Page 18 of I Saw Krampus Kissing Ms Claus

“I don’t think you took anything, Jack. We just wanted to ask—”

Jack waves his hand dismissively through the air. “I did not take anything from you. Your Christmas is not important and I do not care about your silly Christmas Cheer.”

“Nikki is part of Christmas. We both are,” Krampus says.

Jack’s eyes trace up and down my body with a sly grin. “Maybe she does not care about your Christmas as much as she says?”

Krampus bristles. “I think I know what she cares about.”

I roll my eyes and move between them. “I knew this was a mistake. I thought you could be civil for one moment.”

“Civil? When you come to accuse me of thievery? Why do you even bother with this Cheer?”

“The Christmas Cheer is important,” I insist. “It comes from all the people who celebrate it. Santa needs it to power his sled, without it there’s no Christmas.”

Jack sighs. “This is the problem with Christmas, yes? That you need all this work to make it happen. You do so much for so little.”

“It isn’t little.” Krampus mutters beside me.

“This is my domain demon. Everything here is little compared to me. To winter. Your holiday is nothing. Your work is nothing. My power is all around you. Every time someone stops to watch the snow fall, or wonders at the pattern of ice along their windows, or admires a special snowflake caught in their lover’s eyes. Every time someone marvels at my creations, I gain power. I do not need to think of this tiny little Christmas collection, when we stand on an entire frozen lake of my Winter Wonder. Everything that you see outside is mine. This is my realm.” He inches closer to me with every word, and I suck in a breath. “It is all under my domain. Even you are mine, little Nikolette.”

My chest is so tight now that my breath seems ragged. I remember this part now. The freezing, squeezing cold that creeps across my body when he is around.

“This was obviously a mistake.” I shake my head. “Sorry we bothered you.”

I race for the door, aching to escape this suffocating past. I don’t fit inside his world anymore. I’ve grown too much to be comfortable here.

Outside, I suck in a huge breath of cold air. Somehow, it lightens my chest and warms my lungs.

Then a pair of arms wrap around me, tugging me close and shoving my face deep into a velvety soft chest. Everything is warm now. I sink into the far too familiar smell of peppermint and leather and charcoal.

“You have accomplished so much, Nikki. You are allowed to be proud of it.” Krampus’s voice is soft. “You should be proud of yourself. Anyone with an ounce of compassion or sense can see how hard you work.”

I let my arms circle him. “I am proud.” I say. But, I am so tired of being the only one who seems to notice my accomplishments and when Krampus’s fingers stroke down my back there’s a part of me that feels less tired.

“I thought I could handle him.” I say.

“He’s a jerk.”

“I don’t think he does it intentionally.”

“It doesn’t have to be intentional for it to be shitty behavior.” Krampus says quietly.

“I forgot how isolated he is. How alone he is. How little he cares for other people.” I jerk myself out of Krampus’s arms and regret it immediately when my body misses him.

“I don’t mean to insult you.”

“Insult me?”

“I know how you live, I know you’re alone and—”

Krampus barks a laugh so loud it stops my words in my throat.

“You think I live like this?” He gestures to the barren wasteland surrounding us, nothing but snow and ice and cold empty air.

“Don’t you? Up in the mountains? Your cave was—” My words falter at his wide grin.

“You’ve only seen the front cavern.”

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