Night Kings: The Complete Anthology Read Online Free

the
women. The ballroom floor filled up as quickly as the lady had
rejected suitors and soon there was no one left for the two ladies
that waited still in the corner.
    The night’s festivities were only just
beginning it would seem for the gathered crowd of mild mannered
citizens. Lukas would be the first to realize that fact when his
waltz with the lady in red was interrupted by an unpleasant
passerby.
    It was the man in black and he now stood
between Lukas and the woman he so eagerly lined up to meet. In
spite of the music from the twelve piece orchestra, the townsfolk
stood at a standstill for what would transpire next.
    “What the hell’s your problem, man?” Lukas
asked, his fists balled up in anger. He wasn’t the kind of man to
raise his fists in anger, but he’d fallen under the hold of
another, and the actions he thought his own were guided by
another.
    He charged at the man in black with a fist
raised high into the sky and threw as heavy-handed a blow he could
in the man’s direction. Lukas missed wide of his mark, and with a
black oxford to the stomach, Lukas crumpled to the ground as if
little more than a minor annoyance to the man in black.
    “Lukas!” Elsa cried out as she rushed to his
aid.
    But it was too late. There wasn’t anything
Elsa could do for her friend. Gemma was aware of this and held
tightly onto Elsa to keep her from rushing to her close friend’s
side.
    “Stay back,” Gemma warned. “There’s nothing
that can be done for him now.”

Chapter Five
    Night Kings: The Lady in Red
    Gregory Blackman

    Holistic Healer

    It would take more than firm hands and words
of caution to keep Elsa Dukane from Lukas’ side. She pushed through
a sea of less than gentlemanly guests to get to her friend and when
she arrived at the center of the dance floor it was almost as if
she didn’t exist to the enthralled Lukas Wendish. All he could see
was red, the color of the lady, and the black stain on his honor
that prevented him from getting closer.
    “Nothing to see here,” the lady in red said
to the gathered crowd. “Turn back to your partners and resume the
festivities.”
    The citizens of Salem turned back to their
partners and they did just as the lady command. It was as if they
were hypnotized by the woman’s crimson aura, powerless to break
from her grasp, and seemingly unwilling to do so.
    With the guests otherwise occupied it was
Lukas’ turn to return to the offensive. Only he picked the wrong
moment to plan his attack, and as he cocked back his fist to
strike, he collided with a target far from his mark.
    “Elsa!” Lukas hollered as he turned around to
see his closest friend down on the ground. Both the act and the
emotions it stirred within were enough to snap the young man from
whatever hold the lady in red had over him. He dropped to the floor
immediately and scooped up his bloody-nosed friend. She fought him
all the while and remained on the ground until Gemma arrived to
calm the two of them down.
    “Are we really doing this?” an alarmed Gemma
Kohl asked. “Get up, the two of you. We need to get out of
here—now!”
    “Not until I get her name,” Lukas said.
    He hoisted himself up and turned to greet his
lady in red, but no longer was there a lady that awaited him. She’d
vanished into thin air and the man in black along with her. No one
around seemed to realize their crimson mistress had left. No one
seemed aware of anything except for the orders they continued to
follow to the letter.
    “She’s gone,” Gemma said with a tug on her
friend’s less than fashionable coat, “and so, too, must we be if
you want to see it through to the next sunrise.”
    “What are you talking about?” Elsa asked.
“You’re not making any sense.”
    “And I’m not going to until we’re far from
this place,” insisted Gemma, still trying to pry Lukas away from
his search for the lady in red. “This festival is a bust. We’re
leaving.”
    The three of them argued the entire way