Betrayed by a lover, Jamie rents an isolated cabin on Lake Huron, wanting only to be left alone. Instead, he is pulled from his solitary existence as an artist and tumbles headlong into the legend of Saint Nicolas.<br><br>As a young man, Nicolas accidentally killed a man intent on murdering three children, only to have the man's malicious spirit rise up against him. Fleeing through the centuries from the Krampus, the evil troll-like creature that dogs his steps, Nico finds refuge with the young artist who takes him into his home and bed. But Jamie has questions. Who is Nicolas, and why does the Krampus want to destroy him?<br><br>When the Krampus begins to torment and torture anyone Nico comes in contact with to punish him, Jamie's life is put in danger. And Jamie isn't sure whether he can help Nico defeat his nemesis or if he's merely a pawn in the Krampus's game.

Nicolas

They’d shared two weeks of passion, lonely hearts meeting in tears and fierce kisses and hungry bodies. Until Piter found them. Piter had played his mind games, and when Misha refused him, whisked him away despite Nico’s effort to keep him safe.


“I’m sorry,” Nico said into the silence, voice choked with tears. It had taken him two months to track them. The Krampus took his prey to Italy, but they could be anywhere in the country. Nico found Misha in an alleyway of a small mountain town, body tortured and used. Nico nursed him, and in due time Misha walked away from him. The next year he walked off a mountainside into the sea.


The fire snapped, sparks shooting up the flue. Nico watched them disappear, his heart a ball of lead. He’d failed Misha, like he was failing Jamie now. The brilliant tree drew his gaze once more and he watched the twinkling lights shining against the merry ornaments, as bright and precious as Jamie himself.


Chapter 63