A Peyton Family Christmas (southern arcana )

  A Peyton Family Christmas

  ( Southern Arcana )

  Moira Rogers

  Holiday Cheer, Southern Arcana Style

  A free short story set after Crossroads and before Deadlock.

  This story contains major spoilers for Crossroads. Read with caution!

  Life has settled down for Nicole Peyton and Derek Gabriel. They've fought battles and won, but friends and family still struggle with the scars. During their first Christmas together, surrounded by the people they love most, Derek and Nick give each other the less tangible gifts that matter most--and the too tangible gifts that mean forever.

  A Peyton Family Christmas

  Southern Arcana - 2.4

  by

  Moira Rogers

  “I didn"t steal the jet.” Nick tightened her grip on the ranch truck"s cold steering wheel and cast a sidelong glance at her passenger. “I borrowed it.”

  “Uh-huh.” Next to her, Kat squinted out through the frosted window. “I can"t remember the last time I saw this much snow.”

  “A white Christmas.” Derek had been enjoying it, but it paled next to how much he wanted to see his baby cousin. “He"s going to be so glad to see you.”

  “Who, Derek?” Before Nick could answer, Kat half-laughed. “No, of course Derek. Luciano and your dad probably aren"t breathless with anticipation or anything.”

  “We"ve all missed you.”

  “I missed you too. I"ve just...been busy.”

  You didn"t have to be an empath of Kat"s caliber to hear the lie, but Nick let it slide. “Mahalia"s here, you know. For the holidays.”

  “Yeah?” For the first time since Nick had coaxed Kat out of her dim, cluttered apartment, the girl seemed to brighten a little. “I thought she"d be back in Boca by now.”

  She probably would have been if Nick"s father hadn"t asked her to stay. “My dad is a little worried about Michelle. Well, he"s worried about Michelle’s worrying, if you know what I mean.”

  “Yeah. I"ll be able to tell. If she"s worrying too much, I mean.”

  Again, you didn"t need to be an empath to know. “She is, definitely, but there"s no way around it.” It had been long enough for Nick"s shock to wear off and the grim reality to set in. “The love of her life is dead, and the only thing keeping her alive is this charade with Luciano.”

  A quiet noise of sympathy escaped Kat. “Poor Michelle.”

  Driving with tears in her eyes was a recipe for disaster, so Nick dashed them away and shook her head. “You"re going to like Luciano. He"s a good guy.”

  “He must be.” Kat"s borrowed winter coat rustled as she turned a little in the seat. “Have you heard anything about how Andrew"s doing?”

  According to Alec, her main source for updates, Andrew had had a rough time of it, but was doing surprisingly well. “He"s making it. A strong wolf, which makes it harder in some ways, but he"ll be all right.”

  “For sure? There"s nothing else that can go wrong?”

  “No.” Pretty much everything that could have changed or gone south in Andrew"s life already had. “He"s going to be fine, Kat. He"s still himself, and he"s doing a good job of getting the wolf under control.”

  “Okay. He"s fine.” Kat sucked in a breath and let it out in a gusty, tired sigh. “New problem. I, uh, didn"t know I was coming up here. Obviously.”

  “I didn"t kidnap you, either,” Nick said automatically, just in case. “What do you need? Clothes? Contact lens solution?”

  “Presents.” She sounded honestly concerned. “I don"t have presents for anyone.”

  It was so unexpected that Nick blinked. “You"re worried about stuff?”

  Out of the corner of her eye, she caught Kat"s cheeks turning bright pink.

  “It"s Christmas. I don"t have anything to give everyone.”

  “Hey, you"re here. That"s a million times better than stuff.”

  Kat wrinkled her nose in a gesture Nick hadn"t seen in months. “Depends on who you ask.”

  Almost a joke, and it gave Nick hope. “Ask your cousin in about ten minutes, because this is it. The ranch.”

  Kat turned to look out the window again, a little of her old curiosity bubbling to the surface. “So it"s ten minutes from here to the main house?”

  “Mostly because the road winds around some foothills. The ranch isn"t actually that big. Just horses.”

  “Everything I know about horse ranches I learned from questionably accurate books.”

  “Mm-hmm. I know all about your dirty cowboy fetish. Plus, I saw the romance novels you and Mackenzie sent up for Michelle.”

  Kat actually smiled. “If there aren"t ten stupidly hot men working for Luciano, I"m going back home.”

  Nick laughed. “There are a few, and if you tell your cousin I said so, I"ll deny it.”

  “No one with eyes would believe it,” Kat murmured. “You don"t see anyone else.”

  No, there had been only Derek, for so long it still seemed surreal that he"d put a ring on her hand and promised to marry her. “I better not have to come and drag your ass to the wedding on a purloined jet, by the way.”

  “You won"t have to. And I thought you didn"t steal the jet.”

  “I didn"t.” She cleared her throat. “My dad just doesn"t know I took it.”

  When Kat laughed this time, it didn"t sound quite so rusty. “You Peytons rebel in style. I stole Derek"s car once, when I was nineteen. Never stole a private jet, though.”

  “Stick with me, kid.” Then she snorted, because she had less than two years on Kat, but you wouldn"t know if from the way everyone treated her.

  “Sorry, it"s not funny. You"re not a kid any more than I am, but everyone forgets that—including me—and it sucks.”

  Kat didn"t bother to lie. “Yeah, sometimes. But I don"t put up all that much of a fight, especially with Derek. Sometimes he needs that, and I get it.”

  He needed it less these days, but it was hard to tell if that translated to freedom or near abandonment for Kat. “I don"t know when we"ll get back down to New Orleans, but we"re going to. I promise.”

  It had never been easy to hide things from Kat. “Your sister needs you, and I"ve got some stuff to work through on my own. Derek is great when you need a champion or a protector, but he"s not so good at letting you pick yourself up just so you know you can.”

  “Especially not when he"s used to thinking of himself as your guardian, I suppose.”

  “God help your kids, Nick. Maybe, if you"re lucky, he won"t lock them in a padded room until they"re thirty.”

  After some of the difficulties Michelle had already experienced in her pregnancy, Nick would be lucky to escape that same padded room before their children were born. “Maybe he"ll mellow with age?” she suggested.

  “Uh-huh.” Kat"s lips twitched, and she tugged up the high collar on her coat, presumably to hide her smile. “Here"s to hoping.”

  They lapsed into silence for the rest of the drive. The guest house came into view first, followed quickly by the main house, though it was hard to see anything beyond the outline of twinkling white Christmas lights in the encroaching darkness. “There it is.”

  “Wow.” The younger woman used her mitten to clear the fogged window.

  “It"s huge.”

  “Right?” Nick was accustomed to the careful use of space in the French Quarter, and it had taken her a while to get used to the sprawl of the ranch house. “You"ll get lost a few times, there"s no way around that.”

  Kat was still staring, eyes wide. “I don"t know what I was expecting. All of you crushed into a house like Alec"s, maybe. No wonder Luciano doesn"t mind all the guests.”

  In addition to the
second, smaller house used for visitors, Derek and Luciano had been talking about adding another wing to the main home. “Not guests,” Nick corrected as she parked and shut off the engine. “Family.”

  “Family,” Kat echoed in a whisper. “We haven"t had much of that. Not since our parents died.”

  No, they hadn"t. Nick slid her hand across the seat and squeezed Kat"s.

  “Come on. Let"s go see what kind of trouble your cousin"s gotten into in my absence.”

  Dashing across the yard was miserable, a blast of cold so profound it made Nick"s bones ache, but warmth greeted them when she slammed open the front door. “Cookies,” she chattered. “I smell cookies.”

  Kat fumbled her mittens off and commenced a fight with the zipper on her fluffy coat. “Sugar cookies. Derek is addicted to them.”

  “But he never burns them.” An acrid edge still lingered in the air, proof enough that whoever had been doing the baking had scorched at least one batch. “Did I miss dinner?” she called as she unzipped her own coat.

  “Nick?” Derek"s voice reached them before the sound of his footsteps. “I was just showing Michelle how to...” The words trailed off, and his footsteps quickened.

  Next to her, Kat shifted nervously. “He can probably tell I"m—”

  “Kat.” Derek rounded the corner from the hallway and swept his wide-eyed cousin up into a hug that left her snow-covered boots dangling three inches off the ground. After a second, her arms went around his neck, and Nick heard the way her breath hitched when Derek murmured, “I missed you, kiddo.”

  The grateful look he shot her over Kat"s shoulder was nothing compared to the happiness that was already melting through his shock, and it was entirely worth admitting what she"d done. “I stole the jet.”

  * * *

  Kat had been there for four hours, and she already had Michelle"s laptop in pieces.

  Derek leaned against the door frame, half watching as Kat pointed to various parts of the computer and described their function to Michelle. Nick"s sister was either honestly interested or faking it so well Derek couldn"t tell the difference. Either way, it was a scene just shy of surreal.

  Derek ducked back into the kitchen and accepted a mug of coffee from Luciano. “Better keep an eye on her. She"ll be rewiring your security system next.”

  “With all the protective spells Mahalia"s been busy laying, the thing"s dead weight now anyway.” Luciano closed the last cookie tin and grinned. “Are you feeling the Christmas spirit now?”

  Clearly he hadn"t been as subtle as he"d thought. “I haven"t had a Christmas without her in...God only knows, man. Before our parents died. Her dad and my mom were both serious about the holidays.”

  “You should have said something. Then again, I guess you didn"t have to, after all.”

  No, he hadn"t. He"d called Kat once or twice to invite her up for the holidays—careful conversations where he"d gritted his teeth against the urge to push her. Kat had been through hell, and he could see the chasm behind her, waiting to swallow her whole. Such a delicate balance, trying to assure he was there without making her feel trapped.

  Nick must have seen how much those calls took out of him. How exhausted he would be after hanging up the phone, how worried. “I don"t know how she managed it,” Derek admitted, sliding onto a stool set at the counter. “Nick, I mean. Maybe Kat just needed an invitation from someone who wasn"t me.”

  Luciano arched an eyebrow. “I wouldn"t put it past your little fiancée to drag her onto the plane. Literally.”

  A few months ago, he might have laughed. But the last people to try to drag Kat anywhere had ended up worse than dead. Empathy, it turned out, could do some fucking scary things when fueled by a powerful gift—or powerful fear.

  Derek shook off the momentary moment of bleakness and reminded himself that Kat was here, safe, and clearly willingly enough. “Maybe it"s the simple fact that Nicky Peyton doesn"t take „no" for an answer. From anyone.”

  “No. No, she doesn"t.” Luciano sighed. “To be honest, I hope Michelle"s like that under all the crap the Conclave heaped on her for so long.”

  “She is.” In that fact, Derek had absolute confidence. “It"ll take time, though. Her life before... I can"t even imagine what she went through.”

  “You don"t want to. I wish I didn"t know.”

  The Conclave had feared her. Derek knew all too well what it was like to fight every day against the disdain of the ruling elite. “For better or worse, we"re all out of it now. No politics here. No Conclave. Family.”

  “Damn straight.” Luciano crossed the room and opened the pantry. “Want a little kick in your coffee? Gus stocks liqueurs sometimes.”

  “Lay it on me.” Derek set down his mug and reached for a cookie tin. A few at the top were crisp around the edges, and remembering Michelle"s cute little frown of frustration made him smile. She looked nothing like her sister most of the time, but Nick sometimes glared at things in the exact same way, with her eyebrows pulled together and her lips pursed.

  Of course, Nick usually followed such an expression with curses foul enough to make a grown man flinch. Michelle had actually uttered the word drat. Derek had assured her that he"d eat the burned cookies, so he picked up three of them now. “Is anyone going in to town tomorrow? Kat"s going to fret until I take her to buy some last minute gifts for everyone.”

  “Take my SUV.” Luciano had barely driven it since having it delivered, but he"d insisted that an old pickup truck with a bench seat and questionable suspension wasn"t appropriate anymore. Not with a baby on the way.

  One of a dozen little ways he"d changed life at his ranch, so carefully and quietly that perhaps Michelle didn"t even notice. Derek supposed that was the point—Luciano"s way of taking care of the wife who was wife in name only, and still weighed down by grief.

  He swallowed a mouthful of slightly singed cookie and nodded. “Thanks.

  After Christmas, I think Nick and I are going to buy a car of our own. Since you"re pretty well stuck with us for the foreseeable future.”

  Luciano laughed. “Nick mentioned bringing her car up from Louisiana, but then started talking about getting a Land Rover instead.”

  “Car, Land Rover... Whatever works.” His next bite of cookie was particularly burned, and he made a face as he rose. “I"m going to run over to the guest house and check on Nick. If Kat comes looking for me, send her over, would you?”

  “Want me to have her call first?” Luciano asked with mock innocence.

  Derek made a rude gesture, then slipped out the back door and braved the quick run to the guest house in his sweater, his shoulders hunched against the wind. It wasn"t far, at least, and the lights glowing from the windows pooled across fresh snow that had fallen that morning.

  He was shivering by the time he slipped through the front door. “Nick, you over here still?”

  “I"m here.” She appeared in the kitchen archway, a bowl in one hand.

  “Want some soup?”

  “Just ate half a dozen cookies.” Three long strides took him across the room, where he bent down to kiss her forehead. “You are amazing. Do I tell you that enough?”

  She dropped the bowl—which, thankfully, was empty—and slid her arms around him. “I don"t know. How often is enough?”

  “Every day, at least.” Straightening his body pulled her off the ground, but she was used to tangling her legs around his hips, and shapeshifter strength had its advantages. “How"d you do it? How"d you get her on the plane?”

  “Told her she didn"t have to put on a happy face or anything, but you missed her. And it"s Christmas.”

  “How was she—” He bit his tongue, told himself not to pry. Failed. “Was she okay, when you showed up? I mean, is she putting on a happy face?”

  Nick bit her lip and tilted her head. “Yeah, I think so. But it hasn"t been very long, Derek. She needs time, and we can"t begrudge her that. Or push her.”

  Kat had killed to protect the man she loved. Derek had killed t
o protect Nick and her family, but he"d won, and had the woman who made the fight worth it. Kat had nothing to show for what she"d done but heartache and a man who couldn"t bring himself to see her. If he"d fought a challenge and had lost Nick anyway...

  His throat felt tight. “Time,” he agreed gruffly. “I can give her that. As much as she needs.”

  “Yeah.” Nick laid her head on his shoulder. “This is a start. We"re not right next door anymore, but we"re still here for her.”

  We. God, he loved that word. Loved knowing that Nick would take care of Kat as surely as he"d fight for Michelle. The truest kind of comfort, having someone he could trust with the people most important to him. “When I left, she was teaching your sister about laptop motherboards.”

  “She was not.”

  “She must have had the screwdriver in her back pocket or something.

  Pieces of Michelle"s computer are all over the table.”

  Nick"s soft laugh tickled his skin, a precursor to the gentle scrape of her teeth. “How long do you think it"ll keep them occupied?”

  Over a month with her in his bed, and the barest touch still stirred him.

  “Not nearly long enough for everything I want to do with you.”

  “Obviously, you should make a list and start prioritizing.” She laughed again. “I"m way ahead of you on that, because there"s one thing I want to do more than anything else.”

  She kissed him, not an easy peck or a slow exploration, but a kiss blazing with a need that took him back to the earliest days, when instinct rode every touch and the mating urge boiled over without warning, leaving them helpless in the grip of desire.

  Not so different than how it felt as he groaned and eased her higher, lips parting over hers. Except it wasn"t just the mating instinct now, but also affection and love, which magnified every touch until she threw her head back with a shaky groan.

  “We have to go back,” she muttered. “And if we don"t go now, we won’t. I swear to God, I"ll tie you to the bed and keep you there for a week.”

  Derek eased her to the ground, not because her idea didn"t sound good, but because it sounded damn good—and now wasn"t the time to give in to temptation. “I"m taking the SUV into town tomorrow so Kat can do some shopping. Do you need anything while we"re there?”