Deep Kiss of Winter / Untouchable Read online

  DEEP KISS

  OF

  WINTER

  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

  DEEP KISS

  OF

  WINTER

  Kresley Cole

  &

  Gena Showalter

  Pocket Books

  A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

  1230 Avenue of the Americas

  New York, NY 10020

  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

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  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

  UNTOUCHABLE

  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.

  • Occurs every five hundred years. Or right now . . .

  “They say I’m as fickle as winter, as shy as frost, and as indifferent as a blizzard. It’s rumored my body is pure as driven snow. Nobody imagines that I might be full of fire.”

  —DANIELA THE ICE MAIDEN,

  VALKY