Unwrapping Mr. Roth (14 page)

“What if I could get you someone to take a look at your heating system?” Simone asked.

“You know of such a person?”

“Possibly. One of the guys in Heath’s crew is very handy. He’s got a good brain for machines, and of course, being a fairy, he knows a little something about magic.”

“You would spare him for the job?”

“Hey, the guys can come and go as they please. If he wants to volunteer, no one’s going to stop him. You just have to promise to take care of him while he’s here.”

“We will certainly try our hardest to see that no harm comes to him. Allowing him to be harassed would be such a terrible way to repay a boon.”

“I’ll talk to Gareth when we get back to the motel, then.”

Kori crinkled her nose again. “Motel?”

Dasha chuckled and set her empty glass on the table. “Long story short, Simone owns and lives at a beach motel. It’s swarmed by fairies.”

“At the
beach
?”

“Uh-huh.”

“I bet the beach is warm this time of year.” Kori cut her grandmother the side-eye, but Eldora seemed blissfully oblivious.

“If you’re going to do us such a favor, we should certainly try to do one for you. We’ll do what we can to help you find new homes for your people. You could send some to us if you think they’ll be able to stand the climate.”

“Thank you. I think many would stand the cold just fine. Some were born in northern climes, so the idea of snow doesn’t intimidate them. If you give me a number of how many you’d be able to take, we’ll figure out who’s best suited.”

Eldora clasped her hands. “Splendid. I’ll discuss the agreement with Nicholas when he comes home.”

“We could use a fresh infusion of DNA around here, too,” Kori muttered.

Eldora sighed.

“There’s just…one teensy problem.” Simone held her thumb and index finger a millimeter apart to illustrate the size of the said problem. “As you might know, Heath doesn’t have easy travel through the realm at the moment because there’s a bounty out on him, and…hell. Most of us, at last check, were wanted for questioning and worse things. We might be able to get out a handful of folks here and there when Rhiannon’s got her back turned, but we might be cutting the relocation stuff close. You might have a big surge of refugees on your hands, and I don’t want our friendship to strain at the stress.”

“Don’t worry. We’ll be ready. We have a very good staff here and I’m certain Gillian will get them shipshape in short order.”

“Well, good. I feel like we’ve accomplished something today. Surprising that any referral of Hestia’s ended productively. She’s generally so coy.”

Eldora rolled her shoulders in an elegant shrug. “She likely has to be, given the company she keeps. Will you stay for dinner?”

“Mm.” Simone chugged down the rest of her whiskey and got to the feet. “Sorry. We can’t. My mother tossed the portal for me and it has a looming expiration. All the short ones go away quickly. The portal will collapse soon, and we don’t want to be in the middle when that happens.”

“What would happen?” Dasha asked, fear tingeing her tone.
Gonna have a talk with this chick later about holding out on me.

Simone gave her a placating pat on the shoulder. “Let’s not find out, okay? Can’t be anything good.”

“Geez.”

Kori scrambled to her feet and followed them to the door with Eldora on her heels. “I’ll walk you down. A couple of our guards are standing around the portal and scratching their heads.”

“Elves don’t use portal tunnels?”

“Nah. We don’t have anyone who can make them. If we want to get around fast, we can teleport, but there are only a handful of folks who can do that without magic objects. Uncle Nick is one of them, but there’s a limit to how many times he’ll use the energy in a day.”

“Same with me and making portals,” Simone said. “I only have so much energy to draw on. The more I have, the better and shorter my tunnels are and the longer they last. My grandfather is much better at making tunnels that last. Magic strengthens with age.”

“Won’t you give Fergus my regards?” Eldora asked.

“Of course. As soon as I see him.”

They took leave of Eldora, and as she’d stated, Kori led Simone and Dasha down to the ground floor and through the drafty front hall.

“So…” Kori drawled out. “You’re gonna send us a guy?”

“A heat guy. Yep.”

“’Kay. So…when do you think that’s going to happen?”

“As soon as I run the plan past Heath.”

“Cool. And, uh…you’ll just send him by tunnel?”

“That’s the plan.”

“Great. So…” Kori waved a hand at the pair of guards blocking the front door. They got out of the way, mumbling their apologies.

Dasha laughed, and when they were out of earshot of the guards, she said to Kori, “Come on. Spit it out.”

“Ugh. Fine.” Kori stopped on the stone path, put her hands on her hips, and spun around to face them. “What are the chances of you hosting a couple of frozen elven nymphs for the tiniest of beach vacations?”

“Well, you just asked, so I can’t tell you no,” Simone said with a shrug.

“Huh?”

“Ignore her.” Dasha got them moving toward the tunnel again. Maybe she wasn’t going to get frostbite anytime soon, but her nipples were hard enough to cut glass. “Just let us know when you’re ready, and we’ll figure out how to get you there.”

“Yay! I can’t wait. If I could just go three days without wearing fur-lined boots, I’ll be happy.”

“Poor baby.”

“I know, right?”

Dasha and Simone stepped into the tunnel and waved goodbye as the portal closed behind them.

Then they hauled ass.

Simone was right. Dasha
didn’t
want to find out what would happen to them if they were still inside that thing when it collapsed.

I’m way too young to die.

Knight in Leather
is available now.

UNWRAPPING MR. ROTH

Copyright © 2015 by Holley Trent

The first edition of this story was titled
Mrs. Roth’s Merry Christmas
and was issued by Musa Publishing in 2012. This revised second edition was published in November 2015 in the
Naughty, Nice, and Paranormal
anthology. This re-released version is almost identical to the anthology inclusion.

Excerpt
KNIGHT IN LEATHER
© 2016 by Holley Trent

Cover art © Fiona Jayde Media

All rights reserved. Reproduction of any part of this book in any format, except for reviewing purposes, is allowed only with prior consent of the author.

UNWRAPPING MR ROTH
is a work of fiction. Names, places, entities, and scenarios in this book are products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously.