Free Yuletide Mischief by Dahlia Rose Page B

the where Loki sat and reached across the table to take his hand. He pulled away and a menacing sound came from the back of his throat.
    “You loved me once. It can be that way again. Leave this mortal, this life of servitude to Odin and be with me,” she practically purred.
    “Oh, woman, have a little respect for yourself,” Vivi muttered.
    “Don’t dare speak to me, human,” she snapped. “This is between me and him.”
    “No, she actually speaks for me right now. Have some decency to know that you’re not wanted by me, by your people, by anyone,” Loki said. “I was a child then, but no more. I was not in love, but in lust. I know the true meaning of the word now. I was offered a gift and accepted. It took a long time for me to figure that out. But here you are, thousands of years later, still cold, still cruel, and full of hate. Go back to your desolation, and leave me out of it.”
    “You will all pay,” she screeched. “Especially you, Loki. You will suffer like no other.”
    “And I will be waiting to snap your neck when you try,” he replied.
    This time she didn’t use the door. With a flip of her long, glistening cape she disappeared in a flurry of snow and ice. The group of her people that stayed bowed before Odin. They were no longer trapped by her magic.
    “Let the festivities continue. This is a celebration!” Odin said loudly.
    The music started up again, and the guests got back into the flow. Before long, there was dancing and gifts being handed out. Madge’s little show was all but forgotten, but Vivi couldn’t help but wonder what the Snow Queen would do to get her revenge.
    Later that night, when the halls were silent and the fire was burning down in the hearth, Vivi lay in the arms of her new husband and voiced her concerns. They were lying on their side spooned together, fitting as perfectly as puzzle pieces and his body warmed hers beneath the thick blankets.
    He kissed her shoulder. “Madge always had a more blustery wind than actual power, even at the end of the war she chose to sacrifice her handmaidens while she escaped. I take no threat from her seriously. She is more bark than bite.”
    Vivi sighed and turned in his arms. “I couldn’t lose you to her evil, Loki. It would rip my heart to shreds.”
    “Nothing can take me away from you, Vivienne. Even if the stars came tumbling down from the heavens, I’d find a way back to you,” Loki said fiercely. “I love you, and even Madge didn’t get those words from my lips.”
    Vivi fingered the necklace he’d given her hours earlier. “I have a gift for you.”
    “What is it?” Loki said. “What we did a few moments ago is more than enough of a gift for me.”
    Vivi chuckled. “You are so bad, but it’s something Joko taught me. Call it my first act as a semi-immortal being and one full of love.”
    She whispered words still foreign to her tongue, but said them just as Joko had told her. It didn’t matter how they were said as long as she felt every word. She placed a kiss on his bare chest over his heart, and Loki gasped and arched. She saw a gold outline of her lips on his skin before it sunk into his chest, leaving not a trace, but she knew the magic had taken hold.
    “Take my love with you everywhere, even if I can’t be with you,” Vivi said. “Merry Christmas, my love.”
    “My darling, Vivienne, Merry Christmas. For the first time in a long time I actually love those words,” Loki said.
    “You’ll learn to love lots more before I’m through, Master of Mischief,” Vivi teased, pulling his head down to hers again.
    “Promises, promises,” he murmured fondly.
    Vivi giggled before his lips touched hers, and they gave themselves over to the magic of their love. They were opposites in so many ways, yet they fit together perfectly. Like magnets, where you found Loki, Vivi wouldn’t be too far behind. The Yule had brought her the man of her dreams, and she would follow him to the ends of the Earth…and