I quickly found myself hauled off my feet and carried to a dimly lit back room. “Help! Somebody help me!” I screamed.
The man closest to me chuckled darkly. “Nobody is going to come and save you, consort. Our master will be very pleased with us for capturing you.”
Consort? Master? What in the heck did that even mean? Were these guys on drugs or something?
I was dropped onto a chair, my arms and legs zip-tied into place. The man who’d carried me trailed his cold fingers down my cheek to my neck and brushed lightly over my birthmark. When I tried to jerk away, someone else shoved my head back, and I opened my mouth to scream again, but they stuffed a piece of cloth inside.
Then in a move that freaked me out even more—which was saying a lot, considering the current situation—they all turned in unison to look toward the front of the store. Their eyes did that glowing red thing again, and one of them rasped, “Mmm, more fresh blood.”
A man I hadn’t seen before stuck his head into the room and grinned, showing off abnormally sharp teeth. “The fates are finally showing us their favor. Two consorts in one night. The master will be very pleased.” He looked at me and licked his lips, sending a shiver of icy dread through my body. “Perhaps he will reward us with a taste of their blood.”
In the blink of an eye, the men surrounding me were gone. Poof. Just like that.
I was left wondering what in the literal hell had I stumbled into. Taste my blood?? And then my freak-out meter climbed even higher when they carried another woman, kicking and screaming, into the room and tossed her on the floor next to me. One of the men muttered something about getting another chair, and after he walked out, all hell broke loose. The woman pulled a bottle of something out of her purse and started to flick droplets of whatever was inside at the men. They hissed in pain and backed away from her.
I would’ve gasped in surprise when she pulled a knife out of her purse, except for the gag in my mouth. But that was quickly removed after she cut the restraints away from my arms and legs. I didn’t have any time to ask questions, though. I was too busy making my escape to care.
I still had no idea what was going on, but one thing was clear...this was seriously the worst Christmas ever.
2
Jareth
That was a hell of a fight, I thought with a grin. It had been a while since I’d faced more than one nightwalker at a time in pursuit of a consort. Easy kills just weren’t as much fun. And it had been ages since my cousin Stephan and my three brothers, Liam, Braedan, and Ren, had brawled together. Fisticuffs and carousing had been so much more acceptable a century ago. Sometimes progress leaves behind great traditions.
As the adrenaline ebbed, my worry over my brother’s new consort returned to the forefront of my mind. She was huddled between two dumpsters where she’d been protecting herself and another woman by flicking holy water at the vampires. Ren had glimpsed a birthmark on her neck as Amaia pulled her into their little crevice, so we knew she was a consort. I knew Liam’s first thought would be for Amaia, as it should be, but someone needed to take care of the other consort.
While Stephan, Braedan, and Rex walked into a huddle to talk, Liam and I approached the terrified women. He immediately dropped to his knees in front of Amaia and embraced her.
My attention lasered in on the pretty brunette who hugged herself close as her eyes bounced around wildly. “Wha-a-a-...um...what the heck just happened?” she stammered in a shocked and horrified voice.
Liam stood and pulled Amaia away so I could handle the frightened consort. Now that I had an unobstructed view of her, I was struck by how absolutely gorgeous she was. Long, wavy brown hair was pulled back from her delicate face and cascaded down around her shoulders. Even with the way she was huddled, I could tell she had a slender build. The bodice of her baby blue dress hugged her high round breasts, the long gossamer sleeves showed off toned arms, and the skirt made of many layers of chiffon, nipped in at her waist.
Her face was made for an artist’s canvas. Chocolate brown eyes fringed with full lashes, high cheekbones, a slender nose, and pink lips that would make any man, who had the ability, hard as a rock from the thought of them wrapped around their cock. Mine didn’t so much as twitch. My reaction to her was purely mental, like an appreciation of fine art. Except I’d never seen so fine a masterpiece as this gorgeous consort. There was just something special about her.