Hellebore’s Holiday

  A holiday gone horribly wrong drops Hellebore in a prison and sets her on a frantic search for freedom with unlikely allies.

  Hellebore wants some time off from the singing, from being pressured to perform. When she takes off in the beginning of December, she is shocked to find her normal portal turning into a one-way trip into a prison.

  With her head a bloody mess, she is taken to the doctor who treats her wounds with a confident touch. She gets the briefing on the prison, but one tiny detail is left out. Their prison is a holding area for a Christmas detachment.

  All eight men are being held for crimes against their people’s traditions, but she finds that they are not all criminal. With a little bit of effort, she manages to send messages and get in touch with the outside world. Having friends is a very good thing when you are trapped for Christmas.

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  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Hellebore’s Holiday

  Copyright © 2013 Viola Grace

  ISBN: 978-1-77111-757-9

  Cover art by Martine Jardin

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.

  Published by Devine Destinies

  An imprint of eXtasy Books

  Look for us online at:

  www.devinedestinies.com

  Hellebore’s Holiday

  A Nexus Universe Tale

  By

  Viola Grace

  Chapter One

  Hellebore Anders drove her car down the highway through the blinding snow. She was on her way to a pickup spot for a transport to a vacation spot. Seeing the birth of the midnight elf a few months ago had changed one of her prime outlooks on life.

  The future had suddenly taken a position front and centre in her plans.

  She hadn’t been able to arrange time away from her day job in time to enjoy a vacation after her time in the shifter’s house, so now, she was using her connections to take off just a few weeks before Christmas.

  “Are you sure that you want to go out in this weather?” Amaryllis Anders has asked her daughter.

  “I am fine, Mom. Just be glad I am not driving my bike. Even I can’t do anything against a Saskatchewan blizzard.” Hellebore had gone outside to see her father checking her snow tires.

  “They are brand new, Dad. I even had them tightened. I promise to drive safe until I get where I am going.”

  Her father looked at her with his sun-weathered features grim. “Take care, Bells.”

  “I will, Dad. I promise. I just need to sort some things out.”

  With the wind blowing around them, scraping them with ice, they faced each other, and her father nodded. “I know that being what you are isn’t easy. Take what time you need, we will be here when you work out what you need to work out.”

  She hugged him, smelling the gasoline, oil and ground-in dirt of his outer jacket. It was one of her smells of home, and she locked it in her mind.

  She slid into her car with her bag in the back seat, and she waved at him as she drove off to the GPS coordinates where her gate was waiting.

  Transport gates on routes in the human world were tricky, so they were devised in two parts. One part was set in place by the mage, and the person who was going to use it carried the other.

  Since the call to attend her second cousin’s wedding, Hellebore and her band had been called out on fourteen different events, and therefore, she now had a helluva collection of transport fobs. She checked the GPS for the third time and started to accelerate carefully.

  Ice under her caused her to slide and the flash of her transport blinded her. She thudded to a halt when her tires grabbed a solid surface and she hit the brakes. Her airbag deployed and everything got bright before it got dark.

  Her horn was blaring as a hand touched her shoulder. “Miss? Miss, are you awake?”

  She blinked and looked over at the owner of the voice. It rolled over her like water and licked at her skin. “I am awake. Did I hit anyone?”

  He chuckled and reached across her to release her seatbelt. “No one out here to hit. I don’t know why you are here or how you got here, but you didn’t hit a thing.”

  His features shifted as she stared at him, blurring as she blinked the blood out of her eyes.

  “Out you come.” He eased her out of the car.

  “My bag is in the back.”

  “I see it. I will get it as soon as you are settled. It looks like you split your forehead. How many fingers do you see?”

  She blinked and narrowed her eyes as a fan of digits waved in front of her. “Fifteen?”

  “Okay, concussion is a possibility. Stay awake. I don’t want to have to explain you to the Doc.” He eased her into the back of a car. She saw grills and the plate that told her she was in some kind of law-enforcement vehicle.

  He tucked her bag into his trunk and closed the door to her vehicle, taking the keys with him. He checked on her and gave her a quick wink. “Hold on, it is five minutes away.”

  She had never been in a law-enforcement vehicle that was using all of its horsepower before, but her head pounded hard enough that she couldn’t enjoy it.

  To her surprise, the vehicle eased to a halt just as she was beginning to compose a song to the pounding in her head.

  “Stay still; I will bring you into the aide station.”

  Her head was still throbbing, so she did as he asked.

  He lifted her again and brought her in, activating the door with a kick. The door opened slowly, and he whistled sharply.

  “Ow.”

  “Sorry. Doc Larsen will be here shortly. His receptionist is…uh…off today.” There was a slight wavering of his tone that let Hellebore know he was concealing something.

  The doctor came out, and she heard him say, “The exam table.”

  The officer carrying her set her down carefully.

  The doctor asked, “What happened?”

  “Single vehicle incident.”

  “Was she texting?”

  Hellebore snorted as careful fingers examined her forehead. “Like hell. My phone was in my bag, in the back seat.”

  The doctor paused. “What did you hit?”

  The officer chuckled. “I was trying to say, she didn’t hit anything. Her airbag went off, and she was on the side of Diablo Road.”

  Hellebore’s senses were skewed, so she had no idea if the men she was with were human or not. She could not tell them that she had gone from skidding on ice to the dry roads of wherever she was through a magic portal. She wasn’t even sure that this was her designed destination. She wouldn’t be sure of anything until she could call Abby or Raven and get a confirmation of her location. Abby would be a better bet.

  The doctor hummed as he poked and prodded at her skin. She felt a trickle of ice followed by a rush of heat. She sighed in relief as she recognized the touch of a healer.

  He began to wipe at her fore
head and eyes, cleaning her up. “You are lucky, miss. Just a tiny little nick that bled like the dickens.”

  She snorted. “You don’t say.”

  She closed her eyes as he swiped the blood off her lids.

  She grabbed at his hand. “I can finish that.” She felt the waves of heat that pulsed up her arm where she touched his gloved hand.

  She opened her eyes and looked at him. What her mind had been designing when she heard his voice paled in comparison to the reality. His black hair was tied in a short ponytail, but it managed to conceal what she was sure were pointed ears. There were streaks of silver in the black, but she figured it had more to do with genetics than age.

  His skin spoke of Polynesian ancestry, as did his dark brown eyes.

  “Larsen?” she raised her eyebrows.

  “Indeed. Officer Neer didn’t get your name, and he doesn’t like to rifle through bags unless necessary.”

  “Oh. Hellebore Anders.” She sat up and looked down at her clothing. Blood spotted everything. She scowled.

  “Interesting name.”

  “Thank you. It is the only one I have. I have travel insurance, or do you want cash for the visit?” It was a defensive reaction to an attractive male. She couldn’t help it, but she kicked herself as soon as the words were out.

  “It is on the house. It was a quiet day anyway.” He helped her to her feet. “You can clean up in the bathroom over there.”

  Her head was no longer pounding, and the sound of his voice was music to her ears. She was always a sucker for good audio stimulation, and it seemed that wherever she was, she was getting it.

  Chapter Two

  Doc Larsen went outside and jerked his head at his friend. “Neer, what is she?”

  “I have no idea. She smells like a beach. Sunlight and water.” The werewolf scratched his nose.

  “So, she probably knows that I healed her then. That injury involved bleeding on her brain. Whatever she hit, she hit it hard.”

  “I told you, she didn’t hit anything.”

  Doc scowled, “What did you notice about her vehicle?”

  “There was water under it, lots of it. It smelled like water, and it was cold to the touch.”

  It suddenly clicked. “She came through a portal and changed terrain.”

  Yulo Neer nodded with understanding. “And her car stopped, her brakes engaged and her airbag deployed. I will head back and check her car for any talismans then get it towed into the garage. Rown will be only too happy to have something to work on.”

  “Good. Do you have her bag? I will take her to the inn and get her settled.”

  Officer Neer took the bag out of his trunk and handed it over. “I will keep her keys to get her car moving. No sense in damaging her vehicle if we can just drive it onto the truck.”

  Doc nodded. “I will get back to our guest. I can’t believe that she just got tossed in here with us.”

  “Don’t scare her. This one could be a good addition if she is as stuck as the rest of us.”

  “I hope for her sake that it isn’t the case. We know why we are here. Don’t forget that.”

  Officer Neer nodded and got into his car. “I am hoping my time is almost up, Doc.”

  “I know. We will know in a few days.” Doc waved him off and returned to the aide station. His own sentence had taken four centuries to date. He wasn’t expecting to get out anytime soon.

  Inside the station, he looked around for his guest. She was humming in that hypnotic voice of hers and still in the bathroom. “I brought your bag in if you care to change shirts.”

  She laughed and opened the door. Her white shirt was transparent with moisture and he couldn’t help staring. She was wearing lingerie under that shirt with little roses on it. His mind began counting them, and when she grabbed her bag and pulled it away, closing the door again, he shook himself out of his fixation.

  Her hair was in a tight tail, but the blood red was an amazing colour when coupled with her pale, pearly skin and bright blue eyes. She reminded him of the tropical fish of his mother’s home.

  * * * *

  Hellebore tried to get the pink out of her cheeks while she stripped off the lace camisole and replaced it with another and a button-down shirt. It was warm here, but the Doc’s fixation on her torso made her want to cover up.

  She exited the bathroom with her parka folded over and wadded through the handles. “Where am I?”

  “Don’t you know?” He sat at the receptionist’s desk and twirled around slowly.

  She blinked and narrowed her eyes at him. “I just suffered a head injury. I am dazed and confused.”

  “It was just a nick.”

  “I was seeing multiples of everything. It was a full-on concussion with a three-inch laceration. Just because you healed it, doesn’t mean it wasn’t there.” She put her hands on her hips awkwardly, her bag banging against her thigh.

  “So, you know what I am. What are you?”

  She blinked. “I am a tourist who was supposed to be on a vacation to get away from the demands on my life so that I could figure out what I wanted to do. That is what I am.”

  “And aside from that?”

  “A singer. Nothing more.”

  “Your blood is full of magic.”

  “Is it?” she batted her lashes. “Where can I go to arrange to have my car towed?”

  “Officer Neer is taking care of that. He is getting the car to the garage for repairs. I am going to escort you to the inn where Irgano will take care of your needs. He is a competent innkeeper, and everyone in our little community comes to the inn for drinks every evening. A little bit of community spirit.”

  She smiled tightly. “Well then, point me toward the inn and I will be out of your hair.”

  Doc Larsen got to his feet and walked to the door. “This way, Miss Anders.”

  “Just call me Hellebore, or Hells.” She sighed. Bells was reserved for friends and family.

  “Hells is not a name that suits you.”

  “You haven’t seen me on my bike.”

  “Bike?”

  “I normally ride a motorcycle when the weather allows it.”

  “Ah.” He smiled, “Well, I guess I should show you to the inn.”

  “There is only one?”

  He chuckled. “Right, you have not seen the town. Well, that will be remedied immediately. Come with me.” Doc Larsen reached for the door.

  Hellebore followed with the perky trot of curiosity.

  Drops of blood marked the path from the now-missing car to the clinic door. “I hope it rains soon. I would hate for my blood to be at your door all week.”

  “It will disappear soon enough.”

  The sun was warm and the air was dry with only a hint of a body of water a few miles away. She lifted her head and scented the air out of reflex. Freshwater at least five miles across. Nice.

  Hellebore looked around and almost stumbled to a halt. She had heard of a one-horse town before but had never been in one. There was one garage, one inn, one sheriff station, a general store and the clinic.

  “Uh, your town is really compact.”

  He laughed. “We know. I don’t know if you realise where you are, but it isn’t the human world. Not anymore.”

  She stopped following him. “What?”

  He turned back to her. “I don’t know where you were headed, but you have landed in a prison. Eight males have been confined here for acting in manners deemed inappropriate by our various councils.”

  Hellebore was shocked. “What?”

  “Each of us has been banished here until we learn the lesson that our council heads or clan leaders wanted us to learn. When we have completed our sentences, we get to leave.” He smiled. “I am sure that your arrival here was an accident.”

  Hellebore thought about her great grandmother and the distaste that she had for Hellebore’s human lifestyle. If anyone could get someone to reroute a transport gat
e, it was the mermaid Matriarch.

  “I think I need a drink.”

  Doc Larsen smiled, “Come this way. Irgano will be able to fix you up.”

  “Irgano?”

  “Eagle shifter, guilty of Icarus’s sin. He aimed above his station. He can tell the story better than I can.”

  She fumbled in her bag for her phone. No bars. “Damn it.”

  “It won’t change in the next few minutes. Come and have a seat. You need the standard briefing.”

  “There is a standard briefing?” She whispered it to his back as she trailed after him, considerably less curious than she had been.

  He merely led the way diagonally across the street and into the inn. “Irg, we have a new arrival.” Doc Larsen had called out from the doorway before he entered.

  Another voice answered. “I will get a room ready.”

  “A private room. She’s going to need it.”

  Hellebore followed the doctor into the inn and found the bar by the distinctive scent of wood and alcohol. The man coming toward her had the gait of a predator, but he displayed none of the grace when he saw her and crashed into the wall.

  “She’s a woman!”

  Hellebore snorted. “I am. Can I get a coffee with a shot of Irish cream?”

  His gold-amber eyes blinked and kept shifting from avian to human as she watched.

  Doc Larsen grinned, “Better get it yourself. There is usually a pot of coffee going behind the bar.”

  The doctor took Irgano by the scruff of his neck and shoved him toward the stairs. “Go get her a room.”

  The avian shifter stumbled again as he headed up the stairs but that is what happened when you were trying to look in two directions at the same time.

  “You are going to be a disruption in our lives, Hellebore.” Doc shook his head.

  “Yeah, like this is what I had planned for a vacation.” She snorted and ran a hand across her scalp. “My parents are going to be worried.”