Christine Feehan's “steamy and dreamy…combo platter of danger, fantasy and wild, uninhibited romance continues to sizzle” (Publishers Weekly) in her #1 New York Times bestselling series. Now, she freezes the blood in her most fiercely sensual Carpathian novel yet...

Born into a world of ice, and slave to her evil father, Lara Calladine knew only paralyzing fear as a child—and escaping with her mysterious gifts unbroken would be the only way to survive her great Carpathian heritage as a Dragonseeker. Human, yet mage, she was of the blood of three species yet belonged to none. She walked her chosen path alone, guided by the wisdom of her aunts—to blend in and let no one know of her ancestry and powers. And never trust anyone. For beyond the frozen hell of her youth was a world of even greater mysteries and dangers.

Today Lara is the leading expert in the field of ice cave study around the world and the healing microorganisms that thrive in them. She’s also in search of something else: the source of her nightmares—the cold dark corners of her childhood. Only one man has the will and the powers to help her: Nicolas De La Cruz, for whom centuries of hunting and killing have long since taken their toll. Dangerous and arrogant, he still longs to feel sensual love without the hunger for blood. Now, between Lara and Nicolas, a tenuous trust has emerged, and a passion neither has ever known before as a melody of dark promise begins.

But as each scales the treacherous land of the Carpathian in search of their past, they also harbor a secret that could save or destroy them. And as each may be desirous of a new beginning as lifemates, they are also haunted by the unknown dangers of a dark curse.

Click Here to Read Prologue

Release Date: September 2, 2008
Number of Pages: 416 pages
Publisher: Berkley Hardcover
Language: English
ISBN: 0425223434

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Dark Curse is a book I’ve been looking forward to writing for a long time.  I’ve wanted answers to some of the reasons Carpathian women couldn’t breastfeed.  Why they couldn’t carry their babies.  Why babies died within the first couple of years.  What had happened over the years to change things so drastically that the Carpathian species was on the brink of extinction.  I also wanted to know a little bit more about the culture and society of the Carpathians.  What are some of their secret ceremonies?  How do so many alpha males react when they are in such close proximity to one another?  I know this book would be an adventure from start to finish and for me it was.  It was a thrill to get up every morning to see the world unfolding and watch the characters, a strong man with an equally strong woman rise to defeat an enemy.  I loved learning a little bit more about the world beneath the ground.  I hope the world becomes as intriguing for you as it is for me!

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~DARK CURSE JIGZONE PUZZLE~

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~ NEW CARPATHIAN CHANTS ~

Carpathian Lullabye — This song is sung by a mother to her child while the child is still in the womb or when the threat of a miscarriage is obvious.

arrangement for chorus and violin ensemble (1 minute, 39 seconds) — currently available in these formats: