D K EEP ISS OF INTER W ALSO BY KRESLEY COLE The Sutherland Series The Captain of All Pleasures The Price of Pleasure The MacCarrick Brothers Series If You Dare If You Desire If You Deceive The Immortals After Dark Series A Hunger Like No Other No Rest for the Wicked Wicked Deeds on a Winter’s Night Dark Needs at Night’s Edge Dark Desires After Dusk Kiss of a Demon King ALSO BY GENA SHOWALTER Awaken Me Darkly Enslave Me Sweetly Savor Me Slowly Seduce the Darkness D K EEP ISS OF INTER W Kresley Cole & Gena Showalter Pocket Books A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc. 1230 Avenue of the Americas New York, NY 10020 [http://www.SimonandSchuster.com] www.SimonandSchuster.com This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. Untouchable copyright © 2009 by Kresley Cole Tempt Me Eternally copyright © 2009 by Gena Showalter All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Pocket Books Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020 First Pocket Books hardcover edition October 2009 POCKET and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc. For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Simon & Schuster Special Sales at 1-866-506- 1949 or [email protected]. The Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau can bring authors to your live event. For more information or to book an event contact the Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau at 1-866-248-3049 or visit our website at [http://www.simonspeakers.com] www.simonspeakers.com. Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Deep kiss of winter / by Kresley Cole and Gena Showalter. p. cm. ISBN 978-1-4391-5966-8 ISBN 978-1-4391-6685-7 (ebook) 1. Love stories, American. 2. Occult fiction, American. 3. Christmas stories. I. Cole, Kresley. Untouched. II. Showalter, Gena. Tempt me eternally. PS648.L6D44 2010 813’.54—dc22 2009031082 CONTENTS Untouchable by Kresley Cole Tempt Me Eternally by Gena Showalter NTOUCHABLE U Kresley Cole Dedicated to Lauren McKenna and Gena Showalter, two incredible ladies and unstoppable forces of nature, for a thousand reasons why (and not just because my fabulous editor put me in a book with my favorite author). ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Much love to all my fellow rabid Showalter fans, for sharing a boundless admiration and warm affection for all things Gena. To those of you about to be initiated: Yes, we have T-shirts and we meet in the bar. And thank you to Swede, for your wintry insights and nonstop support. You didn’t have to drag me over the finish line on this one, but it means a lot to me that you were ready to. GLOSSARY OF TERMS FROM The Living Book of Lore THE LORE “. . . and those sentient creatures that are not human shall be united in one stratum, coexisting with, yet secret from, man’s.” • Most are immortal and can regenerate from injuries. The stronger breeds can only be killed by mystical fire or beheading. • Their eyes change to a breed-specific color with intense emotion. THE VALKYRIE “When a maiden warrior screams for courage as she dies in battle, Wóden and Freya heed her call. The two gods give up lightning to strike her, rescuing her to their hall, and preserving her courage forever in the form of the maiden’s immortal Valkyrie daughter.” • Take sustenance from the electrical energy of the earth, sharing it in one collective power, and give it back with their emotions in the form of lightning. • Possess preternatural strength and speed. • Without training, most can be mesmerized by shining objects and jewels. THE VAMPIRES • Two warring factions, the Horde and the Forbearer Army. • Each vampire seeks his Bride, his eternal wife, and walks as the living dead until he finds her. • A Bride will render his body fully alive, giving him breath and making his heart beat, a process known as blooding. • Tracing is teleporting, the vampires’ means of travel. A vampire can only trace to destinations he’s previously been or to those he can see. • The Fallen are vampires who have killed by drinking a victim to death. Distinguished by their red eyes. THE HORDE “In the first chaos of the Lore, a brotherhood of vampires dominated by relying on their cold nature, worship of logic, and absence of mercy. They sprang from the harsh steppes of Dacia and migrated to Russia, though some say a secret enclave, the Daci, live in Dacia still.” • The Fallen comprise their ranks. THE FORBEARERS “. . . his crown stolen, Kristoff, the rightful Horde king, stalked the battlefields of antiquity seeking the strongest, most valiant human warriors as they died, earning him the name of Gravewalker. He offered eternal life in exchange for eternal fealty to him and his growing army.” • An army of vampires consisting of turned humans, who do not drink blood directly from the flesh. • Kristoff was raised as a human and then lived among them. He and his army know little of the Lore. THE NOBLE FEY OF DRAISKULIA “A warrior nobility class who ruled over all the demon serfs in their realm.” • Were Féodals, an ancient term for feudal overlords, which became shortened to Fey. • Masters in the art of poisons. • Males prefer to be called Drais. • Over time, divided into numerous subsets, including fire, ice, and forest fey. THE TURNING “Only through death can one become an ‘other.’” • Some beings, such as the Lykae, vampires, and demons, can turn a human or even other Lore creatures into their kind through differing means, but the catalyst for change is always death, and success is not guaranteed. THE ACCESSION “And a time shall come to pass that all immortal beings in the Lore, from the Valkyrie, vampire, Lykae, and demon factions to the phantoms, shifters, fey, and sirens . . . must fight and destroy each other.” • A kind of mystical checks-and-balances system for an evergrowing population of immortals.