I just finished this today, and it hasn’t been edited yet, but I thought you might enjoy this Christmas bonus story from my Death Before Dragons series. It takes place between Books 7 and 8, so if you’re not caught up with the series and don’t like spoilers, you might want to wait to read it. That said, it’s not super spoiler heavy, and you could probably read it even if you haven’t read these books. You just won’t know who all these crazy characters are!
Thanks for reading, and have an awesome Christmas!
Gifts
“Who goes skiing for Christmas?” I paced around the living room, eyeing the photo Amber had sent of herself and a friend on a gleaming white mountain slope. “Christmas means spending obligatory time with your loved ones, opening sweaters knitted by grandma, and cringing over how lame your family is.”
Dimitri paused in hanging Star Wars ornaments on the tree to peer at the photo. “I thought she was up there with your ex and that they went every year.”
“She is. But that’s only half of her family.” I placed a hand on my chest, then spread it toward the room. “Look how cool our decorations are. And normal, not weird.”
When I’d suggested that Amber and Thad come by for Christmas Eve and wait to start their ski trip until later in the week, Amber had rolled her eyes and said my place was too weird for Christmas. Not true. Star Wars ornaments aside, the robust eight-foot noble fir, the star threatening to scrape the textured paint off the ceiling, was completely normal. And so were the five stockings dangling from the fireplace mantle. Never mind that one of the stockings was for a dragon, one was for a vampire, and if my mother had her way, we would soon add one for her dog.
“If anyone had invited me skiing,” Dimitri said, “I would have gone.”
“You hate skiing. Didn’t you say that’s why you left Bend?”
“I left because Seattle has more work and a better club scene, but we’re enjoying a wet Christmas instead of a white one, so I can see the appeal of going up to Whistler.” Dimitri thumped me on the arm. “You should be happy she sent you a photo. That means she’s thinking of you.”
“It’s in a group message to twenty people. I think she’s just bragging to everyone that she got to go someplace fun.”
“Are you going to be grumpy all night?”
“No.” I sent Amber a photo of our tree and stuffed the phone in my pocket. “I’m just voicing some disgruntlement.”
Maybe it had been selfish to want Amber to come over for Christmas when I’d avoided having any contact with her or Thad for ten years, during which I’d missed all of their Christmases. Just because I’d reached out to Amber and managed to establish a relationship with her this year didn’t mean I should expect them to change their tradition.
“That’s what being grumpy is.” Dimitri hung another X-wing between a Roswell alien and a Jupiter ornament. Other people got pretty sparkling balls. We got the blown-glass solar-system set.
“These decorations are even geekier than the ones Thad usually puts up,” I said. “Where did you get them all?” Continue reading
If you read Book 6, you may know that I asked you guys whether you wanted to see more in the series. Lots of people said YES, so I’m working on a new book. I have tentative plans to write three more before retiring Val and Zav and switching to a new project in 2021.
