Kings (Killough-Walden)

It was immediate for Roman. In three thousand years, he'd never lost control of his emotions, or his heart. But the moment he laid eyes on Evelynne Farrow, he knew she was the woman who haunted his dreams. And everything changed.Everything.Evie Farrow has always loved a good vampire romance. In fact, she makes a living writing them. While sitting in a coffee shop and working on her next mega-hot book, Evie is approached by a tall, dark, and handsome man who could have been pulled directly from one of her novels.Unbeknownst to her, Roman D'Angelo is exactly what he appears to be-a vampire, and not just any vampire, but the king of vampires.Unfortunately, while Roman is both ancient and invulnerable, Evie is flesh and blood. Just as Roman decides that he and Evie have a date with destiny, for reasons of their own, an ancient god and a homicidal vampire take an equally strong interest in her.Can Roman fight off the incredible forces that would have Evie as their own long enough to win her heart, or will destiny betray him and destroy everything he has ever dreamed of?

Siobhan Ashdown was born of magic; it rides her blood like a phantom, tainted and dark and unpredictable. She is a warlock, and the power within her is unlike any before known to her kind. So it's no surprise that the most powerful of the demons who feed off of this warlock magic not only recognizes the enormous potential she represents but determines that he will possess her at any cost.Even if it means war with the entire supernatural world.Thanatos has ruled Purgatory as the Phantom King since time immemorial. King of a vast plane of solitude, he is a free spirit, a lone rider, a tattooed man of wind and dust and nonexistent boundaries. Then he turns around one morning to find himself face to face with Siobhan Ashdown, a woman with hair as red and wild as his soul, eyes like melted gold, and a spirit as elusive as his own. Time stops, the world tilts, and the fact that she attacks him right off the bat does little to deter his romantic convictions-or his desire to sink his fangs into her neck.Thirteen Kings are severed by lust and greed, an ancient vampire and his rogue creation lay claim to what is not theirs, the whisperings of war begin to shake the foundation of the supernatural world, and primordial evil awakens from its slumber to slither across the land in this second installment in Heather Killough-Walden's Kings series.

Jason Alberich wears the crown of the sovereign of the warlocks, a dark breed that uses darker magic. He wears it well, skillfully wielding a power that would corrupt others. Yet he has paid the price for his control, bearing the scars of a time when his power had control over him. He is haunted by the regrets of a shady past and now lives each day and night with an isolated soul.Chloe Septeran is an Akyri like no other. A member of a race that must depend upon warlocks for sustenance in exchange for servitude, Chloe runs from the dark magic users, choosing instead to live free of their hold. She has existed empty and "hungry," but stubbornly free of the warlock's dark embrace. However, now the fates have chosen to bring her running to a halt, as the thirteen Kings each discover their queens-and the Warlock King discovers his.A mighty power is awakening, wreaking havoc on the supernatural world. The thirteen Kings, their queens, the werewolf nation, and the witch covens with their high leader, Lalura Chantelle, must band together and stand strong in the face of a dawning nightmare that threatens the very fabric of all they hold dear . . . and from which none may escape.

Damon Chroi has known the weight of ruling in loneliness for thousands of years. The tall, painfully handsome fae lord was born with so much power, the fae kings not only envied but feared him, and banished him to a forbidden realm to be forgotten. There, he was tasked with ruling over the deadliest creatures known to the fae worlds, and his veritable battle as their sovereign is never-ending. As one of the thirteen Kings, his destiny foretells an end to his solitude with the appearance of an equally powerful queen. But that kind of power is hard to come by. And power or not, Damon can't imagine any woman willingly joining him in the eternal misery to which he has been tasked. Until he meets the beautiful, strong and selfless Diana Piper. Diana has been hiding a potent secret from the world for decades. She was born with abilities others would fight to win, and kill to keep. To make matters worse, she is a sensitive soul who, despite the danger it poses to herself, uses these powers to make the world a better place. Forever in harm's way, overworked and headstrong, Diana one night comes across the ultimate challenge in the form of a wayward fae beast-and in the process, crosses paths with its indomitable king. A light can only shine in the darkness so long before someone takes note of it. And Diana not only manages to gain the instant attentions of Damon Chroi, but of those who would do anything to see him-and the other thirteen Kings-dead.

Thousands of years ago, the sovereigns of the Fae lands issued a decree: The Wishers would die. Powerful magics were called forth, and in an act never before or since accomplished, both light and dark, both Seelie and Unseelie gathered together in their courts and combined their powers. The Wishers were annihilated. However . . . legends told how the strongest and most fortunate few managed to escape and hide themselves amongst humans in the mortal realm. But thousands of years passed with no sign of these legendary Wishers. They were declared extinct. And in its rareness, in its extinctness, the lost, most powerful class of the fae, in fact became sacred. There are a lot of things Selene Trystaine would change about the world if she could. Injustices press in, apathy reigns, and unkindness seems to have taken hold in the crevices of humanity. So when she learns that she is not who she has always believed herself to be and destiny presents her with her birthright, she must battle with her inner demons, even while the handsome and powerful king of those who'd once attempted to destroy her kind discovers her-and begins an all-out attack of seduction on her senses. Contains mature themes.

For thousands of years, two realms of unspeakable magic and mystery have existed in peace side by side. One is a land of light, of kindness, of dreams, and of color. The other is rendered in the gray lines of wickedness and seeped in the unbearable beauty of all that is forbidden. The first is ruled by the Seelie King. The other is ruled by Caliban . . . The Unholy. Minerva Trystaine has always been the quiet twin, bullied by reality's fierceness into a life of solitary sensitivity. What she witnesses, she feels. Living in a world that breeds one misfortune after another, she has had no choice but to sequester herself from outgoing life and any hope it might have otherwise offered her. She hides in her music, her hopes and dreams silent but for the harmony she gives them upon rare occasion, allowing them to be heard in perfect pitch by the rest of the world. But when Minerva's sister, Selene, is forced into a fantastical realm of supernatural magic and mystery and taken as queen of the seelie kingdom, the twins are reunited with a world they can scarcely remember-but could never forget. They are Wishers. Born of furious magic and fueled by the need for justice, Wishers are the most feared magic users in the fae realms. Contains mature themes.

King of the Shadow Realm... Beyond the Twixt, just past the Unlit Forest lies a realm so gravely perilous, it has been cut off from the mortal world for thousands of years. The powerful man who rules this tangled, twisted land is as dark and merciless as his realm. That darkness in him calls out, endlessly hunts, and searches far and wide-ever seeking the soul that can make it complete, the one who can end the loneliness that threatens his entire kingdom. Warlock of the fae... Violet Kellen is one of two Tuath unseelie fae to have studied the rare art of dark magic to become a warlock, and now she must use those skills to save the other one-her sister. She foolishly ventures into the forbidden Dark on a rescue mission, and is ultimately thrust into a world she couldn't fathom-and into the arms of a tall, dark savior who fills her with a fierce desire nearly as brutal as his own. Contains mature themes.

Far beyond the easy reaches of the mortal world lies a kingdom of ice and snow. Its glacier mountains reach the horizons of eons, and its cold, hard oceans paint the vastness of its world. It is terribly harsh and beautiful, and there is only one man capable of ruling from its frozen throne. He has ruled there alone for more than a thousand years. But the Thirteen Kings are finding their fated queens, and though he'd all but lost hope he would count himself amongst their lucky numbers, the moment she walks into view, his frozen heart and soul are rekindled with by a fire that will melt through anything, even him. Persephone Glacia Nix-"Poppy"-is a human warlock who has forced herself to fit in with the mortals around her, despite her differences, despite her secret longings, and regardless of the different way in which she sees the world. Her empathetic nature makes life better for others, but difficult for her. She's come to accept this as the curse that accompanies the gift of understanding. However, when Kristopher Scaul approaches her on a dark street in a dark city on a cold night and introduces her to a world she at last feels "at home" in, Poppy must decide whether to continue faking it in the mortal world-or take her place on a second frozen throne, in the lonely but beautiful Kingdom of Winter. Contains mature themes.

Dahlia Kellen has been through hell. Raised in a fae society that slowly drove her mad, she turned traitor against her people and was cast out. But in an act of heroism that clearly exposed her for the good she was, she rose up against the true evil threatening her people, and in her efforts to stop that evil, she was terribly transformed. Now dark, different, and feeling truly exiled in her soul, Dahlia has a chance encounter with a man in Boston. A man whose gaze is as dark and haunted as her own . . . and whose craven desire for her and dangerous, powerful bloodline will show Dahlia that for her, hell is just the beginning. Steven Lazarus is a seasoned detective with the Boston police force who has always served and protected, and done so by the book. But the Akyri King's insides are heating up, a painful yearning is tearing away at him, and his tall, strong body has become capable of a dark, violent magic he can barely control. His dangerous past has caught up with him, and he can scarcely stand to look at his own reflection. He doesn't recognize the man staring back at him, and that terrifies him. Because he knows the powerful, hungry man in the mirror wants Dahlia Kellen just as badly as he does. And if he has to, he'll raise hell to claim her. Contains mature themes.

Sam saw him enter the club at the opposite end of the room. He was a dark shadow against the night. His suit was precisely tailored, and it hugged every curve of his six-foot-five frame. The collar of his black shirt brushed the dark blonde curls he almost never bothered to cut and set off the equally sharp black image of his leather eye patch. One ice blue eye lit up the shadows, stark and unavoidable. Samantha O'Neill has been running for twenty years. She's been fleeing from a man with an ice blue gaze, and possessed of a terrible magic. For twenty years she's managed to escape him. But all hunts come to an end. And now, in the lengthening darkness of an autumn Chicago night, an ominous footfall in the subway and a shadow over her solitary form force Sam to at last come face-to-face with her brutally beautiful pursuer. Jack Colton assumes their forms in the night, shifting to become the predators that grown men fear. Powerful, sleek, graceful, and deadly, he moves through the darkness, watching. Waiting. And that powerful blue gaze finds Sam everywhere she goes. He knows what she is, and he knows what that means. He knows the prophecy. Jack has fought for twenty years to protect that secret, killed to protect the woman who keeps it, and if he must, he will die to see it come to its fruition. Contains mature themes.

When she was fourteen, Adelaide Lane made a choice that landed her in the ICU. Her prognosis was not good. When against all odds she woke up, it was to find that she had re-entered life with the ability to see into the future. For twenty years, Addie used this power to do good. To make matters worse, of late she's experienced a vision more horrible than any before-and she has no idea how to stop the event from occurring. Nick has only been alive for a few hours. He is the Nightmare King, the sovereign of a race of incubi as old as time. When his previous form was murdered by a traitor, he was reborn into Nicholas Wargrave. Housed in a new body, he is fighting against an ancient foe, the Challenger, a man who disputes his position as king. Nick not only has to get used to the new life and withstand the Challenger's attacks, he has to confront the Entity who issued his death. So he's vastly unprepared when he comes face to face with the most beautiful soul-and realizes the woman is his fated queen. Now his priorities are completely rearranged. Adelaide comes first. The problem is, the Challenger feels the same way. And so does the Entity who killed him. Contains mature themes.

Millennia ago, in the time of dragons, love and hate colored the very air monsters breathed. Amidst these beasts, a forbidden love bloomed. A child was born. But misfortune struck, and a murder rocked the world, tearing the family apart. Years piled atop this death, legends faded, and myths were twisted. Now, in one of America's busiest cities, thrives a woman with no last name. Evangeline is from a time before human tradition and provincialism. She is strong, born of legendary parents, and trained by a solitary existence and sheer willpower. When she learns that she has a fate beyond her control as queen, she rebels. Eva refuses to yield despite the king's vivid gray eyes that see through her. She refuses him, not only because of who she is-but because of who he is. The Dragon King bent on claiming her is the man who murdered her father. But a primordial sleeping force has awakened to wreak havoc, and a Traitor to the Kings has returned to hunt Evangeline down. Eva learns that not even her beliefs about the Dragon King are guaranteed. And ultimately, Eva finds herself trapped: Between cruel, heartless evil and the love of an ancient, dark, and beautiful man. Contains mature themes.

William Balthazar Solan has ruled for eons beyond imagining, always alone as he watches over the spaces between the seconds. But thousands of years ago, Fate created a special woman. In her William saw a different kind of history, and a rule that was not alone. Her name was Helena. They fell in love. But Fate wasn't finished. Helena is only half of its design. The other half is a six-foot-six blond with cold blue eyes and a taste for blood, Helena's blood in particular. His name is Cain. William and Helena have spent the last few millennia locked in a terrible loop of love and loss as they struggle to be together in the face of a formidable darkness bent on possessing Helena. But now the chessboard has been turned, the pieces moved. Universes have collided, dimensions have slammed together, and in this new world Fate has no power. This is William's chance to set things right. All he has to do is convince a woman who doesn't know or trust him that she's his long lost love, stop ancient enemies from destroying the entire planet, and keep Cain from sinking his teeth into Helena again. And unfortunately, in this new world William is also running out of time. Contains mature themes.