Something primal and hot stirred in his belly. The sight of Billy in his bed just feltright.
But, Nick thought to himself with a rueful shake of his head, watching people sleep wascreepy. He either needed to join Billy in bed and go to sleep, or leave the room. Since getting into bed would only lead to frustration—his cock aching to get back inside Billy’s tight ass—he pulled himself together and rose up to his full height.
Billy made a disgruntled noise at the loss of Nick’s touch, and Nick froze. He waited to see if Billy would wake up, holding his breath as he watched Billy frowning in his sleep, but the elf slept on.
Nick tiptoed out of the room and closed the door silently behind him.
Walking down the hall, treading softly so that his boots wouldn’t echo too loudly and wake his sleeping guest, Nick made his way to the living room. He ran his fingers along the spines of the books occupying the wall-to-wall bookcase opposite the windows, stopping when his gloved fingertip came to rest on the spine of Santa’s Handbook.
He might as well read it and see what other things he’d misunderstood the first time he skimmed the book. The look on Billy’s face when Nick had casually commented on the weirdness of Santa not helping out delivering the presents was something he’d never forget. The poor boy had laughed so hard he’d been close to tears.
Book tucked under his arm, Nick poured himself a scotch and made himself comfortable in the armchair nestled away in the corner of the room. The candles on the shelf behind himprovided enough light to read by, though he had to strain his eyes a little.
Nick would have to see about getting a reading lamp from Pat.
Opening the book to the first page, Nick took big sip of his scotch as he steeled himself.
Hehatedstudying.
Page one of the book was a table of contents. Nick read through the chapter titles and smiled to himself. Right there, chapter four, was the chapter title:Are the Elves Ready to Deliver Presents? A Guide in Supervising Your Team.
How was he not supposed to think that the elves took care of presents when chapter four had a title like that?
Chapter one was titledCastle Magic Running Low? A Guide to Channeling Wild Magic.
Nick was pretty sure he knew this already, but he still felt nervous as he flipped the page and started reading.
Should he have read this chapter before heading up into the tower with Pat and channeling magic into the castle?
Nick would know soon enough. He took another sip of his scotch and concentrated on the text in front of him, forcing himself to focus.
At first he was reassured. The book described how to recognize the magic in the atmosphere above the castle, how to channel it into the rod, and then spent about twenty pages talking about how to successfully wrestle the magic under control. All things Nick knew how to do.
The next section, much to Nick’s distress, described the process of using the calibration stone in the corner of the room to know when the Castle had just enough magic for the elveninstruments—such as the shaping rods they used to make toys—to function properly.
Oops.
Nick hadn’t even noticed the calibration stone. According to the book, he should have stopped channeling magic when the stone glowed pink. If the glow turned red he had channeled too much, and if it turned purple the whole castle would explode.
Since the castle had not, in fact, exploded, Nick figured they were safe. He kept reading, finishing the chapter, and much to his relief there was no new information after the section on the calibration stone.
Moving on to the next chapter,Is the Workshop Behind Schedule? A Guide to Motivating Your Elves, Nick couldn’t help the niggling feeling that he should go up and check the calibration stone—just to make sure it wasn’t up there glowing ominously purple in the dark like some kind of evil omen of doom.
Putting the book down, feeling more and more worried, Nick downed the rest of his scotch and hurried out of the apartment. The castle corridors were empty, the torches hanging on the walls casting an eerie orange glow, and Nick sped up until he was jogging.
The sounds of his boots on the stone tiles sounded like thunder to his own ears, but no one popped up to see what he was up to.
Nick made it all the way up to the channeling chamber unmolested, breathing hard by the time he reached the top, pushing the door open and making his way inside.
The room was dark. No scary purple light greeted him, and Nick let out a breath of relief. Then he realized that there was no light,period. The stone must only glow when magic was actively being channeled into the castle.
Nick was going to have to channel some magic. Grabbing the channeling rod leaning against the wall, he climbed back on top of the platform in the middle of the room. The ceiling overhead was folded down, closed to the night sky, but Nick didn’t need it to be open. He could just channel what magic hung in the air, remnants from his morning display of brute magical strength.
Just enough to light up the stone.
Turning around, facing the corner where the calibration stone was supposed to be, Nick focused his gaze and pulled a tiny bit of magic into the rod. The magic was tame and easy to work with, and sending it into the wall required no effort whatsoever. He let it trickle into the wall as slowly as he could.
Watching the wall with unblinking determination, Nick waited to see if the calibration stone would glow red like he expected, or if he’d have to channel more magic.
