Page 6

Longing for Krampus

NAOMI

T o her surprise, Kilean started cleaning for her.

He was a bit clumsy, picking up the pieces of the statuette one by one and then looking around, unsure where to throw them away.

“ There’s a bin in the cabinet under the sink,” Naomi said.

He silently followed her instructions, heading to the kitchen.

She took a big stretch and stood up to put the pillows back on the couch.

Naomi was picking up her stained pajamas when he came back into the living room, noticing that he had retracted his cock into whatever part kept it hidden.

He did say he didn’t need to come again, but the fact he put it aside still surprised her.

Sometimes men said that and still expected something.

But Kilean was no man, and he also seemed to mean what he said in general.

“ You can go get dressed,” he told her. “ I can clean the floor.”

Thankfully he had spilled his come on the wooden floor and not the carpet, and since he seemed confident about how to clean that, she nodded and left him alone.

As she took a quick shower, she thought about everything that happened. In one day, she experienced so many different things that it felt like a whole month had passed since she had brought the krampus to the shed. How had she managed to end up here?

It still felt surreal any time she thought about it. And now that she had sex with him? It felt even more ridiculous.

Oh god…

She had sex with a demon.

Her eyes widened, cheeks heating up. If her mother knew, she would be horrified.

Her grandmother, however, would probably approve.

Naomi had a feeling that Felicity would somehow approve, too.

She eventually decided to focus on the women who would support her wild decisions, putting off responsibility for another time.

A smile came back to her lips as her thoughts returned to what they had just done. The chance to be so close to Kilean almost made her feel giddy, special. It was validating to know he found her attractive, too—and adding the fact that he wasn’t even human certainly did wonders for her ego.

Naomi walked back into the living room—washed and with a clearer head—finding him sitting on the couch. But the smile on her lips immediately died when she noticed his eyes. Instead of their normal red, a white film covered them, his gaze vacant.

“ Kilean ?” she called, but it was like he couldn’t hear her.

Was he okay? Why was he not moving? Was it a side effect of his injuries?

When she took a step forward to shake him out of it, the white film slipped from his eyes and he blinked rapidly, a frown appearing on his face.

“ Are you okay?”

Finally , he noticed her, his eyes softening at her concern.

“ My magic is all back,” he said. “ Or at least, I have enough of it to be able to be reachable again for my superior.”

Then , had that been a state of communication?

“ Do you have to go already?”

The regret on his expression was more than evident.

“ I don’t have freedom, I can’t choose where to go or what to do,” he explained.

“ I have a bit more room when I’m in the human realm because they need us to act our own according to specific situations.

But my time here is limited, and I don’t have the ability to move between worlds at my will. When they call us back, we have to go.”

She was almost scared to ask, but she needed to.

“ And if you don’t go?”

“ They hunt us down. Kill us as defective.”

Her stomach dropped.

She had known him for a day, she shouldn’t be this sad to hear he had to go, and yet she felt a strange connection to him.

At first, it was fascination because he was new, a creature she had never encountered before and wanted to know more about.

But she had been captivated by his genuine and blunt way of speaking, as well as his awkward but kind nature.

Sometimes you’d meet a person you clicked so well with, that they’d already feel like a close friend in little time. She felt like that with Kilean , now, and the intimacy they had just shared had only been the nail in the coffin that sealed her connection to him.

Kilean looked around the space, as if cataloging everything in his memory. Eventually his eyes fell on the fire, still sizzling and bright.

“ I was starting to like this place,” he confessed, quietly.

“ Only the place?”

There was hope in her voice, and she knew he hadn’t missed it. He glanced at her, her own sadness reflected in his eyes.

He shook his head. “ Not only the place.”

“ Wouldn’t you be able to come back?” she asked, desperate to find a solution. “ Krampuses come back at the same time every year, don’t they?”

She knew from the legends it was on a very specific day, but considering how he had been here for longer, and he didn’t seem concerned about his kind coming to kill him for disobeying orders, Naomi guessed they had a bit more time at their disposal.

“ I have no control over where they send me, or if they send me at all. Sometimes they don’t unleash all of us.”

Unleash .

Most of the time when he spoke about himself, it seemed like Kilean thought of himself as an animal.

Naomi didn’t think he was purposefully being self-degrading, but that he spoke that way because that’s how he was considered in Hell : no more than a nameless, faceless beast in an army of demons just like him.

It looked like he wanted to stay, which didn’t surprise Naomi . He must long for being known for himself, as himself, too.

“ Do you have to go now ?”

She was ashamed at how small her voice sounded. It was ridiculous that she was so sad about this, so attached to this demon after only one day.

“ Not now, but very soon.”

He didn’t specify how soon, but Naomi felt like it would be too soon either way.

“ I’d like to spend my remaining time in this human world with you,” Kilean continued.

Hearing him say it outright felt nice, but bitter at the same time. Her heart fluttered just to ache right after.

Naomi had no idea what they could do. She thought that an activity like watching TV would be entertaining for Kilean who had probably never done it before, but it would result in her spending the whole time inside her own head. She needed something to keep her busy, too.

“ Do you want to bake with me?”

Kilean looked confused, but he still nodded.

Naomi had known that hot chocolate with some cookies or a cake would have been ideal in this cold weather, so she had already planned on baking on her own while at the chalet and had brought all the ingredients she needed.

At least, now with Kilean cooking by her side, she could keep both her body and mind busy.

He quietly helped her bake, a bit lost but following her instructions carefully. He didn’t talk, apart from occasionally asking her to repeat instructions, but the silence was comfortable between them. And under his serious and collected expression, Kilean seemed to be enjoying himself.

“ My mom cooks to destress, and I picked up the habit from her,” Naomi told him. “ However , I personally prefer baking. I have a thing for sweets.”

“ Do you cook with others often?” he asked, rolling the dough into balls.

“ Not really. While my mother loves cooking, she wants to do things her way. If we cook together, we always end up arguing,” she explained. “ The only person I get along with in the kitchen is my brother. He’s a great sous chef. You are, too.”

Kilean gave her a small smile, almost embarrassed, and she couldn’t help smiling back, amused.

Later , Naomi laughed at the silly sight of the big krampus, holding a funny Christmas mug of hot chocolate in one hand and a cookie in the other. Kilean looked so confused by her amusement that she took a photo to show him.

“ Okay , yeah, I see it,” he said, staring at her phone, as a corner of his lips twitched upward.

“ By the way, I wanted to ask,” she started, putting her phone away. “ You already ate my food more than once, so does that mean demons are fine with human food?”

He shrugged. “ We don’t need to eat or drink at all, but I wanted to try.”

“ Are you liking it so far?”

“ Eating seems more complex than I imagined. Many flavors and textures,” he said, frowning as if he was thinking of words to express his thoughts. “ It was okay. I think.”

Everything he said was always interesting, and Naomi was ecstatic knowing that his first experiences were thanks to her.

“ Well , now I’m excited for you to try as many things as possible.”

“ I’m curious,” he continued, feeding her excitement. “ Making the food seems fun, too. I enjoyed doing it with you.”

Eventually , Kilean also helped her cook dinner, and they ate on the floor in front of the fire.

Naomi could almost hear the voice of her mother nagging as she sat on the ground with the plate in her hand, but she and Kilean wanted to be cozy rather than formal, and her mother wasn’t there to see it.

What she didn’t know couldn’t hurt her, could it?

“ How did you end up here? You mentioned earlier that this is not your house.”

“ It was a friend’s. She died recently and left it to me,” Naomi explained. “ I came to check it out. I didn’t even know she owned this place, so I wasn’t sure what to expect.”

Kilean looked around, nodding to himself. “ It’s a beautiful house.”

Naomi smiled. “ It is.”

She felt guilty for purposely omitting that she had thought about selling it, but she wasn’t sure if that guilt was towards herself for doubting her initial decision, or towards Kilean for not telling him the whole truth.

Maybe not all her stays there would be this interesting, but now Naomi couldn’t help but wonder if she could really part with a house that made her experience something magic.