Sparkmas, by assorted authors

Sparkmas by Bluelantern2814

Merry Saturnalia of Athenodora.

Athenodora had only a handful of memories about cooking, but a few days observing let her memorize and learn enough. She prepared the meal easily. The scent of food, the regular kind, was nowhere close to tasty, but she found herself enjoying the fine details of the soup brewing or the meat cooking.

Finally she brought the meal to the dinning table, where she found Caius quietly looking over her Bion. Athenodora felt a moment of regret; she knew that her Caius felt that this show was too much, but she also knew it was only going to be once.

"Master Bion," Athenodora said. Loving the sound of her voice, she purred a little. "I know you are confused and have so many questions..."

Bion might actually have had many questions, but his heart was beating too fast for him to speak, and he just stared at her, probably wondering why the dead had returned to haunt him after so many years.

Caius watched, knowing too well that was the only thing she demanded from him, and controlling himself not to take the man's life. Not out of thirst, though; Bion's fat wife had feed him well enough.

"...It is Saturnalia, the day that the normal is reversed and the masters serve the slaves." Athenodora smiled. "But you don't have to serve me today." Her smile turned into a grin of expectant revenge.

If the tradition of Saturnalia demanded that the normal was reversed then it was only expected that a vampire was going to feed a human.

At least during the holidays.

Merry Christmas of Elspeth Cullen.

For half my life (almost two months!), the TV talked about the day and sometimes the grown ups did too.

But they weren't very Merry about Christmas... except Aunt Rosalie! She told me everything about Christmas, including Santa Claus, who Uncle Emmet commented lived next door; but then Aunt Carmen wondered "out loud" if it was healthy to lie to me. It took me a whole day to figure out that Santa wasn't real. I stared angrily at Uncle Emmet until he swept me from the floor and held me high making me fly. I giggled.

I helped when they set up the Christmas tree.

Christmas day was fun, and I got a dozen of toys and I made my new Barbie bite a stuffed reindeer, because Barbie was blond just like Aunt Rosalie.

But they weren't very Merry about Christmas, because they missed Mama, Daddy and my aunt Alice and my uncle Jasper.

I missed them too.

Merry Holidays of Jacob Black

Jacob woke up in the middle of the night, only a little confused by the lights that crept from the doorway, too many colors. But then he remembered what they were.

He got up slowly and walked into the small living room, and blinked at the tree.

Jacob had nearly lost count of how many times Elspeth had set up the lights and the trees, but it was always marvelous to see, the way the multicolored lights sparkled between the evergreen leaves and the figures of golden birds and silver wolves. Jacob knew her dedication and her personal tradition of setting up the tree herself.

Elspeth's head turned when Jacob walked in the room, her smile beaming with more power than all lights in the word. Her hand was placing a red glass apple.

"Merry Newtonmas!" she sang.

"Merry Newtomas!" Jacob sang back, watching as Elspeth finished.

Jacob remembered a vague moment from a century or two ago, when he'd expressed feeling a little bad about the "loss" of Christmas. But Elspeth had said to him that the true constant in those dates was that they should always spent with the people that mattered to you.

And she was so right.

Sparkmas by Alethiophile

Discovery

He doesn't know what he was expecting to be behind the impossibly perfect people who he was starting to see more and more often in the street, the subway, the mall, but he's sure it was more along the lines of a shadowy conspiracy, rather than the perfectly forthright... vampire... sitting in front of him. They have pamphlets, for heaven's sake. It is disconcertingly ordinary.

"So, let me get this straight," he says, after a moment to digest the information that has been provided to him. "You don't age, you don't get sick, you get stronger, faster, you look like," he gestures helplessly around the room, "you, and you basically can't die unless someone sets you on fire. And that won't stick unless they break you apart first, because if they don't you can stop, drop and roll faster than previously considered physically possible. The only catch is that you lose the sense of taste and you gain a constant thirst for human blood. And they say that might well be fixed sometime in the next few decades, which you can be absolutely certain you will live to see."

"That's pretty much it," she says, with a cheery grin. The expression is unrealistically perfect, like everything the... vampires... ever do; it's as if there's someone doing professional-quality airbrushing jobs on them in real time. "Any questions?"

His mouth opens and closes for a moment before he manages to speak. "Why am I having to come to you about this?"

She looks at him as if surprised for an almost imperceptible moment, before breaking into a laugh. Predictably enough, it is entirely perfect; he throws off the distracting effect by reminding himself that, from what he's been told, she's currently exerting self-control beyond anything he's ever known to keep from killing him and drinking his blood, and if it ever lapsed she could do it in half a second.

"You know," she says, as she stops laughing, "I think you and the Empress would get along just fine."

Sparkmas by Red Wren

Wordless

Maggie smiled and settled into Gianna. The next morning, Molly would come bounding down to see what Santa had left in her stocking, but for the moment the two had a few hours to pass in harmonious quiet.

Ignite

"Does that take much focus?" Michael asked.

Fay tilted her head to one side. "Not really. Making a flame never has, and I suppose I've just gotten used to making sparks."

"Huh. You know, fire burns different colors when you use different materials or temperatures?"

By the end of the evening, she'd gotten red, green, white, blue, and a yellow Michael insisted on calling gold. Fay smiled. The flickering flames formed into a triangular tree, with a white star at the top and varied spots of color all over it. "Merry Christmas."

Nascent

"How do you feel, Lila?"

The new vampire's eyes snapped to her. Amanda had enough experience to avoid asking right away, but Lila had barely drunk her fill of blood—or blood-substitute, she supposed, though she couldn't imagine blood-blood would taste much better than this. "Sharp," the newborn finally replied. No more than a second had passed, she was sure, but she'd felt every instant. She knew the pattern on the walls, saw two scars from vampire bites on Amanda, watched the other newborns sprint past her and not blur at all... Eternity was going to be quite long, if she felt every instant like this.

Lila smiled at the thought.

Twixt

Turning was...surprisingly boring, really. Dahlia's mate had been an old vampire, and one who had been smart enough to figure out the Volturi. She didn't expect the vampire to trust the Golden Coven anytime soon, which was why she'd brought some friends to turn with her. Evidently, that didn't set off any alarm bells, perhaps because Dahlia's friends, like Dahlia, were nervous but not violent. Really, her mate's description of turning would make anyone nervous; she wasn't even sure if the others were nervous of the Golden Coven.

For now Dahlia was watching It's a Wonderful Life and waiting to finish so she could find her mate again.

Evermore

"Kelly," Rose said, barely above a whisper, "I love you. I want to spend every moment with you. My heart is yours, and my soul, too."

"Rose," Kelly answered, still bursting with excitement to have found her, "I love you. I cannot imagine stopping. I am as much yours as I am." Not, 'as I am anyone's', though some had suggested it. Simply, 'as much as I am.'

"Do you, Kelly, take Rose to be your wife, as long as you both shall live?"

"I do."

"And do you, Rose, take Kelly to be your wife, as long as you both shall live?"

"I do."

"I now pronounce you wife and wife." (They both liked the original rhythm.)

They kissed.

Revolve

"What about when I die?" Jillian asked.

"Are you planning on it?" That got a rare smile out of his dear lovely.

"If I am."

Lyle leaned back a little. "I go on as best I can, I suppose. I would be an interesting experiment at worst, and an inspiration to widowed immortals at best." He's not quite allowing himself to think it, because the doubt will eat away at him more than even the fact would. "I do hope you choose otherwise."

Jillian nodded. "I need to think about it."

Lyle's heart skipped a beat. She was making a big decision, so she'd asked him. That was... "I love you," he said, unable to keep a touch of hope out of his voice.

His dear, lovely, hard-eyed Jillian looked straight at him. "I love you, too."

Presents by Anya

"You really didn't have to get me anything. If I even wanted something I would have gone out to get it myself." Lucian spoke from the upstairs study.

"Honey. This really isn't something that you could go out and buy. Now get out of that chair, and get down here already," Kaylee says from the driveway. She didn't raise her voice; they could hear each other fine

"As you command, my mate." Lucian stands and is downstairs and outside in mere seconds.

Kaylee smiles and moves to the side, revealing a young boy. "Meet your new son."

Lucian blinks in surprise, and smiles widely. "He's perfect."

The human boy scowls up at him. "I can hear you. My name is Tim."

The two vampires laugh. "Welcome to the family, Tim."