Santa' Wayward Elf Read online

  Resisting the impulse to look over her shoulder to see if the other elves were watching, Sosie took a deep breath and cautiously stepped off the ramp onto the hard ground. As she moved away from the transport sled, she tried to figure out where they’d landed, but all she could see through the translucent cloaking shield surrounding the sled was the night sky. They were on the roof of a building. Figgy. She wouldn’t be able to see a thing from up here.

  Hoping she could get a better look if she got closer to the parapet, she ventured farther from the sled until she was at the very edge of the cloaking shield. Unfortunately, the building they were on was one of the tallest in the area. She’d have to get right up to the edge of the roof if she wanted to see down to the streets below. That meant she was going to have to leave the safety of the cloaking shield.

  Sosie nibbled on her lower lip. The pilot had warned them to stay inside the shield, but she desperately wanted to see the city and this might be her only opportunity. It wasn’t as if transport sleds malfunctioned every day, after all. Besides, she was on top of a roof. The big people would never know she was there.

  She looked back at the sled and was relieved to see none of the other elves peeking out at her. She had the rooftop all to herself.

  Turning around, she took a deep breath and stepped through the cloaking shield. It rippled and flexed around her, making her feel as if she were underwater, and she hurried out the other side. Once there, she froze in place. She didn’t know what she was waiting for. Maybe for one of the big people to see her appear out of nowhere and run screaming in the other direction. Or for one of her fellow elves to come running after her and drag her back. Neither of those things happened. In fact, nothing happened at all.

  Laughing at her own foolishness, she ran to the parapet and eagerly looked over the side of the building, only to gasp and immediately take a step back, her stomach fluttering. Prickly fir tree, they were a long way up. Unlike BPs, her people tended to build structures a lot lower to the ground. Either that, or tunnel down into the ice. Even Santa’s house only had four floors, and two of those were underground. The building she was on definitely had more than that. Then again, BPs were a lot taller than elves, so they probably needed taller buildings.

  Gathering her courage, Sosie edged closer to the parapet and looked over it again more slowly this time. What she saw took her breath away. There were big people everywhere, hundreds of them in fact. Street sleds, too, zipping back and forth below her like snowballs on the first day of winter. And lights. More lights than she’d ever seen in her life. It was as if the whole city was aglow.

  Now that she was outside the cloaking shield, the sounds she’d first heard coming from the city didn’t seem as jarring as before. There were funny hornlike sounds mixed in with the motorized hum of the street sleds, and in between, she could hear voices, punctuated by occasional shouts and lots of laughter. Actually, all together, the sounds were amazingly beautiful. Loud and discordant for sure, especially compared to the serene calm she was used to in the North Pole, but beautiful nonetheless.

  Sosie leaned on the railing and gazed down at the city in fascination. As she watched the people scurry along the busy streets, she realized there was an odd, rhythmic beat accompanying the other sounds. Her pointed ears perked up under her hat. Was that music? If it was, it was unlike any she’d ever heard before. It was pulsing and hypnotic, and it made her want to sway back and forth.

  She scanned the street below, trying to pinpoint where the music was coming from. It was difficult to tell at first because there was so much going on down there, but after listening for a few moments, she realized it was pouring out the doors of the large building across the street. She frowned in confusion at the huge group of people lined up along the sidewalk outside. What were they were doing there? Then it struck her. It was a dance hall and the people were waiting to go inside. Her frown deepened. Why would they have to wait to go inside? The building looked quite big. Surely, they all could fit.

  As she stood there listening to the people talk and joke while they waited patiently for their turn to enter the building, it occurred to her that no one in the crowd was being violent. They weren’t yelling, or pushing and shoving, or physically attacking each other. None of the street sleds drove up onto sidewalk and ran into anyone. It didn’t look like the places the reporters from The Snow City Gazette had described. Maybe this city was nicer than the ones she’d seen on the news.

  Sosie propped her chin on her hand and looked longingly at the people going into the dance hall. She wished she could join them. She loved dancing, but unfortunately, she didn’t get a chance to do it much up in the North Pole. Between designing new toys, making prototypes, then producing thousands of copies of each of them—usually by hand—she barely had time to breathe. When she did have time to go to a dance hall, she usually sat at a table in the corner tapping her toe because no one ever asked her to dance. In her experience, guys didn’t like to dance with a partner who was taller than they were.

  But out here, on top of the roof where no one could see her, she didn’t have to be self-conscious and before she realized what she was doing, she was dancing back and forth in front of the parapet. She was twirling around when she caught the shimmer of the cloaking shield behind her. She’d forgotten all about the other elves.

  Heart racing, she stopped and darted a quick look at the sled, but of course she couldn’t see it behind the shield. She ran over and stuck her head through the shimmer of air. She let out a sigh of relief when she saw that none of the other elves had been watching her. That would have been embarrassing.

  She frowned at all the clanking, banging and swearing coming from the sled’s engine compartment area. From the sounds of it, they weren’t going anywhere soon.

  Sosie turned and was about to go back over to the parapet so she could do some more dancing when she suddenly got the craziest idea. Why dance all by herself up on a rooftop when she could go down and shake her tree skirt in the dance hall with the big people?

  She gave herself a mental shake. What was she thinking? She could get in serious trouble if anyone found out she’d left the transport sled. Then again, what were they going to do? Send her to the South Pole?

  She nibbled on her lower lip. Going down to mingle with the big people was more than crazy. It was insane. Not to mention possibly dangerous. Special Forces elves did it, of course, but only after years of intense training.

  But this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. How could to pass it up? Besides, she’d be back before the engineer got the sled running.

  Sosie darted another quick look through the shield to make sure her fellow elves weren’t watching, then ran around to the other side of the roof to look for the stairs. BPs did use stairs, didn’t they?

  She was still wondering about that when she spotted a door with the words neatly lettered on it. Good thing she could read BP languages. All those years of writing operating instructions had finally paid off. Turning the knob, she opened it cautiously and peeked inside. She didn’t see or hear anyone. Taking a deep breath, she slowly made her way down the steps.

  At the bottom, she eagerly grasped the doorknob, but then hesitated when she heard the sounds of the passing crowd outside. She caught her lower lip between her teeth. Figgy, there were a lot of BPs out there. What if they recognized her as an elf? What would they do? From everything she’d heard on the news, they weren’t very nice to anyone who was in any way different from them.

  Figuring her pointed ears were the biggest giveaway, she pulled her wool hat down more securely on her head to cover the tips, then fluffed her long, platinum blond hair over her shoulders before pushing open the door and resolutely stepping out onto the street.

  She’d intended to run directly across to the dance hall the moment she got outside, but instead, she stumbled to a halt, her eyes going wide. Oh, my Santa. There were so many people. And they were big.

  Well, actually, now that she saw them up clos
e, they weren’t as tall as she’d thought. In fact, quite a few of the women were almost her size. She’d expected them to be at least twice her height. But they weren’t. By her calculations, the average height of the men was about six feet, perhaps a little more. Still taller than she was, of course, but not enormously so.

  She pressed back against the door and held her breath, waiting for them to stop and stare at her, maybe even point. But they didn’t. In fact, other than a few of them throwing a glance or two her way as they passed, no one paid any attention to her. Pulling her hat over her ears had worked. Her identity was safe. Maybe this Special Forces thing wasn’t so tough, after all.

  Now that she didn’t have to worry about anyone knowing she was an elf, she turned her attention to the dance hall. Unfortunately, she’d come out further down than she’d thought, so she was going to have to cross to the other side of the street and walk a little bit to get to the dance house.

  She warily eyed the street sleds as they zipped up and down the busy thoroughfare. It seemed the reporter who’d done that exposé in The Snow City Gazette had been right about one thing. These BPs did drive like crazy people.

  Should she try to dart in front of the street sleds? Maybe it would be better to wait for a gap in the traffic. As fast as they were going, they were likely to run her down without stopping. She forced herself to wait patiently until she could safely cross, then ran as fast as she could to the other side.

  Resisting the urge to keep running all the way down the sidewalk to the dance hall, she stopped to look up at the top of the building she’d come from. She sagged with relief when she saw the shimmer of the cloaking shield surrounding the transport sled. Still there. Good.

  Reaching up to make sure her hat was still covering her ears, Sosie hurried down the sidewalk to the dance hall. She’d just run in, listen to the music, dance some, then go right back to the transport sled.

  She got so distracted by looking at all the interesting people, she barely realized she’d reached the dance hall until she was almost past it. She stopped and rushed back to the door. If she asked sweetly enough, maybe the people at the front of the line would let her slip in ahead of them.

  When she got to the door, she saw that two men were blocking the entrance. Snickerdoodle, they were huge. Almost twice as tall as she was, they had wide shoulders and broad chests that seemed to puff up whenever the next person in line approached them. She watched in fascination as they allowed certain people into the dance hall, while turning others away. Since she didn’t see anyone with an admission ticket of any kind, she wondered what the men based their decision on and whether they’d let her inside when she got in front of them.

  If she ever got in front of them. She frowned as she looked at the long line. Figgy, there were a lot of people. As slowly as they were moving, it would take hours for her to get inside. She couldn’t wait that long.

  Taking a deep breath, Sosie squeezed through a group of heavily made-up women trying to talk their way inside and stepped directly in front of the two men blocking the door. She hated being rude, but she didn’t have a choice. She had to get inside the dance hall. Ignoring the unhappy grumbling coming from the rest of the people in line, she smiled up at the giants.

  “Excuse me. I don’t mean to be rude, but I’m only in the city for a few minutes and I’d love to see inside your wonderful dance hall. May I please go in?”

  The man on the right didn’t look at her, but the other one—a completely adorable black man with a huge expanse of broad chest showing from behind his unbuttoned shirt—grinned down at her. Up close, he wasn’t as scary as she’d first thought. Actually, he was kind of cute—in a big, ol’ teddy-bear kind of way.

  His grin broadened as he took in her red, wool jacket, multicolored, horizontal-striped leggings, green skirt and low black boots with their slightly upturned toes. “Baby doll, I’m absolutely digging that Christmas outfit you’re wearing. With a look like that, you definitely get a trip to the front of the line. Move on through, baby doll.”

  Sosie frowned down at her clothes. She wasn’t wearing a Christmas outfit. This was what she wore every day. She opened her mouth to explain that to the nice man when the people behind her began to complain again.

  The black man’s charming smile disappeared to be replaced with a dark scowl. “Shove that noise!” he bellowed over her head at them. “You don’t like the way I run the door, you can always go to another club.” He looked down at Sosie, his expression softening. “Run along, baby doll, and have a good time.” He gave her a wink. “If you don’t find what you’re looking for inside, just remember that I get off work at two.”

  Sosie didn’t know why he was telling her when he’d be getting off work, but she grinned and gave him a wave anyway as she hurried into the building.

  The inside of the dance hall was even bigger than she’d thought and all she could do was stand there and stare. Strobe lights accompanied the pulse-pounding music she’d heard from the rooftop, and the people in the center of the room were dancing to it with the most awe-inspiring gyrations she’d ever seen.

  She dragged her gaze away from them to look around. Tables and booths filled one side of the dance hall while a long counter ran the length of the wall on the other side. Behind the counter, men and women were serving beverages of every color imaginable. Some of the servers were throwing bottles in the air and catching them as they created their concoctions. Fudgy, that looked like fun. She wondered if they’d let her do it.

  That would have to wait, though. She’d come here to dance. Turning back to the dance floor, Sosie eagerly headed in that direction, but was intercepted by two men before she could get there.

  “Hey babe, you looking for us?” one of them asked.

  Both tall, with blond hair that looked as if it hadn’t been brushed in a while, they were attractive enough, though a bit dense. She obviously didn’t know them, so there was no way she could possibly be looking for them.

  She shook her head, raising her voice to be heard over the loud music. “No. I came here to dance.”

  They exchanged grins. “Great. We can dance with you.”

  Snickerdoodle, she wasn’t used to guys wanting to dance with her. Now, she had two cute guys eager to dance with her and she’d only been in this “club”—as the giant out front had called it—for a few minutes. She didn’t know what city she was in, but she liked it already.

  She gave the men a smile. “Then come on and let’s dance.”

  Crooking her finger at them, she led the way onto the dance floor. They exchanged another grin, then followed.

  Dancing at the club with the BPs was way more fun than doing it on the rooftop. Even if the two guys with her weren’t doing it very well. They spent more time trying to circle around behind her so they could ogle her wiggling bottom than actually dancing. She didn’t know what that was about, but if they were more interested in checking out her moves than their own, that was fine with her. She was having a good time anyway.

  She was really getting into the music, even putting a little extra wiggle in her hips for her dance partners now and then, when one of them—the guy who’d done all the talking earlier—moved closer and yelled something in her ear.

  “What?” she shouted back, unable to hear him over the loud music.

  He moved in closer. “I said, if you like this, I have something you’re going to like even better.”

  Sosie found that hard to believe. She was having more fun than she’d ever had in her life. This was like a dream come true. She was dancing in a room full of people who didn’t think she was some freak of nature simply because she was tall. If anything, they probably thought she was short in comparison. But she had to admit she was curious about what the guy meant.

  She grinned. “Like what?”

  He took her arm. “Come on. I’ll show you.”

  Sosie didn’t protest as he led her off the dance floor and through the crowd of people, his friend in tow. She had no
idea where they were taking her, but this was sort of fun. Daring even.

  They ended up in a long hallway at the back of the club. Sosie glanced over her shoulder and saw that somewhere along the way, they had picked up two more BPs. The new men were blond, too, but one was shorter and stockier.

  Halfway down the hallway, the man holding her arm stopped in front of a door. He nodded at the taller and lankier of the new men.

  “You know what to do.”

  Sosie frowned. “What’s he going to do?”

  But the man ignored her. Tightening his grip on her arm, he opened the door and shoved her inside. She frowned as she took in the row of sinks on one wall and urinals on the other. She wrinkled her nose at the unpleasant odor coming from them. She was in a men’s washroom.

  She turned around and was surprised to see that two of the other men had come into the room as well. The predatory way they were eyeing her made the hair on her neck stand up and she took a wary step back.

  She turned her attention back to the man who’d suggested she come back here with him. He seemed to be the leader of the group. “I thought you were taking me to another dance floor.”

  He grinned. “Oh, we’re gonna be on the floor all right, but we sure as hell won’t be dancing.”

  Okay, now she was more confused. She opened her mouth to ask him what he was talking about only to close it again when he began to unbuckle his belt. On either side of him, the other two men were doing the same. That’s when it hit her. Oh, figgy. They’d brought her in here to have sex with them. Well, they picked the wrong elf because she wasn’t that kind of girl.

  “I think there’s been some kind of misunderstanding,” she said. “I only came here to dance. While I’m sure you’re all very nice, I don’t have time to make out with any of you.”

  She didn’t wait for a reply, but instead started for the door. The one she’d pegged to be the leader stepped in front of her, blocking her path.