Falling For Her Guardian (Yuletide Shifters #1)

Chapter 5

Jack Frost stood outside the perimeter of Northernmost and stared at the shadowy buildings where his brother and the elves worked tirelessly to provide toys for children, blah, blah, blah.

He couldn’t care less about children and toys.

He only really cared about the Well of Magic.

He brushed snowflakes off his dark jacket. The cold didn’t bother him in the least. He was Jack Frost, after all, the harbinger of winter.

Before he’d become Jack Frost he was Angel Nicholas.

Their parents had big plans for them with names like Saint and Angel.

And did he prove them wrong.

After losing the fight to take over the Well as a young man, he’d accepted the role of Jack Frost as a consolation prize, working side by side with the brother who’d robbed him of the only thing he’d ever wanted: control of the Well.

It was entirely Saint’s fault that Angel had slipped over the edge into the dark side of magic after the battle that robbed him of his beloved wife Crystal.

Bringing his thoughts back to the present when he heard the perimeter alarm blaring, he hummed as he watched to see the response time. Saint and his elves and shifter assholes were always improving their security measures. Jack was simply testing to see what new things his brother had done.

His followers were magical people he’d abducted and siphoned off their souls to charge his magic. Like Saint, who used the Well to replenish his magic, Jack had to also replenish his, but the Well didn’t like dark magic, so he had to steal magic from fairies, elves, warlocks, and witches. Elves were the easiest because they were at the North Pole, but he could travel around the world when he pleased and lure fairies, witches, and warlocks to himself whenever he wanted.

He was damn charming.

His right-hand follower, Valeth, appeared, his breath puffing out in the cold air.

“They’re like rabbits,” he said.

Frost looked down at him. Valeth had been an elf, which despite the general human consensus of their size, were of normal stature. What changed when they became evil and their good magic was gone was that their skin took on a gray hue and their eyes turned black.

“They’re pretty fast,” Frost mused as he watched the Guardians rush around, looking for whoever or whatever had triggered the perimeter alarm.

“Faster than a few months ago.”

One of the followers had ridden an elk through the perimeter, triggering the alarm and leaping backward before they were prevented from crossing the magical protection.

Jack wasn’t able to cross the security perimeter, it was imbued with good magic and he’d been exiled from Northernmost. Until Santa breathed his last breath, Jack and his followers couldn’t enter Northernmost. But once he was dead, it would all belong to him.

A light appeared in one of the buildings.

Jack’s enhanced hearing picked up a gasp and a pounding heart.

Hmm.

He saw a figure in a doorway, illuminated from behind by interior lights. An elf no doubt. He drew on his magic and cupped his mouth, whispering to the figure, “I’ll help you, come to me.”

He stared at the figure in the open doorway, wondering if they would follow his instructions. He got his answer when the figure stepped free of the door and it clanged shut behind them.

They tried to open the door but couldn’t.

He cupped his mouth again and put more power into his voice. He needed to feed and satiate his magic. An elf was just the ticket.

“I’ll help you. Come to me, sweet one.”

He thought it was a female, but he didn’t really care. He only cared that he’d have another follower to add to his army and magic to sustain him.

That’s right, come to me.

Seren found a door at the end of one hall after she’d been wandering for what felt like forever. She couldn’t believe she hadn’t run into anyone at all as she’d made her way aimlessly through what could only be described as an underground bunker.

She touched the door handle, and something in the pit of her stomach made her want to turn back and find Storm. She’d felt awful ever since she walked away from the breakroom without waiting for him to return. He’d be pissed she was gone, she was very sure, but also? She kind of liked him and she wanted to spend time with him.

Which, hello, was exactly why she needed to keep moving and find someone to get her home. Storm was just sexy enough, just sweet enough, to make her forget all the careful walls she’d erected around her heart to keep from falling into a trap with another shifter again.

Hadn’t she sworn off them?

With a frustrated grunt, she shoved the door open and gasped at the blast of frigid air that bit at her cheeks. She’d opened an exterior door. Crap.

“Come to me, I’ll help you.” It was the most peaceful, kind voice she’d ever heard in her life. A combination of her grandfather who’d passed away when she was a child and her first-grade teacher.

Seren stared into the night. The Northern Lights swirled overhead, and beyond the stunning neon were millions of stars against the indigo backdrop. She couldn’t see anyone, but she had the urge to walk out of the building.

She took a step out, the snow crunching under her boot. She shivered and reached for the gloves in her pocket. As she twisted to pull them from the pocket, the hip that she’d been pressing against the door slipped, and the door swung shut before she could stop it.

The handle wouldn’t budge. She slapped her hand against the door a few times but was pretty sure that no one would be able to hear the sound.

Crap.

“I’ll help you. Come to me, sweet one.”

There was that voice again.

She shivered and turned back to the darkness. Something glittered in the distance and she squinted but couldn’t see it any better. It was just something shimmery, but she felt drawn to it nonetheless.

Tugging on her cat ears stocking cap that Noelle had crocheted for her the previous winter and her gloves, she buttoned up the front of her coat and trudged forward, the shimmery, glittering something beckoning her.

Was she being an idiot?

Probably.

But she couldn’t help herself. She felt compelled to move toward whatever had called her. She glanced over her shoulder toward the building where Storm had taken her to keep her safe. It was a shadow in the darkness now, and an eerie silence was all around her.

The snow was knee-high now, her steps heavy and her skin prickling with the cold.

Why had she left?

Come to me .

Frowning, she kept moving forward until the shimmery, glittering something morphed into two men.

She could just barely make them out in the darkness, but she suddenly didn’t feel quite so warm.

One of the men spoke softly, and she felt like he was whispering in her ear.

“Just a few more steps, sweet one.”

“I want to go home,” she said.

“I’ll take you there.”

She stepped once. Twice.

And then she felt resistance for just a moment as she took another step. The moment she pushed through that resistance, she felt all that warmth and safety disappear as if they’d never been there.

There was a scrape of what sounded like a lighter wheel spinning, then a spark and a flame illuminated the face of a man she knew very well from the news.

Jack Frost.

He lit a cigarette and clicked the lid of the lighter closed.

As he pulled on the cigarette, the red glow from the tip lit up his face just enough to make him look like some kind of demon.

She opened her mouth to scream for Storm when Jack touched her face and everything went dark.

Valeth carried Jack’s prize over his shoulder. She was asleep thanks to Jack’s magic, which made it easier to take her to his lair.

“You know who’d be great at helping in a situation like this?” Valeth said, huffing as he trudged through the snow. “Azure.”

Jack snorted. While Valeth was his second-in-command, Azure was his number three, always trying to push Valeth out of favor with Jack. Azure, unlike Valeth, was a warlock who willingly embraced dark magic and followed Jack instead of staying on the good side of magic with Santa.

If only all the warlocks would join Jack’s army, he’d have enough power to overthrow his brother and take over the Well. In good time, he was certain he would succeed.

They reached the lair a short time later. There was only one entrance to the underground bunker that he’d retreated to when he was exiled from Northernmost. There were guards posted, followers who would die for him, and they stepped aside as they opened the door for them.

“I want to take her magic right now,” Jack said. “Let’s go to my office.”

They moved through the underground passageways to an opulent office carved out of stone. Valeth set the female on the couch against the wall and tugged off her hat and gloves.

Jack finished his cigarette and stubbed it in the skull of an elf he used as an ashtray.

“She’s pretty,” Valeth said.

“You can have her when she’s turned,” Jack said.

Valeth smiled. He had some odd proclivities when it came to female companionship, and sometimes the females weren’t quite right after they spent time with him. But Jack didn’t need another female in the army, so Valeth could do what he pleased with her.

Jack cracked his knuckles and approached the female. She was still unconscious with his magic. He laid a hand on her head and closed his eyes, opening his magic to pull the essence of her magic into himself.

But nothing happened.

He tilted his hand and looked at it, then pressed it to her head again.

Focusing more diligently, he closed his eyes and tried to force her magic away from her and into himself, but once more, nothing happened.

Fuck.

“She’s human,” he said.

“What? She was in the security building,” Valeth said.

“That doesn’t make sense,” Jack said. He moved her head to the side and studied her for a moment.

Damn it, he still needed to siphon magic to replenish his, especially leading up to the winter solstice.

Valeth moved to pick her up. “What are you doing?” Jack asked.

“I’m going to get rid of her.”

Jack scoffed. “You don’t think she might be valuable?”

“She’s human. They’re not allowed in Northernmost.”

“True, but she was in the security building, so someone knows her and would look for her.”

“Oh.”

“That’s why I’m the boss. Put her in one of the cells. Once she’s awake, I’ll figure out why she’s up here and how she can help me in my quest to get my brother out of power.”

Valeth lifted her into his arms and Jack saw something in the follower’s dark eyes.

“Hold on,” he said, putting a hand on his shoulder. He released a little power into his voice when he said, “You don’t harm her unless I say so. Not a hair on her head. Got me?”

Valeth’s upper lip curled just a little bit. “Of course.”

When he was alone in his office, he undid his jacket and laid it over a chair, then moved to the table, resting his hands on the worn surface. In front of him was a map of Northernmost, where the thing he coveted most lay protected by shifters, elves, and his brother.

Maybe this human female was the key to getting through some part of the defenses. He only needed the smallest opportunity to get in and then he could wreak havoc.

For her sake, he hoped that someone actually cared she was missing, because if she wasn’t important to anyone, if Santa didn’t care that she was with Jack? Then she wouldn’t make it through the night.