Authors: Nina Bangs
Hot Summer Bites: A Castle of Dark Dreams Novella (A Penguin Special from Berkley Sensation) (9 page)
And as she watched him hurry away, she smiled. She wouldn’t spoil his joy by telling him that she saved the day for him. Taurin and Kristin needed a close encounter of the deadly kind to shock them into that final commitment.
Damn, she was good. She hummed “Nobody Does It Better” as she let herself into her store.
Following is a special excerpt from
WICKED EDGE
the next book in the Castle of Dark Dreams series
by Nina Bangs
Coming March 2012 from Berkley Sensation!
“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.
She’d take care of that by the time she left. She narrowed her eyes as she strode through the open gate and across the courtyard, headed for the doors leading into the great hall. Spotlights lit up the night around the castle. No threatening shadows warned the innocent about what waited inside. Righteous anger drove her as she reached for the door. She’d smite the wicked and save all those poor souls inside who . . .
She paused. No powers, so no smiting. Damn. Passion closed her eyes. No cursing. Ted hated cursing. So many things to remember. But she could do this. Opening her eyes, she pulled the door open and stepped inside.
Someone spoke. “Ah, another person who didn’t bother to check the schedule and has chosen instead to annoy the hell out of me by showing up at the last moment.” Dramatic sigh. “But I live to serve, so I’ll probably be able to stick you in somewhere. All the choice parts are gone. How do you feel about playing the lowly maiden who serves the queen? Not a virgin. The virgin part was taken by a woman who obviously has only a faint memory of that particular condition.”
“Virgin?” Startled, she looked at the speaker. A wizard? A short one. Gold-trimmed blue robe, tall conical hat that added at least a foot, and all of it decorated with gold suns, moons, and stars. He’d topped everything off with a long, pointy gray beard that matched his narrowed gray eyes.
“Yes. The part is gone.” The wizard looked down his nose at her, which was tough to do when she was taller than he was. “If it’s any comfort, you’d fit the part better. Pale hair, pale skin, pale eyes, and uninspired pale clothing. You, my dear, are the definition of unawakened. Avoid Sparkle Stardust at all cost. Now, do you want the lowly maiden part?”
“No.” What was he talking about? She glanced around. People in medieval-type costumes wandered the large hall. Too bad the Council of Justice had kicked her down here without full disclosure. All they’d said was that the castle needed help. This place was her ticket back home.
“You look confused.” The wizard glanced at his watch. “As much as I’d love to waste more time explaining the obvious, I have a fantasy to direct. Feel free to gawk. If you care to wait until this fantasy concludes, you may buy a ticket to the next one over there.” He pointed to a small table by the door with a
TICKETS
sign taped to the front of it. “And you might want to read that.” He gestured toward a sign on the wall above the ticket table.
Bemused, she watched him turn to walk away. Violet, the color of pride, swirled around him. No kidding. Too bad there wasn’t a color for bad-tempered old farts. She took a deep breath.
Get rid of unkind thoughts
.
Passion didn’t know how other angels did it. They wore their perfection like a pair of comfortable old shoes. Her shoes pinched her toes and left blisters on her heels. She constantly wanted to kick them off. Well, she’d kicked them off a few times too many.
She looked at the sign. Fine, so she was in an adult theme park called Live the Fantasy. The Castle of Dark Dreams was one of the park’s attractions. It was a hotel as well as a place where nightly fantasies were played out. The first fantasy began at seven
P.M.
That would be right about now. She should get out of here and find the registration desk for the hotel part of the castle, but she couldn’t resist taking a peek at the fantasy.
A long table with people in costumes seated around it rested on a raised platform at one end of the great hall. Passion assumed the major parts like the queen were played by the castle staff. They’d guide the fantasy. The public could buy tickets to play lesser parts. Made sense.
It only took moments for the fantasy to capture her. What could she say, heaven didn’t get cable, and she was easily amused.
Mesmerized, she followed the tale. A demon was killing the castle’s people. The queen’s greatest hunters couldn’t catch him. So the virgin offered to sacrifice herself for the good of all. She’d lure him into their clutches with her virginal beauty and purity. Hah. Passion was seeing lots of blue swirling around Ms. Untouched. Lust. Passion couldn’t read her mind, but she’d bet there weren’t a lot of chaste thoughts bouncing around in that head.
The wizard had been right about the virgin. If the demon was smart, he’d run like crazy. She’d eat him alive.
Of course, the dumb demon fell for the trick. She heard the virgin’s not-overly-convincing screams coming from one of the darkened hallways along with the demon’s snarls and the shouts of the hunters. A few minutes later the virgin led the parade back into the great hall followed by the triumphant hunters surrounding the cage of the captured demon. The queen called the virgin and her hunters forward to praise them, and Passion got her first look at the demon.
A voluminous cape and hood covered him from head to toe. All she could see of him were his hands clenched around the cage’s bars. Well, that was disappointing. She was all ready to be awed by the pure evil carved into his face, the demonic gleam in his eyes. Passion felt cheated.
Then he turned his head toward her. She sucked in her breath. Wow, just wow. The hood shadowed his face, but that didn’t lessen the impact. Nothing said savage predator like strong slashing brows, a full mobile mouth drawn into a snarl, and amber eyes that shone with every wickedness she’d ever imagined and some she hadn’t dared.
And he’d fixed his gaze on
her
. Passion looked away first. She realized her hands were shaking as she pushed a strand of hair from her face. Time to get out of here.
But even as she started to move toward the door, Passion realized something. She’d been so focused on his eyes that she’d barely noticed the color swirling around him.
Oh, no. It spread horror in a slick coat of ice over her soul.
Black.
Not one of the Deadly Sins. This went beyond those. It was rage, greed, and all the others taken to the final act.
Death.
This man was beyond redemption. She shuddered. What could she do to yank the castle from the brink with him dragging it down? Passion didn’t know.
She pushed the door open but couldn’t resist one look back. A thin band of blue had joined the black. Lust. Males thought about sex a lot. She wondered if he had a specific target for all that hunger, or if it was simply his normal state of being. Passion had no experience with lust. Didn’t
want
any experience. She sighed. Yeah, lying was a sin too.
Once outside, she drew in a deep breath of clean night air. She’d escaped. And that’s exactly how she felt even though he was the one in the cage. She’d have to toughen up if she wanted to do any good here.
But she would need some time to get used to everything. The only experience she had of the mortal plane was what she’d seen and heard in the minds of the souls she’d visited. Even though she’d been focused on easing their worries and nudging them down the path of goodness and light, she’d absorbed enough knowledge to blend in.
Blending wasn’t the problem, though. Heaven didn’t generate much emotion, nothing even close to what she’d felt as she stared at the demon. She’d better get a handle on her feelings fast. Ted always said that logic was what made angels superior beings, and that humans were beneath them because they were slaves to their emotions. So, no more out-of-control emotions.
Passion scanned the courtyard. People who must be arriving for the next fantasy stepped around her to reach the door. She moved out of their way. She was sure if she went back into the great hall she could find a door leading to the hotel lobby. Did she want to do that?
And take the chance of locking eyes with the demon again?
She walked around the outside of the castle. And as she walked, she worked on her story. No luggage because the airline had lost it all. Passion was glad that at least the Council had given her a credit card and some cash. She’d have to go shopping tomorrow. Maybe buy some clothes in brighter colors. Not that she was letting the fake wizard get to her. What she looked like didn’t matter as long as she did her job.
She thought again about the demon with his amber eyes and his lust and . . . Maybe she’d buy herself a few
sexy
things. She had to fit in here, not draw attention to herself. And she couldn’t change evil if she couldn’t get near it. Those who embraced all that was wicked would be more willing to accept her message if she dressed like them. Not that she’d enjoy dressing like a slut.
Hello, your conscience here. Run that thought past me again.
Okay, so maybe she’d enjoy it a little. There were times when Passion despaired of ever living up to heavenly standards.
Edge went up in flames for about the five hundredth time this year, or at least it felt that way. As the fake flames rose around him, he thought about the woman.
He’d felt her stare, different from the others in the hall—tentative, intrigued, with no sexual response at all. Amazing. Edge had no illusions about his effect on women. They might not know what he was, but they all reacted to the power they sensed. They always claimed his face or body or—God forbid—his mind attracted them, but it went beyond that. No matter what humans wanted to believe about themselves, the promise of violence drew them. Just look at the top-rated TV shows. Lots of blood and death. Not that he was complaining.
The women never stayed long, though. Eventually their primal instincts kicked in, the ones that recognized him as a predator. And they ran. Smart ladies.
The flames roared around him, hiding him from the celebrating queen, virgin, and assorted other idiots. With a casual flick of power, he dematerialized.
He reappeared in the dressing room. Stripping off his cape and hood, he returned to thinking about the woman. Colorless, but with the promise of beauty if someone took the time to nurture it—tall and slender with long, pale blond hair that would flow over his body like cool spring water. And she’d gazed at him from light green eyes that hid nothing. Those incredible eyes said that he was the most amazing thing she’d ever seen. How could any man resist that message?
She wasn’t taking part in a fantasy. Was she staying at the hotel? He hoped she wasn’t just making the rounds of the park’s attractions and then going home. Time to talk with Holgarth.
Edge found the wizard being his usual snarky self with customers waiting for the next fantasy to begin. “Have a minute, Holgarth?”
The wizard turned to glare at him. Edge didn’t miss the customers’ relieved expressions.
“Why wouldn’t I have a minute? I have nothing to do but make sure the lifeblood of this castle, its fantasies, keeps running like the well-oiled machine I’ve made it after years of endless toil, sacrifice, and—”
“Oh, shit.” Edge started to turn away.
“But I suppose a minute won’t disturb my schedule too much. What do you need?”