Authors: Nina Bangs
Wicked Edge
Praise for
Wicked Fantasy
“If you need a good laugh, then grab this one…Engaging and fun, filled with surprise twists and turns around every corner. I truly look forward to finding out what trouble the cosmic troublemakers will cause next.”
—The Eternal Night
“Fabulously wicked.”
—Midwest Book Review
“A sensational read full of humor and romance. You’ll be burning through the pages while you follow…all the hijinx and scorching sex.
Wicked Fantasy
is a great read, and I enjoyed every minute of it. Nina Bangs has created a story with outrageous and hilarious characters and a romance that will make you wish for your own fantasy at the castle. It goes on my bookshelf as a keeper. Enjoy!”
—Night Owl Reviews
Wicked Pleasure
“Wicked fun from start to finish…[A] side-splitting, sexy tale that dazzles and delights.”
—The Best Reviews
“Another terrific Nina Bangs humorous action-packed paranormal romance…Readers will enjoy this wicked tale.”
—Midwest Book Review
“A delightful comedy.”
—The Eternal Night
Wicked Nights
“Paranormal romance filled with humor and sex…and with the right touch of suspense…Action-packed. Readers will enjoy this wicked tale and look forward to novels starring Eric’s siblings, a demon and an immortal warrior, that will surely sparkle with fun.”
—Midwest Book Review
“Intriguing.”
—The Eternal Night
…and the novels of
Nina Bangs
“Sinfully delicious.”
—Christina Dodd
“The key to Ms. Bangs’s clever…novels is the cast never does what the reader expects. [She] combines vampires, time travel, and…amusing romance that will lead the audience to read it in one enchanting bite.”
—Midwest Book Review
“Bangs puts a…darkly brooding hero together with a stubborn heroine; adds an amusing cast of secondary characters…and then mixes in several different paranormal elements and equal measures of passion and humor to create…[a] wonderfully creative, utterly unique romance.”
—Booklist
“A witty, charming, sexy read.”
—Christine Feehan
“Sensuous and funny…[A] true winner.”
—RT Book Reviews
“A sizzling story…With steamy love scenes and touching characters, Ms. Bangs brings readers into her world and sends them away well satisfied with the power of love.”
—Karen Steele
“I know I can always count on Nina Bangs for an exceptional read! A pure stroke of genius.”
—The Best Reviews
Berkley Sensation titles by Nina Bangs
WICKED NIGHTS
WICKED PLEASURE
WICKED FANTASY
WICKED EDGE
Nina Bangs
BERKLEY SENSATION, NEW YORK
THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA
Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada
(a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.) • Penguin Books Ltd., 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England • Penguin Group Ireland, 25 St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd.) • Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty. Ltd.) • Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd., 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi—110 017, India • Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, Auckland 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd.) • Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty.) Ltd., 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa
Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
This book is an original publication of The Berkley Publishing Group.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
Copyright © 2012 by Nina Bangs.
Excerpt from
Wicked Whispers
copyright © 2012 by Nina Bangs.
Cover illustration by Juliana Kolesoba.
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or
electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of
copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.
BERKLEY SENSATION
®
is a registered trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
The “B” design is a trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
PUBLISHING HISTORY
Berkley Sensation trade paperback edition / March 2012
Library of Congress Cataloging–in–Publication Data
Bangs, Nina.
Wicked Edge / Nina Bangs.—Berkley Sensation trade paperback edition.
pages cm.—(Castle of Dark Dreams ; 4)
ISBN: 978-1-101-56095-2
1. Amusement parks—Fiction. 2. Paranormal romance stories. I. Title.
PS3602.A636W525 2012
813’.6—dc23
2011044920
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
ALWAYS LEARNING
PEARSON
To my stepbrother, Christopher E. Brady,
King of Humility and Emperor of the Entire Universe.
(He insisted that I use his complete title.)
You could always make me laugh, and for that alone you deserve this.
You also beat me at every board game we ever played.
I have not forgotten.
Table of Contents
He’d needed this downtime away from the Castle of Dark Dreams. Two weeks to just kick back, waste a few losers, and relax with a drink.
He leaned against the oak’s trunk and savored his scotch and water as he watched the dumbass crouched beside the reservoir. Edge had followed the guy’s progress from the moment he’d come up with the idea to poison the city’s water supply until now. Homegrown terrorists, had to love them.
Not that Edge didn’t sort of admire the guy. He’d whipped up a poison no amount of testing would detect until it was too late. The death toll could reach into the millions. Now the formula would die with him. Too bad. Another great scientific mind pissed away by an idiot.
There was a time when Edge would’ve applauded that kind of grand gesture. But then the Big Boss had reined him in, forced him to change his methods. Edge downed the rest of his drink.
Let’s hear
it for the good old days.
Nowadays he was reduced to one kill at a time. Hey, you took your fun where you could.
Edge narrowed his gaze as the man…No, as
Mark
—didn’t want to ever depersonalize his victims—pulled vials of the poison from his backpack and set them on the ground.
Now was the time to act. Edge chose an image from his mind, focused on the reservoir, and changed thought to reality.
A giant squid rose from the water’s depths, big enough to swallow Chicago if Chicago had been on the menu. It wasn’t, so the squid settled for Mark. One massive tentacle reached out to wrap around his body. It lifted the man into the air and then dragged him beneath the water. The squid disappeared, leaving only a few ripples on the surface. Mark’s body would be found, a victim of drowning. But they’d never find the squid. It was once more only an image in Edge’s mind.
Edge shook his head. He’d made it happen too fast. Mark didn’t even have a chance to scream. He’d just stood there bug-eyed. What fun was that? But at least the guy died in a unique and interesting way. See, death didn’t have to be boring.
Edge wandered down to collect the vials. He stashed them in Mark’s backpack. He’d dispose of them later. Then he headed back to his car.
That was his last kill for now. Vacation over. Time to return to his crappy role-playing-slash-managerial job.
He took a last look at the reservoir before driving away. How did he
really
feel about Mark’s death and all the ones that had come before his? The truth? Edge closed his eyes. He felt freaking tired.
“
How ugly and horrible are they? Do they coat your skin with slime? Does their stench make you nauseous? Do you feel like you’re walking into the bowels of hell?”
Passion sighed. Of all the heavenly contacts they could’ve assigned to her, why Hope? Once a day she’d have to listen to this idiocy in her head.
She could picture Hope sitting in her little cubicle surrounded by the neutral colors Archangel Ted loved. Ted, along with everything else in heaven, was bland and boring. Okay, so Passion could include herself in the bland and boring category. She accepted the reality of her existence. But she’d looked into enough human minds to know their vision of heaven was a fantasy.
Humans.
Sure, they could get sick and die. Fine, so they suffered heartbreak and other emotional traumas. But from Passion’s viewpoint, things were a lot more exciting on the mortal plane. Could anyone blame her for trying to spice up her own world? Guess that was a resounding yes.
She supposed the final straw for Ted was when she talked the other angels in her department into painting their cubicles lime green. In her opinion, Ted had some serious control issues.
So here she was, on the outside looking in.
And you have only yourself to blame.
If Passion had been a better angel, she wouldn’t have drawn this punishment—a still–to–be–determined amount of time spent living on earth as a human. No powers, no friends, forced to check in once a day with Hope-the-heavenly-drama-queen. The only good thing? The Council of Justice had at least given her some privacy. Hope couldn’t read her thoughts; she could only hear what Passion spoke out loud.
“They’re…”
Way too beautiful
. Evil should appear in shades of muddy brown or black. But no, just look at them. The Seven Deadly Sins shimmered and flowed around the Castle of Dark Dreams in vibrant jewel tones. Totally gorgeous. Totally
tempting
.
Oops. Wrong reaction. “They’re…awful, disgusting, but sort of exciting.” Hmm, maybe she should explain that last word just in case Hope got the wrong impression. “I mean, it’s
exciting
to think about all the peace, harmony, and massive heavenly vibes I’m going to bring to this place.” There, that was better. Didn’t want anyone taking away the only thing she had left, her ability to see the colors of sin.
“Oh.”
Hope sounded disappointed.
“Well, keep in touch.”
She broke the connection.
“Absolutely.” Passion knew her smile wasn’t kind.
Note to self: work on sweet and sincere smile.
Hope and the other angels had gotten used to her supplying their daily entertainment. Too bad. Passion wouldn’t be there to amuse them for a while because she’d be busy earning her way back into heaven.
She had to be the perfect angel. Sure, she’d always longed for more…variety in her existence, but she sure hadn’t planned on getting that variety as a powerless and frighteningly vulnerable
mortal. She could actually
die
, like in never-coming-back die. She shuddered.
Passion crossed the drawbridge, avoiding glancing down at the moat’s black water in favor of staring up at the castle—a keep with four square towers complete with a curtain wall. The whole thing gleamed white, a color symbolizing goodness and light. Fake. Goodness and light didn’t live here.