Aiwin looked at the enormous dog in distaste, and I laughed, hugging Reece and shaking Tyler’s hand. “I’m so glad everyone made it! The roads are a nightmare right now!”
Tylen frowned. His intense silver eyes literally looked like molten silver and they were so cool! “We didn’t have any difficulties. We took the sleigh.”
“You took the what?!”
He shrugged and pointed out the door to a full-on Santa sleigh pulled by 5 snowy-white reindeer.
“Oh. My. Gosh.” I squeezed Draven’s arm so tightly that he had to pull my death-grip off of him finger by finger.
“I’m sure he’d be willing to take you for a spin,” Draven said wryly.
“But…the guests!”
“I’ll be here to greet them. Go say hello to the reindeer.”
I literally squealed and jumped up and down like I was 5, before I yanked my coat, scarf, and gloves off the coatrack, and dragged Reese behind me. And because I dragged Reese with me, Tylen came with as well. Rhys and Dice hurried out after us, not wanting to be left out either, pulling on their outerwear quickly. It was a whole sleigh-viewing party.
The sleigh was off white with gold trim along all the edges, had more swoops and curves than a mandala, and looked fast!
“Ohmygoshit’s beautiful.”
The reindeer stood stately and calm as I petted them. I looked at Reece. “Is this not all your 5-year-old dreams coming true?”
She grinned. “You should have seen me when I first saw them pull up outside the mansion.”
I laughed.
We all piled in, Rhys and I fighting over the best seat in the middle of the forward-facing bench. I won, of course. There may have been some light shoving involved.
Rhys glowered at me from the middle of the rear-facing seat, and I smiled beatifically while Dice laughed at our shenanigans.
There were heated blankets that were still somehow warm, probably through magic, and were so cozy that I sighed in delight as I laid one over Reece, Dice and I.
Tylen clicked his tongue, and the reindeer were off, hooves clopping on the wet, slushy snow in near-synchronous movement.
“Oh,” I said, breathing in the night's stillness. It wasbeautiful.There was a light dusting of snow over everything. Lights down by the shore gleamed from the boats moored in the harbor, and the small lighthouse out on a tiny island about a quarter mile offshore was lit up like a beacon.
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Dice said.
“It really is.” I turned to her. “I used to hate this time of year.”
She raised an eyebrow, and I shrugged, feeling silly for my confession. “Just—bad memories, I suppose.”
She nodded, and I knew Dice understood. She, after all, was still running from her own bad memories.
I just hoped they didn’t catch up with her.
Rhys looked disturbed by our conversation, his nebula eyes darting from Dice to me and then back again.
I shrugged and smiled softly at him. What could you do? Not everyone had good Christmas and holiday memories. For some, including me before this Christmas, the holidays were a painful reminder of everything that was missing in people’s lives.
I sat back in contentment. The feelings in the sleigh were warm, peaceful, and happy. It was a nice break from the worry over the vampire-that-shall-not-be-named attacking them.
The only downer was Tylen’s pain. It made me want to go home and research all the ways, both magical and non-magical, that we might be able to help him.
Rhys, who always seemed to know what I was thinking, smiled sadly at me and said, “You have a hero complex.”
“I don’t!” Wanting to help people did not a hero complex make. It just meant that I cared about them. There was nothing wrong with compassion. He quirked a grin and shook his head, his eyes still looking sad. I knew he worried about me. He’d told me more than once that I was too tenderhearted, and my inability to separate other’s pain from myself would keep hurting me until I learned to keep them separate.
