Night Kings: The Complete Anthology Read Online Free Page A

out
of Blackrose Manor, none more than the spellbound Lukas, still
mildly under another’s control and unable to keep from going five
minutes without mention of her.
    Elsa hadn’t fared much better since her
entanglement on the ballroom floor. Her nose had stopped bleeding,
but it was the blow to her ego that worried Gemma most of all.
Lukas had been blindsided by the ominous woman in red, taken for
all he was worth, and ready to give so much more. Gemma had seen
such possession before, once, and she never wished to see it
again.
    It was to her home they headed, to the slums
of Salem, where not even the monsters dare tread. At least that’s
what Gemma counted on when she took her friends there. They made no
detours on route to her house. Gemma wouldn’t hear of it and yet
she refused them any explanation of the sort.
    “You know,” said Lukas, “I don’t think I’ve
ever been inside your house.”
    It was a home visited by many in the area,
but Gemma’s friends were not among them. They never asked her what
kind of work her mother performed. Some said voodoo, others
holistic healing, but only one of them knew for certain.
    The ramshackle bungalow Gemma called home was
no more than three rooms connected by a living room, half a
bathroom, and even less of a kitchen. Elsa had single rooms that
were larger than their entire house footprint, a fact that seemed
to bother Elsa more than it did her friend.
    She’d been in Gemma’s home a few times over
the years, but her mother, Marianne Kohl, forbid such notions when
she was around. She was, however, prone to long stretches of time
on the road. This wasn’t one of those times and Elsa wasn’t sure if
she would ever return.
    It would appear that Gemma agreed with such
notions and she’d already started to remove some of the
miscellaneous objects from her mother’s home. Yet, with so many
esoteric belongings and not nearly enough closet space, much of her
mother’s aura still remained inside these walls.
    For Lukas there wasn’t a word to his
assessment of Gemma’s home. In an instant he knew why he hadn’t
been allowed inside. None could survive the embarrassment of this
becoming public knowledge. There were a wide array of objects
foreign to him, but it was the gnarled roots, bottle assortments of
body parts he could only hope weren’t human, and skulls of varied
size that captured his imagination. His father had told of such
people before, but all his words had been that of caution. Families
such as the Kohl’s were not to be trusted.
    “Nope,” said Lukas, “never been here
before.”
    Gemma left the two of them in the living room
while she headed to the kitchen. She returned a moment later with a
small tin box and washcloth.
    “Let me patch you up,” she said.
    “There’s nothing to patch up,” Lukas replied
with dumbfounded confusion. “My ego’s a little bruised, but I’ll
manage.”
    “That’s good,” said Gemma, “because I was
talking to Elsa. You remember the elbow, the one you struck her
with?”
    Lukas did remember. He remembered well. He
was enthralled by another at the time, one both beautiful and
wicked at the same time, but his thoughts were of a darker nature.
It may have been the lady in red that possessed him to fight, but
it was the man in black that guided his actions. Lukas knew what
the man was, deep down, under his wing-tipped façade. And as he
looked around Gemma’s home it became apparent she did, too.
    “C’mon,” said Gemma, nudging her friend to
the couch, “let’s sit down.”
    “I’m fine,” Elsa maintained.
    “You keep telling yourself that,” Gemma
responded. “At least let me clean that blood off your stubborn
face.”
    Elsa was led by hand past Lukas, whom she
extended a tongue to in disobedience, and sat down on the couch
with Gemma. A wet rag was taken to her face amidst objections to
the contrary, but a persistent Gemma wouldn’t hear of it and
continued on until the job was done.
    “You got