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    Christmas
    Christmas
    Christmas
    Ebook148 pages2 hours

    Christmas

    By Lizzy Ford

    ()

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    About this ebook

    Half angel. Half demon. 100% teenager.

    On Halloween, Esme's life changed.

    On Thanksgiving, she counted her blessings - and her curses.

    This Christmas, she confronts her greatest fears – and discovers her true gift.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherLizzy Ford
    Release dateDec 20, 2017
    ISBN9781623783518
    Christmas
    Author

    Lizzy Ford

    I breathe stories. I dream them. If it were possible, I'd eat them, too. (I'm pretty sure they'd taste like cotton candy.) I can't escape them - they're everywhere! Which is why I write! I was born to bring the crazy worlds and people in my mind to life, and I love sharing them with as many people as I can.I'm also the bestselling, award winning, internationally acclaimed author of over sixty ... eighty ... ninety titles and counting. I write speculative fiction in multiple subgenres of romance and fantasy, contemporary fiction, books for both teens and adults, and just about anything else I feel like writing. If I can imagine it, I can write it!I live in the desert of southern Arizona with two dogs and two cats!My books can be found in every major ereader library, to include: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, iBooks, Kobo, Sony and Smashwords.

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      Book preview

      Christmas - Lizzy Ford

      Christmas

      Christmas

      Esme Novella Trilogy

      Lizzy Ford

      Captured Press

      Esme copyright ©2017 by Lizzy Ford

      Cover model: Esme Letitia Phillips, https://www.facebook.com/misstyneandwear/

      Cover photography: © 2016 by David Telford of Cos Togs, https://www.facebook.com/CosTogs/

      Cover design copyright © 2017 by Lizzy Ford

      All rights reserved.

      No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.

      Any references to historical events; to real people, living or dead; or to real locales are intended only to give the fiction a sense of reality and authenticity. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and their resemblance, if any, to real-life counterparts is entirely coincidental.

      Contents

      Christmas

      About the Author

      Also by Lizzy Ford

      Christmas

      As if things aren’t weird enough, my father – the devil – starts texting after he gets in the car .

      I cry for a while and clutch Taco to my chest. No one speaks to me. I calm down and slump, scared. I’ve always wanted to leave Cherryville – but not like this! I want nothing more than to be safe at home with those I care about.

      I study the chauffeur, hoping to determine if he’s human. He appears to be. Then again, my father doesn’t have horns or a tail or any other telltale sign of who and what he is.

      The devil and his driver seem perfectly content, as if kidnapping is something they do every day. Maybe it is, but I can’t stand sitting here without knowing what’s going to happen next. My thoughts are on my mom crying, on Jasper hurt in the hospital, and on my animal friends missing me.

      I squeeze Taco. He turned into a chicken when we got into the car and clucks softly in response.

      I sneak a peek at my father, who is absorbed with his phone. A faint smile is on his features. He’s handsome in a rather plain way, in the symmetry of his features and smoothness of his skin.

      Are you issuing orders to your dark legions? I venture, at the limits of trying to cope in the quiet.

      I’m texting your brother.

      I have a brother?

      You have four hundred and fifteen brothers and thirty seven sisters.

      My mouth falls open. I wait for him to tell me he’s joking, but he doesn’t.

      I bet you don’t pay child support for one of them! I retort when I recover.

      I pay child support for all of them.

      I scowl. My mom has always been financially independent to the point we run a zoo without support from anyone, even charities, and she’s funding scholarships for ten of my horrible classmates. She doesn’t need money from anyone, but it’s the principal of the issue.

      I know for a fact you don’t pay my mom child support, I reply firmly.

      She inherited her money from whom? An aunt she never met? he responds, unfazed by my acidic tone. Who do you think arranged that?

      I’m not going to believe anything you tell me.

      I did it to track the money, so I could find you. Your mom is too smart. She managed to keep you – and the money – hidden.

      Pride swells within me. My mom outsmarted the devil.

      She also slept with him.

      I don’t know how to reconcile these two truths.

      Until you revealed yourself during the fire, he adds.

      At once, I’m crushed. My mom spent almost eighteen years hiding me successfully, and I ruined it.

      Even when I tried to do something good by saving Jasper’s and Winston’s lives during the barn fire, I also somehow screwed up the lives of everyone around me. It’s my luck … my curse to mess up the lives of those I care about.

      I pet Taco, who settles into my lap. He’s as content as everyone else in the car.

      What do you want with me? I whisper, terrified of the response.

      Aren’t you at all interested in your heritage?

      My eyebrows shoot up. Are you serious?

      My father glances at me, amused.

      Why would I want to know anything about hell or the devil or that side of me? I demand.

      You might find it useful going forward to understand what abilities you may have inherited. I’m curious to see if your angel blood overrode mine or not.

      I do want to know more about who I am, but I don’t want to make things worse for anyone. I think I’d rather suppress any demon abilities I might have than acknowledge them.

      What did you do to Derek? I ask, depressed once more when I think about how much I liked him – and how he played me. Nothing less than torture will do anything to sooth my pain.

      I made him an offer he couldn’t refuse, says my father in his best impersonation of the Godfather. Think of me as karma rather than the devil. If you mess up, you can always earn your way out of it. I’m reasonable, Esme.

      What did he do? Sign his soul over to you or something?

      Andrew did. In exchange for me saving his parents’ lives after their car accident. He traded his soul for them.

      Oh.

      Derek said he’d do whatever I asked if I’d return Andrew’s soul.

      I don’t want to empathize with Derek after what he’s done, but I can’t help thinking I’d do a lot for someone like Jasper, who I’ve known for a few months. Like get in the car with the devil.

      What would I do for my mom?

      Anything. Everything.

      You sent him to lure me out, I finish the story. Andrew had no soul. That’s why he felt weird.

      Angels can pick up on that. It scares them.

      I like that this instinct came from the angel side of me. I want to be like my mom, not like my father.

      You gave Andrew his soul back?

      I did. Like I said. I’m fair.

      I eye him. I don’t really think it’s fair to take someone’s soul under any circumstance, even if it’s offered freely. Then again, if my mom was in an accident and dying, I’d do the same as Andrew. I’d walk out of town and wait for my father to find me and do whatever he told me to.

      I hate understanding Andrew and Derek after they hurt Jasper and me. It’s difficult for me to fault them, though.

      Did you save their parents’ lives? I ask thoughtfully.

      I did.

      And they were normal? They didn’t come back as zombies or Frankenstein or some sort of blood-thirsty monsters?

      My father smiles, though his attention remains on his cell phone. They were brought back normal.

      Andrew got his parents back and his soul. All they had to do was betray a complete stranger. I can’t bring myself to use the word fair in their situation, but … it seems like Andrew definitely got the better end of this deal.

      Now I’m angry with him and Derek again. Can I understand their position? Yes. But they didn’t care who else got hurt.

      That doesn’t make any of it right, I grumble. Isn’t the inner ring of hell reserved for those who betray others?

      My father laughs. Hell doesn’t exist, Esme. Not as it’s been portrayed. It’s not a place. Unless you want it to be.

      I fight the urge to ask. Because there’s a part of me that wants to know.

      The quietness kills me.

      Fine, I groan. What is hell if it’s not a burning lake of fire?

      It’s whatever you believe it to be. If you believe you’ll burn in a lake of fire for all eternity, then you will. If you believe hell is living with your disapproving mother-in-law for all of eternity, then that’s what happens. Everyone has a different version of hell. Whatever they believe, they receive.

      Somehow, that’s much worse than a burning lake of fire. What kind of hell can I create with my wild imagination? Monsters? Aliens? Sitting in the cafeteria with Addison, Will, Leah and their fan club making fun of me for all of eternity?

      Hell sounds worse than I thought possible.

      What disturbs me more: I’m curious. Very curious. I want to know about my father, about the side of me that’s been hidden for eighteen years, about the siblings I didn’t know existed before today. I want to know if my demon side is why I’ve been cursed and ostracized my whole life. I’ve never fit in with my mom and the angels. I don’t want to fit in with my father and his demons, but … do I fit in anywhere? If I knew the answer to that, would I feel better about being different?

      Fortunately for you, only half of you would go to hell. My father laughs.

      Great. I inherited his sense of humor. I don’t want to identify with him at all. My mom says you use people. You want something from me.

      I do. He lowers his phone. Your mother took something from me, and I want it back.

      Me? I ask, confused.

      Something else.

      Money?

      She knows what it is.

      Is it wrong to steal from the devil? I don’t know the answer to that question. But I know my mom would never do anything wrong without a compelling reason.

      In the meantime, we have time to learn about one another, he says.

      What does it matter if you have a few hundred other kids? It’s not like you’ll remember anything about me anyway.

      If I can keep track of seven billion people, I can definitely remember details about my children.

      I focus on Taco. It’s getting harder not to break down into tears again, scream or open the door and jump out. Something tells me the door is locked by demon superpowers anyway. If the devil is telling the truth, he’s spent eighteen years trying to find me. He’s not going to leave anything up to chance.

      You didn’t have to hurt Jasper, I murmur, thoughts on my werewolf’s battered body. I would’ve left the city if you took him prisoner without him being hurt like that.

      Wolves and demons have a contentious relationship. That was a message for his father. It had nothing to do with you.

      You still hurt my best friend. I get the sense my mom, Oscar and father have more skeletons in their closets than I want to

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