hand on his neck as if she’d dragged him here. Not that Trace was fighting her hold, right at this moment. Like Meg, his attention was all on the battle in front of them.

Somehow, while Kelly had been distracted, the vampire had gotten out of Asil’s jaws. He landed a kick on the werewolf’s side that sent the wolf tumbling like a motorcycle wreck into the trees.

The vampire was a lot stronger than Bruce had looked. Kelly had the thought, as Bruce threw himself on the werewolf, that maybe Kelly hadn’t broken out of his hold earlier. Maybe Bruce had let him go because he
wanted
the hunt.

They moved fast, the monsters who fought. It was like trying to follow the beating of a fly’s wing—and the night’s heavy shadows didn’t help. Kelly blinked his eyes to relieve the eye strain and while he had his eyes closed, it happened.

With a grotesque pop of bone, the vampire’s head popped off—popped freakin’ all the way off and the only monster still moving in the woods was standing on the dead vampire’s body. Kelly couldn’t see colors well in the dark, but the wolf’s muzzle was wet with something dark as he lifted his head to the moon and howled.

“Don’t move,” muttered Meg. “I mean it. Nobody move. Don’t meet his eyes and if you do, go down to your knees and bow your head.”

“Werewolves are supposed to be friendly,” said Trace, trying to jerk out of Meg’s hold.

The werewolf who had been Kelly’s blind date focused his attention on Trace. Asil’s upper lip curled back, exposing fangs that were bigger and more dangerous looking than the fangs of the tiger Kelly had seen yawning in a zoo when he was six. He’d had nightmares after that visit for years.

Trace had the same reaction as Kelly’s six-year-old self. His mouth dropped open and fear pulled his eyes wide in a cartoonish expression. “Holy shit. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”

Meg thumped Trace on the back of his head sending him staggering forward because he wasn’t ready for it at all. He landed in a graceless sprawl not ten feet from the werewolf and almost on top of the vampire’s head. Trace lifted his head and got a face-to-bleeding-amputated-neck view of the vampire, made a squeaky noise, and passed out cold.

Asil moved off the vampire, his body moving in a stiff and jerky caricature of the graceful power of his fight. Yellow eyes grabbed Kelly—and he was sure they were yellow, even in the darkness.

“Kelly,” said Meg urgently.

“He promised he wouldn’t hurt me,” said Kelly, and the wolf’s eyes focused on him. Unbearable pressure dropped Kelly as quickly as Meg’s shove had dropped Trace and he bowed his head.

“We’ll do what we promised,” Kelly told the ground. “We’ll explain to Trace that messing with other people’s dating is dangerous. We’ll explain why knowing about vampires is even more dangerous and that he should keep his mouth shut. We’ll talk to her uncle if there is a problem. We’ll trust you to take care of the body.” He paused. “Thank you for the most interesting date of my life. Much better than I expected when I started out to the restaurant today.”

When he looked up the wolf was gone.

Dear Asil,

There was a body. But after some discussion we decided to give this one to you. We owe you some leeway for missing that Kelly was a boy, not a girl. The body wasn’t your date and no one ran screaming into the night—mostly because the person most likely to do that fainted. Your first date was a success! We’re very proud of you.

Your second date has been arranged, two days from now. We chose the dating site mustlovemycat.com. We did (while pretending to be you) tell her that you did not at this time have a pet cat because after your last one died, you couldn’t bear to replace it.

Be grateful. We had planned on using prettypenpals.com, but organizing a date for you with a woman who could not leave her prison cell was too much trouble, even for us.

Sincerely,

Your Concerned Friends

PS—Merry Christmas

Asil pinched his nose and laughed.

***

About the Authors

Kevin J. Anderson

Kevin J. Anderson has published 120 books, more than fifty of which are national or international bestsellers. He has written numerous novels in the Star Wars, X-Files, and Dune universes, as well as a unique steampunk fantasy novel,
Clockwork Angels
, based on the concept album by legendary rock group Rush. His original works include the Saga of Seven Suns series, the Terra Incognita fantasy trilogy, and his humorous horror series featuring Dan Shamble, Zombie PI. He has edited numerous anthologies, including the Five by Five and Blood Lite series. Anderson and his wife Rebecca Moesta are the publishers of WordFire Press.

Brad R. Torgersen

Brad R. Torgersen is a healthcare computer geek by day, a Chief Warrant Officer in the United States Army Reserve on the weekend, and a science fiction writer at night. His short fiction appears regularly in the pages of
Analog
magazine, where he’s been numerated for several Hugo awards, and has won the
Analog
magazine AnLab readers’ choice award twice. He’s also published in the pages of Mike’s Resnick’s
Galaxy’s Edge
magazine, as well as Orson Scott Card’s
InterGalactic Medicine Show
magazine. Brad’s first short fiction collection,
Lights in the Deep,
was released by WordFire Press in 2013. Brad’s first novel from Baen Books, titled
The Chaplain’s War,
comes out in October 2014.

Kristine Kathryn Rusch

USA Today
bestselling writer Kristine Kathryn Rusch has won or been nominated for almost every major award in four genres. She particularly loves to write Christmas stories. She has three holiday collections,
Five For the Winter Holidays, Santa And Other Christmas Criminals,
and
Silent Night
. Under her paranormal romance pen name, Kristine Grayson, she has a holiday novella series (adding one per season). This year’s is so far unnamed, but last year’s is
Visions of Sugar Plums
. She also edited
Fiction River
’s holiday issue,
Christmas Ghosts
. When she’s not thinking about the holidays, she’s writing the Retrieval Artist series. She will release a book per month in that series in 2015. Then she will turn her attention to her popular fantasy series,
The Fey
. Her Smokey Dalton mystery series, which she writes as Kris Nelscott, is under development for a major motion picture. Somehow, with all of this, she still manages to write short stories which, honestly, are her first love.

Mercedes Lackey

Mercedes Lackey was born in Chicago Illinois on June 24, 1950. The very next day, the Korean War was declared. It is hoped that there is no connection between the two events.

She was raised mostly in the northwestern corner of Indiana, attending grade school and high school in Highland Indiana. She graduated from Purdue University in 1972 with a Bachelor of Science in Biology. This, she soon learned, along with a paper hat and a nametag will qualify you to ask “would you like fries with that?” at a variety of fast-food locations.

In 1985 her first book was published. In 1990 she met artist Larry Dixon at a small Science Fiction convention in Meridian Mississippi, on a television interview organized by the convention. They began working together from that time on, and were married in Las Vegas at the Excalibur chapel by Merlin the Magician (aka the Reverend Duckworth) in 1992.

They moved to their current home, the “second weirdest house in Oklahoma” also in 1992. She has many pet parrots and “the house is never quiet.” She is approaching 100 books in print, and some of her foreign editions can be found in Russian, German, Czech, Polish, French, Italian, Turkish, and Japanese. She is the author, alone or in collaboration, of the Heralds of Valdemar, Elemental Masters, Secret World Chronicles, 500 Kingdoms, Diana Tregarde, Heirs of Alexandria, Obsidian Mountain, Dragon Jouster, Bedlam Bards, Shadow Grail, Dragon Prophecy, Elvenbane, Bardic Voices, SERRAted Edge, Doubled Edge (prequel to SERRAted Edge), and other series and standalone books.

A nightowl by nature, she is generally found at the keyboard between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.

Quincy J. Allen

Quincy J. Allen, is a self-proclaimed cross-genre author. What that really means is that he’s got enough ADD to not stick with any single genre and, like his cooking, prefers to mix and match to suit his appetites of the moment.

He has been published in multiple anthologies, magazines, and one omnibus. He’s written for the Internet show RadioSteam, and his novel
Chemical Burn
—a finalist in the RMFW Colorado Gold Contest—is due out in 2014 in a newly revamped edition from WordFire Press. His new novel
Jake Lasater: Blood Curse
as well as a military sci-fi novel from Twisted Core Press are both due out in 2014, and
Out Through the Attic
, his first short story collection, just hit shelves and browsers across the world. He works part-time as a tech-writer to pay his bills, does book design and eBook conversions for WordFire Press by night, and lives in a lovely house that he considers his very own sanctuary.

He’s an entirely all-too-busy writer taking over the world one fiction at a time.

Nina Kiriki Hoffman

Over the past thirty-odd years, Nina Kiriki Hoffman has sold adult and YA novels and more than 250 short stories. Her works have been finalists for the World Fantasy, Mythopoeic, Sturgeon, Philip K. Dick, and Endeavour awards. Her fiction has won Stoker and Nebula Awards.

A collection of Hoffman’s short stories,
Permeable Borders
, was published in 2012 by Fairwood Press. A young adult Hoffman novel will come out from Viking in 2015.

Nina does production work for the
Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
. She teaches writing through Lane Community College. She lives in Eugene, Oregon.

Jonathan Maberry

Jonathan Maberry is a
NY Times
bestselling author, multiple Bram Stoker Award winner, and freelancer for Marvel Comics. His novels include
Code Zero
,
Rot and Ruin
,
Ghost Road Blues
,
Patient Zero
,
The Wolfman
, and many others. Nonfiction books include
Ultimate Jujutsu
,
The Cryptopedia
,
Zombie CSU
, and others. Several of Jonathan’s novels are in development for movies or TV including
V-Wars
,
Extinction Machine,
Rot & Ruin
and
Dead of Night.
He’s the editor/co‐author of
V-Wars
, a vampire‐themed anthology; and was a featured expert on
The History Channel
special
Zombies: A Living History
. Since 1978 he’s sold more than 1200 magazine feature articles, 3000 columns, two plays, greeting cards, song lyrics, and poetry. His comics include
Captain America: Hail Hydra
,
Bad Blood
,
Marvel Zombies Return
and
Marvel Universe vs. The Avengers
. He lives in Del Mar, California with his wife, Sara Jo and their dog, Rosie. www.jonathanmaberry.com

Ken Scholes

Ken Scholes is the award-winning author of the internationally acclaimed
Psalms of Isaak
series published in the US by Tor. His first novel,
Lamentation
, won the American Library Association’s RUSA Reading List award for best fantasy and France’s Prix Imaginales for best translated fantasy. Ken’s short fiction is collected in two volumes published by Fairwood Press and new stories continue to show up in various magazines and anthologies. Ken is also a winner of the Writers of the Future contest.

With a diverse background that includes a degree in history, years logged as a Baptist preacher, label gun repairman, government procurement analyst and nonprofit executive, Ken now writes full time and makes his home in Saint Helens, OR, with his wife and twin daughters. You can learn more about Ken by visiting www.kenscholes.com.

Heather Graham

New York Times
and
USA Today
best-selling author, Heather Graham, majored in theater arts at the University of South Florida. After a stint of several years in dinner theater, back-up vocals, and bartending, she stayed home after the birth of her third child and began to write. Her first book was with Dell, and since then, she has written over one hundred novels and novellas including category, suspense, historical romance, vampire fiction, time travel, occult and Christmas family fare.

She is pleased to have been published in approximately twenty languages. She has 60 million books in print. She has been honored with awards from Walden Books, B. Dalton, Georgia Romance Writers, Affaire de Coeur, Romantic Times and more. Heather has also become the proud recipient of the Silver Bullet from Thriller Writers. Heather has had books selected for the Doubleday Book Club and the Literary Guild, and has been quoted, interviewed, or featured in such publications as
The Nation, Redbook Mystery Book Club, People and USA Today
and appeared on many newscasts including
Today
,
Entertainment Tonight
and local television.

Heather loves travel and anything that has to do with the water, and is a certified scuba diver. She also loves ballroom dancing. Each year she hosts the Vampire Ball and Dinner theater at the RT convention raising money for the Pediatric AIDS Society and in 2006 she hosted the first Writers for New Orleans Workshop to benefit the stricken gulf region. She is also the founder of “The Slush Pile Players.” presenting something that’s almost like entertainment for various conferences and benefits. Married since high school graduation and the mother of five, her greatest love in life remains her family, but she also believes her career has been an incredible gift, and she is grateful every day to be doing something that she loves so very much for a living.

Sam Knight

As a writer, Sam refuses to be pinned down into a genre and writes whatever grabs his attention, be it steampunk, horror, mystery, science fiction, or children’s books. He frequently speaks at conventions in and near his home state of Colorado, including the Denver and Salt Lake City Comic Cons, where he loves to talk about writing.

As well as being part of the WordFire Press Production Team, he is the Senior Editor for Villainous Press and has a secret project he won’t tell anyone about. He has edited two anthologies and published three children’s books, three short story collections, two novels, and more than a dozen short stories. Sam can be found at SamKnight.com and contacted at [email protected].

Mike Resnick

Mike Resnick is, according to
Locus
, the all-time leading award winner, living or dead, for short science fiction. He has won 5 Hugos (from a record 36 nominations), a Nebula, and other major awards in the USA, France, Japan, Spain, Croatia, Catalonia, and Poland. He is the author of 75 novels, 27 collections, close to 300 stories, and three screenplays, and has edited 41 anthologies. He is the former co-editor of
Jim Baen’s Universe
, and is currently the editor of
Galaxy’s Edge
magazine and the Stellar Guild line of books. Mike was Guest of Honor at the 2012 Worldcon.

David Boop

David Boop is a Denver-based speculative fiction author. In addition to his novels, short stories and children’s books, he’s also an award-winning essayist and screenwriter. His novel, the sci-fi/noir
She Murdered Me with Science
, debuted in 2008. Since then, David has had over thirty short stories published and two-short films produced. He specializes in weird westerns, but has been published in many genres including media tie-ins for Green Hornet and Honey West. 2013 saw the digital release of his first Steampunk children’s book,
The Three Inventors Sneebury,
with a print release due in 2014. David tours the country speaking on writing and publishing at schools, libraries and conventions.

He’s a single dad, returning college student, part-time temp worker and believer. He’s a member of the International Association of Media Tie-in Writer, the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators and the Western Writers of America. His hobbies include film noir, anime, the Blues and Mayan History. You can find out more on his fanpage, www.facebook.com/dboop.updates or Twitter @david_boop.

Eric James Stone

A Nebula Award winner, Hugo Award nominee, and winner in the Writers of the Future Contest, Eric James Stone has had stories published in
Year’s Best SF 15, Analog, Nature,
and Kevin J. Anderson’s
Blood Lite
anthologies of humorous horror, among other venues.

One of Eric’s earliest memories is of seeing an Apollo moon-shot launch on television. That might explain his fascination with space travel. His father’s collection of old science fiction ensured that Eric grew up on a full diet of Asimov, Heinlein and Clarke.

While getting his political science degree at Brigham Young University, Eric took creative writing classes. He wrote several short stories, and even submitted one for publication, but after it was rejected he gave up on creative writing for a decade.

During those years Eric graduated from Baylor Law School, worked on a congressional campaign, and took a job in Washington, DC, with one of those special interest groups politicians always complain that other politicians are influenced by. He quit the political scene in 1999 to work as a web developer in Utah.

In 2002 he started writing fiction again, and in 2003 he attended Orson Scott Card’s Literary Boot Camp. In 2007 Eric got laid off from his day job just in time to go to the Odyssey Writing Workshop. He has since found a new web development job.

In 2009 Eric became an assistant editor for
Intergalactic Medicine Show.

Eric lives in Utah with his wife, Darci, a high school physics teacher. His website is www.ericjamesstone.com.

Patricia Briggs

Patricia Briggs is the #1
New York Times
best-selling author of the Mercy Thompson series and has written twenty one novels to date; she is currently writing novel number twenty two! Patty began her career writing traditional fantasy novels in 1993, and shifted gears in 2006 to write urban fantasy.
Moon Called
was the first of her signature series about Mercy Thompson. The non-stop adventure left readers wanting more and word of this exciting new urban fantasy series about a shape-shifting mechanic spread quickly. The series has continued to grow in popularity with the release of each book. Patty also writes the Alpha and Omega series, which are set in the same world as the Mercy Thompson novels; what began as a novella expanded into a full new series, all of which debuted on the
NY Times
bestsellers list as well.