New York Times  bestselling author Nina Bangs once again tempts readers to enter the Castle of Dark Dreams, a place where private pleasures and devilish fantasies come true... After another attempt to enliven the heavenly halls, the angel Passion is sent to Earth to tame her naughty nature—by bringing goodness and light to the sinful Castle of Dark Dreams, the adult fantasy playground. There she finds herself cast in the role of virgin bait to trap a marauding demon. Passion thinks the game is harmless until she sees the man playing the demon. His name is Edge, and Passion senses darkness in him beyond any she’s ever dreamed. Edge may play a demon, but he is something much worse. His past is littered with pain and destruction, and that’s the way he likes it. Now he must prove to himself and others that he is what he’s always been: cold and emotionless. But as danger threatens and his need for Passion heats up, he finds himself balanced on love’s wicked edge... “Nina Bangs delivers!”—Christine Feehan “Demons, vamps, angels, and wizards make for one exhilarating ride!”— Fresh Fiction “Sensuous…erotic romance.”— Publishers Weekly “Enticing, wicked…A terrific paranormal star-crossed lovers’ thriller.”— Midwest Book Review   Nina Bangs is the New York Times bestselling author of the Castle of Dark Dreams series. PROLOGUE He’d needed this down time 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.   CHAPTER ONE /p “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