Chapter Four

Chantelle stood staring woodenly at Nikolai and Bryan as they played in the middle of the room. It was too opulent to call it a living room, a sea of golden gleaming wood, covered with jewel colored rugs and white furniture that hugged and cuddled your body as you sat down. Her little boy could hear, for the first time in his life. She should have been ecstatic. She was, in a way. But he wasn't just Bryan anymore...was he? His eyes gleamed at her in the dark, and he had asked Nikolai if he'd learned how to make magic rainbows...Bryan knew about the magic rainbows. Nikolai had been paying visits to her son. It brought a bittersweet smile to her mouth before she recalled the man's answer.

“Da. Magic rainbows, and more. You will be able to bring much joy, to many, many people.”

Chelly had little doubt of that. Bryan had a gift for bringing joy, to all around him. But he wouldn't be going home with her. How could she take home a boy whose eyes glowed in the dark? So she was staying here...with Nik. If he had asked her, or if she had asked to come here, or anything other than having her choice taken away...

Chelly hated not having the choice.

The traitor. A tiny little voice whispered in her head, He saved Bryan...

I know that. She felt like a petulant child, but she also felt as though she was losing her son as she watched Nikolai patiently draw a lacy pattern of ice in mid air, only to have it disintegrate the minute Bryan touched it. And then they started all over again. Jeans clung lovingly to his muscled thighs and cupped the bulge at his crotch, while the cotton of his shirt stretched over his flat belly and the taut wall of his chest as he laughed at Bryan's squeals of delight. The masculine laughter faded as Bryan launched himself through the misty wall of pseudo-ice and wrapped his arms around Nikolai's neck, laughing and chortling with glee. Nikolai's face softened, and his lids lowered as he wrapped his arms around the boy's tiny little body, cuddling him close.

And the picture hit Chelly right in the solar plexus, bringing tears to her eyes, and knot to her throat. Bryan had never thrown himself like that at his father. Not once. And from the look of sheer awe on Nikolai's face, it was a rare pleasure for this man, and one he was liking much.

He kidnapped us.

Turning on her heel, she walked away.

“So Bryan is what now? Magic?”

“Elf-kin.” Nikolai entered the room slowly, feeling the tension in the air, tempted to reach out and touch her mind, but refusing to trespass. He already taken her away from her home, her life...even though he knew she would have gladly come to save her son, he had not asked. He wouldn't take anything else.

“Elf-kin,” she repeated drolly, rolling the words over her tongue, then pursing her lips and staring at him over the lips of her coffee cup. French vanilla cappucinno. He had recreated it just for her, like the recipe for French Onion soup, and guacamole. And he had learned to make grilled cheeses for Bryan. And chocolate chip cookies. Of course, those were rather tasty...no wonder Alisdair was so fond of them. “Exactly what is elf kin?”

“A mortal with an open mind, a gifted channel, that we choose to make blood bond with. Our blood mingles, mixes with his, reproduces with his, and in time, changes his. And so young, he is so young. The changes will be quite... thorough. The younger a child is when he is made kin, the more complete the change.

“He would have had some gifts anyway, Chantelle. A special boy, you already knew. How special, I can not even begin to tell you. A deaf child who can already speak, and only three years old? But the gifted channels in his mind are wide open now...his potential in unknown, vast, limitless. He--”

“You look the same as you did twenty years ago,” she spoke softly, interrupting him, staring pensively his shoulder. “Elves...they really exist. And they don't age. At least not they way humans do, huh?”

“Da, not the way humans do.” He moved closer, cupping her face in his hand, stroking his thumb over the curve of her bottom lip. “So pretty, so soft. Been wanting you, I have, for several years. How long will you stay angry with me?” His lids drooped, lashes hanging low over his eyes, as he studied her mouth. His other hand, big and warm, came up to rest on the curve of her hip. Chelly’s eyes widened. Her mouth was dry. Other parts were…not. Her heart was racing a mile a minute, and her nerve endings were sizzling. Blankly, she said the one thing that came to mind. “Are there elves in Russia?”

“Hmmm. Elves, elf-kin and elf-mate as well.” He cocked his head as he responded and a ribbon of hair fell over one muscled shoulder, thick, black and shining. His eyes moved from her mouth down the line of her neck to focus on the movement of her chest as she sucked a breath in and tried to remember how to breathe again.

Chelly followed the gleaming lock of hair as it curled over his chest, her mouth watering. The rippling muscles of his belly almost vibrated and as she stared at him, a hungry growl rumbled out of his chest. Hypnotized, her eyes slid further downward, staring at the bulging swell of his sex under the blue fabric of his jeans.

Jeans? “Elves wear jeans?”

“Would you prefer pointy shoes with bells?” he asked blandly.

Her brow creased in confusion and she shook her head. “I always thought of elves wearing…” her hands moved helplessly through the air and she shrugged her shoulders as pictures of flowing gowns, tunics and cloaks moved through her mind. “Ummm, bells? Why would you wear bells and pointy shoes?”

Just then, outside, a bell tolled. And Nikolai rolled his eyes. “Da, we know it. Five bleeding days, we have. We will get the work done, have we ever failed him yet, Georgeann?” he grumbled, stalking to the window and jerking the drapes closed.

Five days…

What happens in five days?

Chantelle’s mental clock filled in that blank.

Christmas.

“Da, Christmas.”

Her eyes widened and she swallowed the lump in her throat. She hadn’t said anything out loud. She knew it. So how had he heard her anyway? Could he really read her thoughts the way it had always seemed?

Yes, he could. His lips curved up in a smile as he stared at her, his head cocked to the side, his black hair falling over his shoulder as he studied her face, following the trail of her thoughts. And as he followed them, the smile slowly fell away and his face grew pensive.

She turned her eyes back to the sparkling, crystalline vista outside one of the other windows, then back to the outrageously magical, beautiful man in front of her with his gently curved, pointed ears and eyes that glowed. The view reminded her of how, when she had been younger, he had carved little statues and sculptures from what looked and felt like ice. In a low hushed voice, she asked, “What is going on?”

“You are in my home, the Northern Reach. Mortals have called it the North Pole for many, many years.”

“And the ‘him’ you haven’t failed?” There was a hysterical giggle building in her throat. Oh, man. If Nate had any clue…

“You mortals know him as Santa Claus.”