Chapter 1

T’was the Night before Christmas

The crisp morning air of late December filled Mike Radley’s lungs with a chill that was tough to contain. He had to fight the urge to cough, and the stray hair sticking out of his scarf that kept tickling his ear wasn’t helping matters. Kneeling down in the snow, he contemplated the small map of his front yard that he had drawn with a gloved finger.

“Tink think pincer move still best attack.” The goblin across from him was bundled up in a thick winter jacket that she had altered for herself. Her voice was muffled by the yellow gaiter across her face. Between the magical goggles and the aviator hat she wore, only a small patch of green flesh could be seen along the bridge of her nose. “Surround invaders, bust heads.”

“It won’t work,” Kisa growled. “There’s too many of them.” The catgirl wore white ski pants and a dark red sweater with a black vest. Her tail twitched behind her as if tuned in to a demented metronome.

“We need to succeed.” Mike looked up at them from behind a pair of ski goggles. His eyes had long ago adjusted to the blueish tint. “The consequences if we fail...” He shook his head in disgust.

“You can’t hide forever.” The woman’s voice had a mocking tone and came from several different places at once. “We already found your pet rock, by the way. She’s down for the count.”

“Dammit!” Mike smashed his map with a fist. Abella had been hiding in the hedge maze, ready to spring an ambush once the intruders moved past her. Right now, he was hiding in a gap beneath the gazebo, a structure in the center of the maze.

“Caretaker...” A masculine voice with a low growl taunted him. “I’m going to find you.”

“Not if I find you first,” Mike muttered, then looked over at Tink. “They’re in the maze. No pincer attacks. There were four of them left at last count. Are you up for this?”

“Tink show no mercy!” She saluted him so hard that her red braids bobbed across her chest, and then she picked up a thick, wooden club and ducked out the hole.

“I’ll see what I can do,” Kisa added. “I don’t know how they keep spotting me, though. I think they’ve found a way to counteract my magic.” The catgirl had a natural gift for being forgotten, even in plain sight.

He reached out and put one hand on each of theirs. “Be careful out there. If we lose ... nevermind. C’mon, let’s go.” Mike got on his belly and slid out of the hole. Around them, the frozen hedge maze had formed icy trenches that they now used for defense. Tink and Kisa were short enough that they could hunch over and run without being spotted, but Mike had to crouch to remain hidden.

Heavy footfalls to his left had him holding still while Kisa ran ahead. Mike tilted his head to peek through a gap in the bushes, but was startled to see a large pair of eyes looking back.

“Found ye!” The figure leapt over the hedges with little effort, landing in a crouch with the buckles on his leather outfit jingling. Thin wisps of black smoke drifted from the gap in his neck as he threw a pair of snowballs at Mike.

Mike’s magic surged forward, leaping from his outstretched hands to cause both of the snowballs to explode in mid-air. His precognition triggered, and he leapt hard to the left as a massive snowball crashed down where he had been crouching moments ago.

“Nice trick!” He grabbed a double handful of snow and tossed it into the air, his magic striking it with miniature bolts of lightning. The snow vaporized and then froze in the air, the icy mist hovering like fog as he ducked around the corner and then dove over the top of another hedge.

“Ye can’t run forever, Caretaker!” Suly called to him, but Mike ignored it. He needed distance right now, and the only way to get it was—

Turning a corner, he saw Asterion standing there with a large snow shovel full of snow. The minotaur was wearing a thick black scarf and winter pants. His torso was bare with little flakes of snow catching on the edges of his exposed body hair.

Asterion bellowed and swung the shovel, launching the massive amount of snow. Mike slid under it, but lost his footing when his boot got caught in the branches of a nearby shrub.

“Shit,” he muttered as he tried to free himself without losing his boot.

Asterion shoveled some more snow and held it high, ready to dump it. Kisa leapt from between the shrubs and pulled off her hat, which she pushed over Asterion’s eyes.

“Save yours—” she managed before Asterion accidentally dumped the load of snow on himself and Kisa. Both of them went down with a thud.

“Asterion, Kisa, you’re out!” Yuki sat on top of an ornamental throne of ice by the front door of the house. She held a steaming cup of hot chocolate in one hand as she surveyed the grounds and acted as the referee.

Mike cursed, then moved away from the spot. He moved through the hedges until he came upon a massive pile of snow with a pair of stony wings sticking out of the top.

“Abella?” He scraped away the snow from where he thought the gargoyle’s face would be. When he got to her, she spat out some snow and frowned. “Who did this to you?” he asked.

“I would hate to ruin the surprise,” she told him with an emotional smile. “Also, Suly is right behind you.”

Mike grabbed a handful of snow and threw it as he turned. The dullahan leaned sideways and allowed his head to drop to the side so that the snowball missed. Suly’s gloved hand grabbed tightly onto his hair as he threw a snowball with his free hand. The snowball struck Mike in the leg, but didn’t count for an elimination.

“You missed,” Sulyvahn declared with a grin as his head swung like a pendulum.

“Maybe,” Mike replied. “But she won’t.”

Sulyvahn’s body turned just as Tink leapt on top of the nearby bushes, her club held low. She swung it as hard as she could, firing a packed snowball from the scoop she had carved into the top. Her aim was amplified by the magical goggles on her head, and she hit Sulyvahn between the eyes hard enough that he dropped his head in the snow. His body spasmed dramatically and fell backward into a drift.

“Suly is out!” Yuki declared.

“Tink crush enemies!” she yelled while packing her club with more snow. “No have mercy!”

A massive snowball almost a foot across shot through the air, smashing into Tink so hard that she vanished, her hat and gloves ripped free by the shrubs as she fell. Mike got to his feet to see Bigfoot standing on the other side of Abella’s snow pile.

“Tink’s out!” Yuki shouted.

“That was a little overboard, wasn’t it?” he asked, knowing that Tink was okay. The goblin was tough as nails, and he could already hear her swearing from the other side of the hedge.

“Little booger can take it,” Bigfoot told him as he scooped up another massive snowball. “As for you? Let’s find out.”

When Bigfoot lifted the snowball over his head with both hands, Mike unzipped his jacket and pulled it open. Strapped to his chest was an antique doll with eerie features. The air filled with maniacal laughter as the snowball Bigfoot held smashed onto his head.

“Maybe if you were a yeti, these things wouldn’t happen to you.” Mike winked.

Bigfoot responded by flipping off Mike with both hands before falling over backward dramatically which sent a cloud of powdered snow up into the air.

“Bigfoot is down,” Yuki declared with a grin. “It’s one against one, folks!” At the base of her throne, the fairy quartet watched eagerly, all of them cheering in delight. At the windows of the house, several rats spectated the event, including Reggie. They had already put together small flags with the letter B on them that they waved excitedly.

“Technically, it’s two against one.” Beth’s voice came from two separate directions. “Cheating with a doll! Have you no shame?”

“We will not go quietly into the night!” Mike declared dramatically as he scrambled over the hedge and found Tink. He put her hat back on and handed her back her gloves as she pulled off her goggles.

“Get big revenge for Tink,” she told him with a wink.

“You know it.” He pulled off his ski mask and slid the goggles over his face. The stark whiteness of the world immediately mellowed as several tiny lenses flicked out of hidden locations and dropped down over his eyes. With the goggles on, he could see the most recent tracks in the snow with ease, but that wasn’t the best part.

He scooped up a generous handful of snow and packed it. Holding it in his hand, he cocked his arm back and watched the trajectory line form in front of him. It took some getting used to, but it would give him an important edge against his foe.

His magic warned him of inbound danger, and he ducked under a volley of snow that came from behind. Months of training had enabled him to fine tune his danger sense, and being able to convince his magic that losing a snowball fight was bad showed just how far he had come. He dodged forward as more snow missiles came from the front, and then did a small cartwheel to the side to avoid yet another volley. It wasn’t just his magic that he had trained. If not for spending the last several months training his body to move, he would have been hit.

And how was Beth throwing snowballs from several directions at once? Unless she had unlocked some magical ability he was unaware of, it shouldn’t be possible. It was almost as if Jenny was attacking him...

“Jenny?” He pulled the doll out of her harness. “Are you secretly a double agent?”

The doll blew a psychic raspberry at him, so he planted her head down in a nearby snowdrift. It didn’t surprise him at all that she had played both sides.

“I guess Jenny is out,” Yuki declared as Mike pulled Jenny free and then ran for cover. The rules for elimination required that snow touch someone’s head or face, and he didn’t dare risk her wrath by leaving her buried.

“Now it’s one on one,” Beth declared from multiple directions. However, Mike caught movement from the corner of his eye and threw a snowball in a beautiful arc toward Beth. She ducked behind a hedge and the snowball exploded into powder.

“It’s over,” Mike asserted. “You may as well come out and—shit!”

The air over Beth’s head filled with spiraling balls of snow that rocketed toward him. He crouched behind the hedge and watched them all smack into the Abella pile.

“That’s how she got me,” Abella informed him. “Sheer quantity.”

“Quality over quantity,” he declared, then picked up some snow and formed it into a sphere. He watched for movement again and saw the top of Beth’s hat. Standing up, he threw the snowball and used his magic to push it out of his hands as fast as possible. It smashed into Beth’s head, revealing that she had stuck her hat on a stick.

“Ah, shit,” he muttered as Beth stood up to his right. She whirled her hands around dramatically, pulling moisture from the air and forming it into several snowballs all at once.

He dodged the attack, his magic shattering the few that would have struck him. Beth kept moving forward, her gloved hands glowing as she kept him pinned down. It was only a matter of time until she made a mistake, and he saw his opportunity when she tripped on a root buried beneath the snow.

He ran toward her, scooping a handful of snow as he went. Realizing she was in a tight spot, Beth summoned snowballs above him that fell as he slid to one side and readied his own snowball.

With a grunt, he pitched the snowball at Beth’s face. She responded by summoning another ball of snow in front of her, and the two balls collided in an icy explosion which filled the air with snowflakes. Beth dove through the cloud of frost, a snowball held tightly in her hand as she tackled Mike to the ground.

“It ends now, Caretaker!” She went to smash the ball in his face, but he caught her by the wrist. Beth maneuvered herself so that she was sitting on him, her ass pressing directly into his crotch.

“N ... never!” he stammered, distracted by the feel of her weight on his body. His magic swirled through him, making him hard, but he imagined the sensation was damperen by the fact that they were both wearing snow pants.

Beth grunted as she tried to shove the snowball into his face. Her dark eyes were wide, revealing the golden flecks that had appeared in her pupils over the last couple of months. They were a result of the magic she had gained, and he wondered what else about her was now different. “Never ... underestimate ... a woman ... who ... doesn’t want to do the dishes!”

As they fought, her ass rubbed against him hard enough that his magic started to activate. Beth’s eyes sparkled as if she was casting a spell, and his concentration finally slipped. She smashed the snowball into his face, sending a chill through his whole body.

“Victory for team Beth!” she declared, sitting up and holding her arms in the air. As she pumped her arms, her hips gyrated against his, and he gritted his teeth as he commanded his magic to calm the fuck down.

With the others in the house, getting zapped by his magic wouldn’t be that big of a deal. While he could now use it for defense, its primary function was for transferring sexual energy. But he and Beth didn’t have the same relationship that he did with the other women. With the others, he could sense their intent and motives like it was second nature, and it was just easier somehow. With her, he was always in the dark, as if there was a mental block.

If he was still in therapy, it would definitely be a hot topic.

“Looks like you’re doing the dinner dishes,” she declared moments before she was bombarded by snowballs from the side.

“The game is over, Jenny,” Yuki warned, then leaned to one side to dodge a snowball that slammed into her throne.

But I’m the house champion! Jenny stood waist-deep in the snow, her arms raised as chunks of snow ripped free from the ground and targeted everyone. The fairies screamed in panic as they fled the scene.

“Okay, you,” Bigfoot said as he stood, but an icy maelstrom frosted him from head to toe. He wiped slush out of his eyes and blinked, his dark eyes buried beneath thick fur.

Freeze, freeze all of you! Jenny’s laughter filled the air as everyone ran for cover. It wasn’t uncommon for Jenny to take things too far, and Mike leaned around the corner of a hedge to help pull Beth to safety.

“You realize she’s getting coal for Christmas?” Beth wiped the snow off her face. “Giant sack of it.”

“How about a dream car? I find that giving Jenny anything flammable in large quantities is a terrible idea.” Mike grinned, then handed Beth his hat. “Temporary truce?”

Beth smiled, then put his hat on her head. “Truce. But you’re still doing dishes tonight.”

The front yard filled with playful screams as everyone moved to safety from the impending ice storm. Yuki descended from her perch and landed next to Jenny, her tails swishing behind her.

“We may as well do this right,” she declared, then summoned a fortress of ice that was six feet tall. She plucked Jenny off the ground and set her on the upper walls. “There, now you can see them.”

“Yuki!” Mike stared at the kitsune through a gap in the hedges. “You’re siding with her?”

“Indeed.” She held her hands over her head and summoned flurries from the sky. “After all, you guys wouldn’t let me play earlier. May as well get in on the action.”

“So it’s treason, then.” Mike looked at Beth, then over his shoulder where Tink had appeared. “Gather the others!” he yelled with a smile. “It’s time to take down the snow queen, and her little doll, too!”

Mike pushed open the door to his bedroom, his cheeks bright red from the cold. He peeled off his soaking wet pants and walked through the bathroom to throw them in the closet hamper. Tink had stripped her wet clothes off in the living room and taken them straight to the dryer while the others dispersed to change in their respective rooms.

“Having a good time, lover?” Naia was sitting in the tub, her breasts on display. Steam rose from the surface of the water, blotting out the windows.

“Indeed I am.” He stripped down until he was naked and put the rest of his clothes in the laundry. The edge of the tub was warm to the touch as he stepped into the warm water. “Thanks for getting it hot for me.”

“It’s not the only thing that’s hot.” She winked at him as he sat down next to her. “Maybe you need something more than a bath?”

“I ... uh...” He laughed. “Sorry, I was trying to think of a clever response. All the blood must have rushed somewhere else.”

“I know how it is,” she told him as she moved above him. “Someone gets you all bothered and you can’t think straight for days.”

“That obvious?”

“It is.” Her groin was pressing against his, the shaft of his cock laying along her labia. “I can feel your magic all knotted up inside. I’m curious how that came about.”

“Gee, I don’t know. Do you really want me to talk about how hot and bothered a certain friend of mine gets me?” He touched her face then brushed some hair out of her eyes. “What if you get jealous?”

“It just means I have to work that much harder to hold your interest.” She moved her pelvis against his, and his cock grew hard. It almost felt like the heat of the water was being pushed into his body. “Would hate to find out I’m second best,” she said with a fake pout.

“You’re second to no one,” he told her. “And this is, by far, way better than warming up with hot cocoa.”

“Is that what the others are doing?” She winked at him. “There’s plenty of room in here if anyone else wants to join us.”

“Oh, I kind of snuck away. Beth convinced the others to come join her at the hot springs, and...” His voice trailed off as he shook his head sadly. It had been a special place for him and Velvet, and he still couldn’t bring himself to go see it. Beth had arranged for a pair of portal sheds in Oregon to connect the springs to the cabin.

“It’s okay,” she told him, laying her head on his chest. “You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to. But I’m here to listen if you need me.”

“Thanks.” He held Naia against his body and inhaled her scent. It was the smell of the ocean in his dreams, a private island populated by the women he had swapped soul fragments with. He ran his fingers through her air, curling the thick blue strands with his fingers. It was like petting silk, and due to her aqueous nature, he never had to worry about tangling it.

“It’s not something I’m trying to avoid. On the contrary, I’ve spent a lot of time confronting it.” In a way, he had to. He and Velvet had produced an egg from their union, and it would hatch some time next year. But taking care of the future was a separate beast than dealing with the past. “The last time I was at the springs, I was there with her. If I picture them in my mind, she’s there automatically. It’s like I’ve saved that special moment and filed it away for a rainy day.”

“But if you see it without her, it’s like letting her go one more time.”

Mike smiled, then rubbed a tear from his eye. “I couldn’t have put it better. It’s something I want to hold onto, if not for a little while longer.” And when he finally did confront that magical meeting place, he definitely didn’t want to do it in front of everyone and possibly ruin their good mood.

“You’ve been through a lot this year, but that was definitely the worst of it.” Naia leaned away from him and traced the scar tissue on his right arm. “Speaking of, has this been hurting lately?”

“Only if I overdo it while practicing magic.” He had channeled enough magic through his arm to shatter the bones, and it was sore on occasion. Some people had old football injuries, he had an old magic one. “Oh, before you make me forget, Ratu wanted me to tell you that she thinks Opal will be ready to come home in a month or so.”

“That’s great news!” Opal was a slime girl who had been injured in a fight with an angel. Over the course of several weeks, she had lived in Naia’s bathtub while Mike had fed her magic in an attempt to help her regain her proper shape. Eventually, Ratu and Tink had built a special containment unit in the Labyrinth for further treatment. Opal was one of a kind, a being created from the raw elements that angels and demons had been forged from.

Mike hadn’t understood the process itself, but once Ratu was finished, Opal would gain her independence. In the meantime, he had made sure to stop by every couple of days to visit both women and make sure they had everything they needed.

“Yeah, I thought so, too. I’m not sure about sleeping arrangements, but that’s just because she turns into a puddle when she sleeps. I feel bad buying her a giant bucket as a bedroom set, you know?” He slid his hands along Naia’s thighs, sending tiny streamers of energy into her body. Naia sighed in pleasure, then resumed grinding her pussy on his cock.

They took their time, sharing tender kisses as she pressed against his throbbing shaft. He grabbed her by the hips and adjusted her aim so that he could penetrate her on the next thrust, then let out a moan of delight as he sank into her warm depths.

“I’m not in a rush to finish,” he told her. “Slow and easy sounds really nice tonight.” It would also take his mind off of Velvet. Though time was capable of healing all wounds, grief was often an unwelcome visitor.

Naia smiled demurely as she rode him, her hips undulating slowly above his. Her vagina swirled around his cock in a maelstrom of sexual energy, teasing him with its suction. Able to manipulate her innards, Naia’s inner folds shifted in stages as her exterior went still. To an outside observer, it would look as if nothing was happening, but Mike was experiencing the best parts of a blowjob while buried deep inside Naia.

She kissed him as she ran her hands over his chest, pausing to tease his nipples. His hands went to her breasts, and he gave them a playful squeeze. He closed his eyes and buried his face in the crook of her neck, a small orgasm building up inside his body. His magic demanded to be released, but he held back.

Sometimes it was nice to take things slow.

“Ahem.”

Mike opened his eyes to see Yuki standing there, her gaze to the side. He tried to ignore the burning sensation in his cheeks. It wasn’t uncommon for the others to spot him having sex with someone else, but they rarely spoke up about it unless they wanted to join in.

Naia turned her head around so far that if she had bones, they would have broken.

“Hello, Yuki. Are you here to join us?”

It was the kitsune’s turn to blush. “Um, no. I knocked, but nobody answered. I thought I heard something, but it was so quiet, I thought that maybe I was wrong.”

“We’re just taking it slow tonight.” Naia’s calm voice was antithetical to the sensation of fingers and tongues suddenly teasing the head of his cock. The nymph could tell he was close, and was using his embarrassment to her advantage. “What’s on your mind?”

“I can come back,” she said.

“Nonsense. Mike doesn’t mind, don’t you?” She turned to face him and smiled coyly. Her pussy clamped down on his shaft, and he couldn’t remember what the question was about.

“Uh ... no?” His heart pounded in his chest as he was stealth-fucked in front of Yuki. What was the etiquette for such a situation? Naia had given the invite and been declined. Was he supposed to pull out?

As if sensing his distraction, Naia gripped him tightly with her thighs and pulled him even further inside of her.

“I was hoping I could use your bath tonight.” Yuki took a step backward toward the door. “After ... after you are done.”

“Um, yeah. Yeah, okay.” Mike fought to keep his voice steady as Naia buzzed all around him. Something was tugging at his balls and teasing the sensitive skin just below them.

“Oh, we won’t be long.” Naia winked at him. “Will we?”

“No?” His eyelid was twitching, but he wasn’t sure if anyone could see it.

“Thank you, I’ll just ... wait in my room.” Yuki moved toward the door and paused for a second, as if about to ask something else. Shaking her head, she turned and left.

“What was that about, do you suppose?” A naughty grin fixed itself on Naia’s face as she lifted her ass and slammed it down onto his thighs, sending a burst of water up the sides of the tub. He didn’t worry about the potential mess—Naia pulled any spills back into the tub with little more than a thought.

“Don’t ... know...” Mike grabbed her by the hips and channeled a surge of energy through her body. “But that was very naughty. Santa might not leave you any presents.”

“There’s only one thing I want coming down my chimney tonight.” Naia tilted her head back far enough that he could feel the tips of her hair brush against his thighs. Her pussy squeezed him so hard that he groaned. “I’m just worried about how such a massive thing will fit through it!”

Mike really wanted to make a joke about opening his package, but it was too late. Naia’s pussy was squeezing him in stages, and he blew a massive load deep inside of her. Her eyes lit up from within as she came in response, her whole body rippling in delight as she clung to his body and moaned his name in his ear.

They sat this way for several minutes, her pussy milking every last drop of cum out of his body. He sighed as all the tension left his muscles, then relaxed completely as she shifted her weight off of him.

“I should probably clean you up,” she told him with a grin as she kissed her way down his chest.

“You’re made of water,” he pointed out. “I’m already clean.”

“I’ll double check just to be sure.” She winked, then slid down his torso and took his still rigid cock in her mouth.

“Definitely want to be sure,” he muttered, closing his eyes and leaning back. Naia made cute little mewling sounds as she sucked him hard once more.

The elevator ride to the top of the sixty-four floor Manhattan building was long, but Lily endured it. The man standing in front of her winked over his shoulder as he tucked his security card into a pocket.

“We’ll get some food in your belly soon enough,” he told her. “You can make it another minute or two.”

“Thank you so much, mister.” She hid a smile. The man, Anton Lee Dalles, was watching her in the reflection of the doors. She clutched the snow-dusted blanket tighter around her body. “I thought I might freeze to death out there.”

“And you might have,” he replied. “It’s supposed to dip into the single digits tonight. I’m surprised you weren’t at one of the shelters.”

“There was someone there I would prefer to avoid.” She gazed adoringly at Anton’s back, knowing the man was watching her every movement. “But I didn’t expect it to get so cold.”

He licked his lips, and she noticed the fingers of his left hand flexing. He shifted it out of sight, but he couldn’t hide his desires from her.

The elevator doors opened, revealing a small lobby with some chairs and a set of double doors. He pulled a key out of his pocket and unlocked the doors and pushed them open.

“Thank you,” she said as she walked in, making sure to drip extra snow on the floor. The suite was enormous, and a large tree had been decorated by the window overlooking the city. Down below, the world had been blanketed in snow. If not for the last minute rush for gifts, the streets would have been largely deserted. “Wow, you must be loaded, mister!”

“I do well enough for myself,” he told her as he walked over to a mini-bar. “Would you like something to drink?”

Lily shook her head, allowing thick auburn curls to tumble free of her blanket. “I’m only nineteen,” she told him. “I don’t want to cause you any trouble.”

Anton chuckled, pouring two glasses of scotch. “This is the penthouse suite,” he told her. “Anything that happens here will stay between us.”

Lily crossed the room and accepted the drink with a gloved hand. The fingertips were gone, and she sniffed the scotch. “Wow, it smells so strong!”

“It’s fifty years old,” he told her, then sipped. She mimicked him, letting the liquid fire roll across her tongue. When she swallowed, she coughed dramatically, and he took the glass from her with a smile.

“It can be an acquired taste,” he said, then gestured to the kitchen. “Are you hungry? I could fix you something.”

Lily nodded, allowing him to go through his nice guy act. He spent almost forty minutes preparing her an amazing meal as the sun vanished behind the nearest buildings. It was a gourmet soup made from pork broth with plenty of fresh vegetables chopped up in it. He encouraged her to try some more scotch, and she obliged. A warm buzz filled her body as she allowed the alcohol to combine with whatever he had spiked the soup with.

“You have such a lovely home,” she told him as she finished up her meal. “Are you sure I can stay the night? I would hate to get it dirty with these clothes.”

“It isn’t a problem,” he told her with a smile. “If you’re worried about it, you can take a quick shower and change. I have some clothes your size that you can wear.”

“Um...” Lily played coy, crossing her arms. “Why do you have women’s clothes?”

He chuckled as he picked up her dishes. “They belonged to my daughter. She’s all grown up now, they’re left over from when she lived here. I never got around to re-doing her bedroom is all. I’m always busy with other stuff.” His voice was reassuring, but she could practically smell his arousal.