TKA Holiday Extravaganza Day 4: Chloe Neill

UPDATE: The winner of Chloe Neill's prize pack is Mysteriousrose. Congrats! Please email your physical addy to contests(AT)knightagency.net.

Chloe Neill is helping us close out our holiday week today with a holiday scene from her Chicagoland Vampires world -- written exclusively for our readers. But before we dive into her post, we want to take a moment to thank all the authors who gave their time and talents to our blog this week. We have had an awesome time and hope these wonderful contributions have put you in the holiday mood. :-)

One lucky commenter will win Chicagoland Vampires and Dark Elite pencils, a TWICE BITTEN audiobook CD, a UK trade paperback copy of FIRESPELL, and HEXBOUND and TWICE BITTEN bookmarks. To enter, share either the best gift OR the worst gift you ever received in the comment section. The winner will be randomly drawn and posted here on Monday, December 20th.

A (CHICAGO) CHRISTMAS STORY

Once upon a time, a young vampire named Merit was perusing the Interwebs in the kitchen of her best friend--a blue-haired sorceress named Mallory Carmichael--when she let out a happy squeal.

"Oh, for cheese and rice!" she merrily exclaimed. "I know what I want for Christmas!"

Mallory, whose hair was piled into a messy topknot as she stirred a caldron of bubbling witches' brew (i.e., Rice Krispie Treats), looked up from the stove. "Fang protectors? Type A egg nog? Tiny aspen stakes to hang on the Christmas tree?"

"Ha. Ha," said Merit, spinning the laptop around so her friend could see. "This!"

It only took Mallory a split-second of checking out the image on the screen before she reached her verdict. "No. You'll poke your eye out."

Merit's smile deflated. "No, I won't."

With a disdainful look, Mallory crossed the kitchen and stepped up to the laptop, pointing at the screen. "That is a ten-inch long, double-edged, serrated-bladed, switchblade dagger. You will poke your eye out with that thing."

"But it's so shiny!" Merit protested.

"You'll poke your eye out."

"And it's a nice, hefty weapon. Size matters, right?"

"Eyeballs matter."

"I'm a vampire. Even if I poked my eye out, I'd heal."

"And in the meantime, you'd be a visually-impaired vampire complaining about your visual impairity. No. Again, you'll poke your eye out. And I don't want to hear about it."

Sullenly, Merit stared at the screen. "How about one of those two-foot-long Toberlone bars? The ones that weigh like ten pounds?"

"That," Mallory said with a smile, "you can have."

And the vampire and her sorcerer friend lived happily ever after. Although Santa did not bring Merit an eye-poker-outter for Christmas, she did receive a Toblerone bar that kept her happily munching (sans weight gain!) for a week of chocolately bliss.

Happy holidays, everyone!

To learn more about Chloe Neill, visit www.ChloeNeill.com.