The Goblin King (28 page)

However, the bayou has more in store for Emma Rose than she’d anticipated. Amidst the marshy swampland and sticky heat of an old world steeped in magic, she will fight for her freedom from one gorgeous vampire brother to another – and in the process, kick off a world-wide war between vampire factions striving to become the first to develop an army of warrior offspring.

Excerpt from The Third Kiss: Dorian’s Dream

As she reached the entrance to the garage, she forced a tired but friendly smile for the attendant, who nodded in her direction. Then she was out in the New Orleans night, her feet pounding the pavement at a quick pace.

The French Quarter was not a place for a woman to roa
m alone after dusk, but luckily her brother’s gallery was just around the corner. After so very many long hours in her tiny, cramped car, she could not wait to stretch her legs, hit a steaming hot shower, and get some real food in her belly.

She kept her head up an
d her shoulders back, peering into every shadow as she passed the alleys. She gave them a wide berth and kept as much to the lamplight as possible. Finally she reached the intersection of her brother’s street and turned the corner – just as a Harley roared to life across the street.

Because she was
always
subconsciously hoping for that gorgeous hunk of a biker even though she was aught for about a thousand, she turned in that direction to see who had started the engine.

Then she froze.

“Oh no,” she whispered. “You have got to be kidding me.”

She couldn’t believe what she was seeing. She’d been completely expecting a beer belly or a short guy with a soul patch and mutton chops or some cocky, buzz-cut college kid in shorts and flip flops.

She had
not
been expecting this.

Emma stared unabashedly as the man gracefully leaned into the bike and straightened it out, kicking the stand up with his motorcycle boot.
She didn’t normally fall for blondes. She usually preferred the tall, dark and handsomes that every other red-blooded American female in existence fell for. But something about this guy instantly grabbed her attention with both fists and held on for dear life.

She
watched the muscles of his long, strong legs flex beneath his worn, tight jeans, and as she ogled, a little voice inside her head gently reminded her that she looked like crap and probably didn’t smell all that great either.

She ignored the voice and kept staring.

His hair fell to his shoulders in careless waves, and as he gripped the handle bars of his Harley Night Train, his biceps and triceps bulged against his tight black t-shirt. Off-hand, she wondered what it would feel like to be held down by those arms, to be wrapped up in them, to have those long legs between her –

The man
suddenly looked up as if he could sense he was being watched, and their gazes met.

His eyes were a piercing ice-blue and, even from this distance, their starkly intense color made her gasp aloud.

She tried to blink – and couldn’t. She tried to look away, to pretend she hadn’t noticed him, but it was as if she had lost all control of her body. Like an idiot, she continued to stand there, continued to stare. She vaguely realized that her mouth was hanging open.

The man slowly stood to his full, impressive height, his long muscled legs straddling the bike on either
side, and pinned her with a look that very clearly said he had damn well noticed her and that there was no way in hell she could pretend to not have noticed him too.

For what seemed like a full minute, the two of them stared at each other. He, with his bike idling in that delicious, low rumble, her with the New Orleans breeze blowing her
long, wild, and un-kempt hair about her face like a golden halo.

Finally, as if he had all the time in the world, the man eased himself back down onto the bik
e, never taking his eyes off her. He revved the engine a few times and began to pull away from the parking space and into the street. Still, he watched her.

He wasn’t wearing a helmet and didn’t seem to have one attached anywhere on the bike.
Stupid man
, Emma thought.
Stupid, gorgeous hunk of a man
.

And then he smiled.

Emma stopped breathing. It was a stunning smile. He had the most sensual lips that were curved by that smile into a line both enticing – and a little cruel.

As the man at last turned away from her to pay attention to the road and cars ahead, she realized
that it had been far from a mere friendly smile.

There had been
promise
in that smile. And lots of it.

The Third Kiss: Dorian’s Dream, by Heather Killough-Walden comes out this November in eBook format only.

Check out Heather’s other paranormal romances, such
as the undeniably, unbelievably HOT stand-alone, A Sinister Game….

In a world ruled by Game Leaders, a dark and dangerous man proposes a wager....

“If you can escape me for seven rounds, Victoria – if you can keep from being taken off of the board for that long, I will admit defeat and step down as Gray leader. But if I find you," he let the words sink in. "And if I capture you….” His voice trailed off just as his gaze trailed over her lips, her throat, her breasts.

His green eyes locked on hers again and she felt she would die right there at that table.

“Then you’ll join me. You'll give yourself to me for one night.” His smile was the devil’s promise. “This is the wager.”

But this is a game far more complicated and far more deadly than either of them anticipated. As the real world unfolds around them, what they thought they knew becomes obsolete, and the rules are ruthlessly changed... in this SINister game.

Excerpt from
A Sinister Game
, by Heather Killough-Walden

“Shall I tell you about the other rules I have yet to break, Victoria?” he asked softly. His footfalls echoed on the marble as he strode toward her, his hands once more behind his back. “Let’s see…. I’m fairly sure I have yet to put any of your team members into a coma. Or drive anyone mad.” He stopped a foot away and towered over her.

His nearness was like a drug. She felt dizzy and overwhelmed.

“Of course, there’s always True Death. Not that I would even consider such a tactic. Especially against a certain Red team captain.”

Victoria stared up at him, her eyes wide with horror. Was he threatening
Max
? He wouldn’t
dare
.

But the look in his eyes told her differently.

Oh yes. He most certainly would. He was threatening to kill Maxwell Blood.

“See?” he whispered. “There are so very many rules I’ve yet to break.”

“You wouldn’t risk getting caught,” Victoria whispered. Those flutterbies were back again and they were playing a nauseating game of tag in her belly. 

The smile disappeared from his handsome face, and instead he gazed down at her in all seriousness. “This needn’t be so hard, Victoria.” He shook his head. “It’s a Game, that’s all. Just a simple Game between you and me.”

“I don’t like the stakes,” she said.

He smiled again, showing teeth. “I do.” 

The silence between them stretched as Victoria tried to think of something to say. There seemed to be no way to win this argument, no way to get out of the corner that Black had backed her into.

At last, Victor seemed to come to some sort of decision. His expression hardened with a firm resolve. He stepped back. At once, Victoria felt as though she could breathe normally again.

“I’ll give you twenty-four hours, Victoria. Come to me in that time and I will allow you to set half the rules.”

“I thought you said that time was a commodity you just happened to possess,” Victoria hissed at him. Now that he’d put space between them, the fury she’d felt hours ago was building up once more.

“Oh, it is.”

She watched as he turned to face the clock on the wall, raised one arm, and with a release of power that felt ice cold, he telekinetically moved the long hand forward ten spaces.

“Patience, however, is a virtue of which,” he pinned her to the spot with a blatantly hungry expression, “I am in short supply.”

He finished with the clock and strode to the room’s exit. He spoke to her as he walked. “One day, Victoria. You have
one
day – and then the Game will begin, whether you’re ready or not.”

What the hell kind of choice is that?
Victoria thought frantically as she stared after him.

He laughed and turned to face her one last time, his tall, dark form outlined by the light of the exit door. “At the moment, it’s yours,” he said. Then he opened the door, stepped through it, and was gone.

- A Sinister Game, by Heather Killough-Walden (available now)

Heather Killough-Walden Reading List

The Lost Angels series:

Always Angel (eBook-only introductory novella)

Avenger's Angel

Messenger's Angel

Death's Angel

Warrior's Angel (release date TBA)

Samael (release date TBA)

The October Trilogy:

Sam I Am

Secretly Sam

Suddenly Sam (October
, 2013)

Neverland Trilogy:

Forever Neverland

Beyond Neverland (release date TBA)

Never Neverland (release date TBA)

The Big Bad Wolf series:

The Heat (no longer available separately - purchase in the Big Bad Wolf Romance Compilation)

The Strip (no longer available separately - purchase in the Big Bad Wolf Romance Compilation)

The Spell

The Hunt

The Big Bad Wolf Romance Compilation (all four books together, in proper chronological order)

The Kings - A Big Bad Wolf spinoff series:

The Vampire King

The Phantom King

The Warlock King

The Goblin King

(future The Kings books TBA; at least 13 total)

The Chosen Soul Trilogy:

The Chosen Soul

Drake of Tanith

Queen of Abaddon (release date TBA; 2013)

Redeemer
 (stand-alone)

Hell Bent 
(stand-alone)

Vampire, Vampire
 (stand-alone)

A Sinister Game
 (stand-alone)

The Third Kiss series:

Dorian's Dream (November
, 2013)

Aleksei's Dream (release date TBA)

(future The Third Kiss books TBA; open-ended series)

Note: The Lost Angels series (not including Always Angel) is available in print and eBook format. All other HKW books are currently eBook-only.

FRIEND ME ON FACEBOOK FOR FRONT ROW SEATS TO

DELICIOUS TEASERS, BREAKING RELEASE NEWS,

AND INCREDIBLE CONTESTS AND GIVEAWAYS!

http://www.facebook.com/killoughwalden

I LOVE MY READERS!