The Keepers: Christmas in Salem: Do You Fear What I Fear?The Fright Before ChristmasUnholy NightStalking in a Winter Wonderland (Harlequin Nocturne) Read online

Samantha gasped.

  Daniel amazed himself by moving fast enough to catch the champagne tray before it could fall.

  Samantha dived under the table and emerged victorious, grasping the unrepentant toddler in her arms.

  “Out, mister!” she told Tobey. “And you better behave yourself. Do you remember that time-out I was telling you about?”

  August came running into the kitchen, colliding with Samantha’s back.

  “I’m sorry—I’m sorry!” he said. “Sandy and I were watching him, but we didn’t move fast enough.”

  “It’s okay. This kid moves faster than a speeding bullet,” Samantha told him. “I say let his dad watch him for a while.” She walked out of the kitchen. Daniel followed quickly behind her. She walked straight to Father Alistair and politely but firmly interrupted his conversation with Elsie Beamish, an elderly shapeshifter.

  “Father Alistair, I believe this young man has been looking for you,” she said.

  Father Alistair looked momentarily startled, as if he’d forgotten bringing his son. Then his eyes cleared, and he smiled. “Tobey, did you see the beautiful Christmas lights?” he asked, reaching for his son.

  Tobey went straight into his father’s arms, his radiant smile making him look as sweet and docile as a cherub.

  “Excuse me, Elsie,” Father Alistair said. “I’m going to hang on to my little one for a minute here and show him the magic in this house.” He smiled at Samantha gratefully, as if she had shown him something wonderful. Perhaps she had.

  Sam smiled back and said, “Time to toast the tolerance and peace of the season, Father. I’ll be back with the champagne—and some juice for your son.”

  Daniel followed her back into the kitchen, hoping to get a chance to answer her question. Did she really wonder why he was here? It seemed so obvious...but Sam felt the mantle of responsibility heavily on her shoulder, and though she wore it very well, he could see that she was letting it come between herself and her emotions.

  No chance to say anything. June was right behind him, and Mica had arrived and seemed determined to help to make up for being late. And there was August, of course, who had been intent on destroying himself just a few hours before, yet now seemed to have a new crush on Sam for saving him.

  “Grab the glasses, please,” Sam said. “And the champagne. Thank you, everyone.”

  Daniel picked up the tray he had saved earlier. As they stepped back out to the parlor, there was another arrival.

  It was the old werewolf Victor Alden, who had dressed up as Santa for as long as Daniel could remember and came to Mycroft House to hand out gifts.

  “Ho, ho, ho!” Victor said, bearing a big red bag. “Why, ’tis Samantha Mycroft. My dear, you have been very, very good this year. I have a lovely gift for you.”

  “Oh, Santa, that’s wonderful—but you have to come toast with us first.”

  “Don’t mind if I do.”

  Victor set down his bag. “Everything going well here?” he asked.

  “Yes, thank you,” Sam said.

  He nodded. “I was hoping...I was hoping the darkness wouldn’t ruin the night.”

  “No,” she said firmly. “I will not let the darkness ruin the night.”

  She smiled and headed out with Daniel. Victor followed them into the parlor, where both Others and humans of all faiths filled their champagne glasses and stood together to toast the holiday.

  “To love, tolerance and understanding,” Father Mulroney said.

  “To you, dear guests, who understand that goodness is in the love a person spreads, and not in the words he chooses to describe himself,” Samantha added.

  “To Mycroft House,” Daniel said, looking at Samantha as he lifted his glass. “A place where Sam has carried on the tradition of the true meaning of the Christmas season. All of us, no matter who—or what—we are learn here that love for our fellow man is the greatest gift we can bestow.”

  “Hear, hear!” Father Mulroney said, and began to play “Amazing Grace,” his beautiful tenor voice so powerful that even Tobey went silent and listened.

  Everyone applauded when he finished, and Rabbi Solomon said enthusiastically, “Please, someone keep it going.”

  This was his chance, Daniel thought. Maybe.

  He walked over to the piano. “I know one—Samantha and I used to do it together all the time when we were younger. If she’ll join me...?”

  She looked as if she had given up on Christmas cheer and just wanted to kill him.

  But everyone in the room began to applaud and urge her on, so she forced a smile and walked over.

  “‘Baby, It’s Cold Outside,’” he announced.

  Her smile was brittle. But Father Mulroney began to play, and she began to sing.

  They were immediately in sync, taking their parts, and the song was fun and a little bit sexy.

  It was as if they had never been apart, as if they had sung together every day, as if they hadn’t missed a beat in their lives....

  But of course, they had. And when the song was over, people laughed and patted him on the back as they complimented him.

  And he lost sight of Samantha.

  Determined, he looked through the house. He found August and Sally in the kitchen, chatting as they set the desserts on trays.

  “Looking for Sam?” August asked him. “I think she went outside.”

  Daniel hurried to the front door, then paused. He looked back into the parlor. Father Mulroney was still playing, but now with Tobey on his lap and Father Alistair sitting next to him. Everyone had a suggestion for a carol. The room seemed to be ablaze with lights, a beautiful beacon against the darkness that had settled over Salem.

  He slipped outside. Sam was there, staring up at the pale sliver of a moon that had somehow made its way through what seemed to be an eternal darkness.

  “Sam,” he said softly.

  She turned to him. Her eyes looked huge and luminous. When he moved, the plastic Santa began to sing “All I Want for Christmas.”

  “Oh, for the love of God— Please pull the plug on that thing,” she begged.

  Laughing, he stepped through the snow and found the cord.

  Santa went silent.

  “Not a bad song,” he said lightly, walking over to her.

  She didn’t move. They were alone at last. Now the only singing was coming from the house.

  “You’re doing a great job here,” he told her.

  “So great that they sent you to check up on me,” she said.

  “Sam,” he said, and set his hands on her shoulders, seeking her eyes. “They sent me because every one of us needs someone sometimes. But...”

  “But what?” she demanded.

  “They needed to send someone,” he said, then inhaled deeply. “They sent me because I asked to come here. I requested this assignment.”

  “Oh? So I’m an assignment now?”

  He laughed softly, but he felt as if there were a vise around his throat. “Sam, I asked to come after I spoke to your father—and mine. I told them that they were wrong to have suggested that we couldn’t be together and still perform all the duties that would fall our way. I told them that I was sorry, but I couldn’t serve if we couldn’t be treated with respect and understanding.” He realized that she might laugh in his face for taking a stand that might no longer represent her feelings. But he didn’t care. He was willing to risk everything.

  He caught her hand and went down on one knee. “Samantha Mycroft, I am incredibly, incurably in love with you. Nothing in my existence matters without you. I realize that in this day and age I’m supposed to ask you first, but I happened to be with your father so I asked him for your hand. Well, not really. I told him—and my father—that if you would have me, I was going to marry you with or without their blessing. So...I realize that this is awkward, but I can’t see a way of making it better if I don’t just tell you the truth...if I don’t try to make you understand that I was a fool, afraid that you were more responsible than I wa
s, that you would reject me...that you would move on happily without me. But I know now that while you may still reject me, I can’t go on with life without at least begging you to forgive me...without telling you that you are everything to me, that I love you with every fiber of my being. Sam, will you marry me?” He took a deep breath. “You don’t have to answer right this instant. I’m sure you really want to shove snow in my face, but...you asked what I want...and...”

  She was staring at him incredulously. He had no idea what she was thinking.

  “All I want for Christmas is you,” he whispered.

  She flushed. A beautiful shade of red. It went well with her sweater. And her hair, and her eyes and...

  “Sam?”

  “Get up, please! Someone might walk out here and see,” she said.

  He got to his feet. “I’m sorry, Sam. I had to tell you.”

  She started to turn away. “It’s this darkness,” she said. “I know I’m not the right person to handle it, but I have to be here, to try.”

  “But I could be here with you,” he told her. “I know I left you before—but you told me to leave, remember? Two years ago I came here...confused. My father, your father...both of them were so determined that we couldn’t be together, that we had to be strong and do our jobs. Well, Sam, my strength came from knowing that I was going to come back here and be with you, if you’d have me. They wanted us to stand alone—but they were wrong. None of us stands alone. I told them that. I pointed out that the council only exists because no one really stands alone. We need one another. And we need love. Nothing shows us that as much as this time of year. Love is the greatest gift in the world. I love you, Sam. I have since I met you. I will into eternity—no matter what the future may bring.”

  “What?” she gasped.

  “I love you. And I will love you forever.”

  She stood silent, staring at him. And then she began to laugh.

  He frowned, watching her.

  “Is that...a no?” he asked.

  But it wasn’t. She suddenly threw herself into his arms. And she kissed him.

  She kissed him.

  It was the kind of kiss he had dreamed of through long nights away. It was an easy kiss, a passionate kiss, a natural kiss, a wet, sloppy kiss that was the most erotic kiss he had ever known. It was filled with intimacy and promise.

  She broke away at last and stared up at him.

  “Um... Is that a yes?” he asked her huskily.

  “I’ve never been all that anyone wanted for Christmas before,” she told him.

  He smiled. He looked up at the sky.

  It was still dark, of course. No matter what, it would be dark now.

  But somehow the world around him seemed to be filled with brilliant light in a rainbow of colors.

  “It feels like the sun just broke through,” he told her.

  She leaned against him. He smelled the faint, soft scent of her perfume. He thought about the woman who had plunged into icy water to save a foolish boy, the woman who could bring together a room of people and Others, the woman who instinctively knew what a child needed. And he was more than ever in love.

  He reached into his pocket. “I, um, happen to have this. In case you said yes,” he told her.

  “Let me see!” she begged.

  He popped open the box. It wasn’t a huge diamond, but it was a beautiful one. Radiant light seemed to stream from it.

  “The light is inside us,” she said.

  “Pardon?”

  “That’s what Father Mulroney told me today. He said the light is inside our hearts. We can fight the darkness.” She looked at him and smiled slowly. “Yes, Daniel Riverton, I will marry you. I will certainly have a few choice words to say about the way we parted, but then I suppose you might have a few, too.”

  “Well, you are pigheaded and proud, and you did tell me to get out.”

  “You were supposed to know I didn’t mean a word of it. I was just giving you an out.”

  He smiled. Her temper was already flaring deliciously.

  “May I?” he asked her.

  She nodded.

  He slipped the ring on her finger.

  “Let your light so shine....” he quoted softly. “Matthew 5:16,” he added with a smile and a grin.

  “No, let our light so shine,” she said.

  From the house, they could hear Father Mulroney’s voice raised in song: “Joy to the World.”

  “There are dark days ahead,” she murmured.

  “We’ll be here to face them. Together.”

  She nodded solemnly. “However, I’m forecasting a brilliant night.”

  “Oh?”

  “Let’s go inside and join the guests. They’ll go home. Eventually. And since I’m a Christmas present... Well, traditionally, you do get to unwrap one gift on Christmas Eve. And I plan on being the best gift you ever get.”

  They kissed again beneath the sliver of the moon, and radiance seemed to be all around them.

  Light and love came from within.

  And Daniel knew it was going to be a beautiful Christmas morning.

  Because there would be love. And love, he believed, was light.

  And as the saying went, love conquered all.

  “Merry Christmas, Sam,” he said huskily.

  And she said the best words in return.

  “Merry Christmas, my love.”

  * * * * *

  THE FRIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS

  Deborah LeBlanc

  Dear Reader,

  We hope you enjoy this wonderful holiday anthology! I had such fun writing the short story for this collection and was very honored to work with the remarkable authors whose stories created the very pulse of this book. A huge, heartfelt thanks also goes to Heather Graham for allowing me to be part of her project. Not only is she a fabulous author—she’s a remarkable person and has enriched my life tremendously simply by being in it.

  So thank you, dear reader, for choosing to add this anthology to your book collection. May all of your holiday seasons be filled with joy, laughter and love!

  Deborah LeBlanc

  For Pookie—who keeps the joy of Christmas in my heart all year round.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 1

  The cut burned, the wound bled and Rebekah Savay bit her tongue to keep a stream of curse words in check. She’d been in full power-walk mode, heading for the stone gazebo in Salem Common, when her boots had hit an obscure patch of ice on the sidewalk. Her feet had gone one way, her hands another as she grabbed for anything to keep herself upright. Unfortunately, that anything had been a metal No Parking sign with dinged edges tacked to the side of a light pole. She felt stupid for not having been more careful, but didn’t wallow in it. After all, she’d come from Malta, where winter lows dipped down into the midsixties and lasted all of three weeks. She simply wasn’t used to maneuvering on ice and snow, much less in the dark.

  It was midafternoon, and the sky appeared blanketed with night—a moonless, starless night. Only Christmas lights twinkled in the gloom. It was the very sky that had greeted her when she’d arrived in Salem earlier that morning. The lack of sunlight during the day felt weird, but the gloom that seemed to have settled over the people here felt actively disturbing. Nearly everyone she’d encountered on the streets seemed to carry an energy of irritation. Being an empath, she’d felt it bubble and bleep on her emotional radar. Although shoppers and visitors chatted and smiled, she sensed that everyone wished they could scurry away, anxious to get out of the cold and gloom and into any warm and well-lit haven. Not that she blamed them. She wanted to do the same but couldn’t.

  The darkness had brought her here.

  Her cousin Samantha Mycroft, Keeper of the Vampires here in Salem and unofficial chief among all the Keepers, had contacted her about the problem plaguing the town. Since Rebekah was the KOFE, K
eeper of the Five Elementals, Sam wanted her to join her and their two other cousins, June, Keeper of the Witches, and Katie Sue, Keeper of the Selkies, to find the culprit responsible for the darkness. They suspected a rogue sorcerer was the cause of the problem, but Sam didn’t want to make that suspicion an assumption. She’d asked Rebekah to do an extra sweep of the elemental elders and the charges that reported to them to see if there had been any unusual activity.

  Rebekah had agreed without hesitation and immediately summoned the elemental elders to her base in Malta. She had questioned all five at great length, and after a long verbal battle of wits and wills and shameless finger-pointing—which happened more times than not when she brought the elders together—everything appeared to be in order. But she didn’t dismiss the issue. Instead, she considered the resources available to her and contemplated enlisting the elders’ help. They and their charges would provide thousands more eyes and ears with which to help find a rogue sorcerer—or anyone else, for that matter.

  After checking with her cousins and getting their approval, Rebekah had called a second elders’ meeting, this one to be held in Salem so they could witness the darkness firsthand. Sam had offered her home for a meeting place, but Rebekah had declined. The location would have been convenient, since she would be staying there, but Sam had a large Christmas Eve party planned for tonight and Rebekah didn’t want to add an elemental invasion to the preparty mayhem. More important, it was one thing to gather the core elements of what basically constituted the makeup of the earth into one place, but restricting the space surrounding that collective unit was quite another.

  The elders, like most people in positions of great power, were very territorial, so she typically met with each of them individually. On the rare occasion when she did gather them together, it wasn’t uncommon for egos to swell and tempers to flare, making the group a challenge to rein in. To minimize the risk of an elemental apocalypse, she had devised a meeting mandate: take on human form, or else. The physical body acted like a check valve on the elders, reducing the force of their powers. Even at half throttle, however, a gaggle of angry elementals was not something you wanted trapped between four walls. So she’d chosen an outside location for the meeting. The venue might be public, but that was nothing an illusion veil couldn’t fix.