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He smiles as that thought hits him. Everything is going to shit around him, but in a way he can’t help but be thankful he met her. Yeah, so crashing and having one of his reindeer murdered is something he deeply wishes didn't happen, but it led him to her. Silver lining on all the other dark and gloomy crap surrounding him.
He hangs his coat on the nearest tree, rolls up his sleeves and brushes some snow aside with his boot. It’s as good a spot as any to bury the reindeer. Digging into frozen ground won’t be easy but he’ll stay here all fucking day if he has to. His magic makes him stronger, so he should be able to dig a deep enough hole to bury her.
It takes him about an hour of solid digging to get down deep enough to cover her massive body. He pulls himself out of the hole and rests the shovel against a tree. He’s worn out, but the uncomfortable spike in his magic actually came in useful. The extra energy helped him dig through the frozen ground quickly.
Nick crouches down beside his reindeer and strokes her face. ‘I’m so sorry this happened to you. I promise I’ll find whoever did this and kill them. You have my word.’
He rolls her over, dropping her body into the hole, grateful that it’s big enough to accommodate her. He grabs the shovel again and begins the task of covering her body. By the time he’s finished his hands are killing him. Serves him right for having a fight with a tree.
There’s not a lot he can do to hide the grave. Even covering it with snow it’s still obvious someone was digging here. Hopefully she’ll remain hidden. He doubts many people wander around this deep in the woods.
After making sure he’s hidden the grave as much as he can, he picks up the shovel and trudges through the snow, back to Scarlett.
As much as he loves being here with Scarlett, he needs to get home. It’s Christmas Eve tomorrow. If Santa isn’t in Lapland on Christmas Eve the whole holiday is potentially destroyed forever. Him too probably, but that’s another issue. The priority is making sure Santa does what’s he’s meant to do, on the one day of the year he’s meant to do it. All the demon and monster fighting stuff is part of it, but not what the kids of the world are concerned with. His entire contract revolves around tomorrow night. One day to get it right.
It’s not looking good for this year.
A blown up sleigh, dead reindeer, and a raging headache that’s refusing to give him even a minute of peace. Not a happy Christmas so far for him. Then again, he hasn’t had a truly happy Christmas since he lost his family. Since he became Santa, Christmas day was spent asleep, recovering from the Christmas run. And that suited him just fine. He may be Santa, but celebrating the actual day didn’t appeal to him.
Or didn’t, until Scarlett.
It’s just a shame he can’t be with her. He doesn’t have a place in her world, especially with all this shit going on. And she doesn’t belong in his.
If he can’t figure out who’s after him, the best place for her is far away from him.
He can take care ofhimself. Just because he’s been gone for over two hours doesn’t mean something’s happened to him. It was a massive reindeer. Burying the animal could easily take hours. She just wishes he had let her go with him, but she understands why he wanted to do it alone. He was heartbroken over what happened. Furious too. Under the grief, his anger burned. She wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of that when he unleashed it.
She slides her bookmark into the book, marking the same page she took it out of a few hours ago. Reading is a lost cause with Nick around. Maybe she’ll have a glass of wine to steady her nerves. But then if he doesn’t come back, she’ll need all her brain cells in the right order so she can go and find him.
But all her worrying was for nothing. When she walks up to the window, she spots him, standing at the end of her driveway, looking out over the snow covered landscape. The man is simply spectacular. His heavy coat is blowing in the wind as he leans on the gate, lost in thought. As much as she wants to go out to him, she leaves him to his thoughts for a while, just watching him from the living room window.
When he’s still out there ten minutes later, she bundles into her coat and makes her way through the deep snow to join him. ‘Are you all right?’
‘Yeah. Just thinking. Trying to figure out what the hell is going on.’
‘And?’
He shakes his head. ‘Nothing. Still haven’t got a fucking clue.’ He taps the side of his head. ‘There’s something in here blocking me from remembering. I’m convinced of it.’
‘You mean like magic or something like that?’
He nods. ‘I remember leaving the workshop, then waking up here. I was gone for a good few hours before I would have reached here. So why can’t I remember that time? There’s a damn wall around the memories and I can’t get through. And I can’t shake this damn headache. I’ve had it since I woke up and it’s not budging.’
‘Are there any people like you who could do that? Block memories from you?’
‘Too many unfortunately. We all have magic to a certain degree. I barely understand my own, without having the first clue about any of the thousands of creatures on Earth with magic of their own.’
‘Have you got on anyone’s wrong side lately?’
He looks sideways at her and grins. ‘How long have you got, cause that’s a hefty list?’
‘Aren’t people meant to get on your naughty list, not the other way around?’
He shrugs and smirks. ‘I’m not one for sticking to the rules. Seriously though, it could be any number of creatures. Putting an end to Christmas won’t bode well for me. Kids will stop believing in me. Between you and me, I don’t want to know what that’ll mean for me.’
She shivers, so he wraps his coat around both of them. He pulls her tight against his body and rests his chin on top of her head.
‘I’m so sorry about your reindeer.’
