Lure of the Wicked (29 page)

Authors: Karina Cooper

Tags: #Romance Speculative Fiction

BOOK: Lure of the Wicked

13.12Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub

He stared at her. Then, his smile a grim slash, he reached over her head and drew the serrated knife out of the wall. She flinched as plaster crumbled around them. “Fine,” he said, and put the metal hilt in her hands.

Her lashes widened, and he noticed the smudge of mascara that made them thicker. Darker.

He didn’t know what color her hair was naturally, but it sure as hell had never been black.

Caleb forced her fingers to close on the knife and rolled off her, a fluid motion that belied the torturous effort it took to make it. His left side was rapidly going numb. Blood slid down his arm from the flesh wound she’d already inflicted, and he watched her eyes trace the wet gleam as she clambered to her feet.

She wouldn’t have a chance.

He spread his arms. “Do it.”

Juliet’s full upper lip curled under her teeth, her tongue sliding along it in that way she did when she was nervous.

Just thinking it made him clench his fists. Not his to know, damn it. But the unfamiliar memories wouldn’t fade. Not for as long as he lived.

Not for as long as Cordelia’s lifeblood mingled with his.

“Come on,” he said flatly, his voice rough. Impatient. “You want to kill me so badly, do it.”

Conflict. Determination. Uncertainty. He read it all in the trembling of her hands, her white-knuckled grip around the hilt. The way she studied the bare expanse of his scarred chest.

And the flash of empathy she couldn’t hide. Not from him.

Exactly the point.

He took a step forward, seizing her shoulder, relief and fury entangling together to grate across his nerves. “Then for Christ’s sake,” he began roughly, and she moved. Sudden. Erratic. The knife flashed once in red neon, sketched an upward arc.

Agony snagged on four inches of sawlike steel.

About the Author

Born from the genetic mash-up of lesser
royalty, storytellers, wanderers, and dreamers, K
ARINA
C
OOPER
was destined to be a
creative genius. As a child, she moved all over the country like some kind of
waifish blond gypsy and learned how to adapt to the new cultures her family
settled in. When she (finally) grew up, she skipped the whole genius part and
fell in love with writing paranormal romance because, really, who doesn’t love
hot men and a happy ending?

When she isn’t writing about things that go bump in
the night, Karina designs Steampunk and neo-Victorian couture for gentlemen
hobbyists and ladies of questionable reputation. She lives in the beautiful
Pacific Northwest with a husband, three cats, one rabbit, and a passel of
adopted gamer geeks.

Visit
www.AuthorTracker.com
for exclusive
information on your favorite HarperCollins authors.

By Karina Cooper

Lure of the Wicked

Blood of the Wicked

Coming Soon

All Things Wicked

This book is a work of fiction. The
characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and
are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons,
living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Excerpt from
All Things
Wicked
copyright © 2012 by Karina Cooper. All rights reserved under
International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required
fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access
and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be
reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored
in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form
or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter
invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

EPub Edition JULY 2011 ISBN: 9780062046918

FIRST
EDITION

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

About the Publisher

Australia

HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty. Ltd.

25 Ryde Road (P.O. Box 321)

Pymble, NSW 2073, Australia

http://www.harpercollins.com.au/ebooks

Canada

HarperCollins Canada

2 Bloor Street East - 20th Floor