She coughed, choking. “I hate—I hate you,” she managed between rough spasms. “I’m going to kill you!”
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, KARINA COOPER 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.
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By Karina Cooper
Lure of the Wicked
Blood of the Wicked
Coming Soon
All Things Wicked
Copyright
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.
Copyright © 2011 by Karina Cooper.
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
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About the Publisher
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Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Dedication
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Teaser for All Things Wicked
About the Author
By Karina Cooper
Copyright
About the Publisher
Lure of the Wicked Page 30