"A story filled with adventure"
COVENANTS is the prequel to Down Came A Blackbird. In DOWN
CAME A BLACKBIRD, we met Cait and Kevin O'Keefe. COVENANTS
is the story of how their parents marriage came about. Bridget O'Keefe has just accepted a three-year contract
with a medical clinic in the town of Lacrimas. Her boss,
Debbie, came from Lacrimas and heard about the position
opening and helped Bridget get the job. As soon as Bridget gets off the plane, she was met by Kurt
Walker. Kurt has a lot of money, power and influence and he
built the clinic. He rushes Bridget through the security
and whisks her away to the grand opening celebration. She
is introduced to Lucinda, who will be her physician's
assistant at the clinic. Bridget has never been comfortable
around crowds and is anxious to leave; so Lucinda arranges
for Bridget to leave the party. On their way out the door,
they run into Lilith, one of the Harkers, the family which
owns most of the land in this area for generations. Lilith
has a dog with her and makes a gift of it to Bridget. Kurt
tells Bridget that the Harkers train them and sell dogs for
quite a bit of money. Kurt and Bridget make a deal to
become friends. He takes her to the clinic and her home,
which is one building. Bridget and Lilith become friends and Bridget begins
hearing strange things about the Harkers. Kurt has been
trying to win Lilith's friendship for years, but she always
turns him down as she doesn't trust Kurt. One night, there's a flood and a bridge has collapsed. Kurt
comes around and collects Bridget in his helicopter. Lilith
shows up with a relative who is totally covered by his
jacket and has the hood pulled forward so his face can't be
seen. Lucinda's youngest daughter, Maellen, was on the
bridge that collapsed. Well, it turns out that Maellen was
saved by another Harker, Shiloh. Shiloh and Maellen do the
natural thing when faced with a near death experience and
Maellen ends up becoming pregnant as a result. Lilith and
Bridget become even closer friends. Lilith explains to
Bridget that she is a telepath, which is why she feels so
uncomfortable around crowds of people. Bridget feels a bond with Shiloh. Nathaniel also shows up
at Bridget's house at night and he won't allow Bridget to
turn on any lights. He tells her that he is different, but
won't explain any further. He begins to tell Bridget
stories about his family and Bridget can tell that he is
storyteller of the clan. Bridget begins to understand more
and more about the Harkers. She is not repulsed by what she
learns and she is bonding more and more to Nathaniel. When Bridget gets a blood sample from Shiloh to reassure
Maellen about her baby, all the problems start. Bridget
sends the sample off to Debbie, who runs all kinds of tests
on it and finds some strange DNA. Now the fun begins when
one of Debbie's workers breaks her security and gets access
to the sample. This is a different story than DOWN CAME A BLACKBIRD. That
was all about space travel and flight training. COVENANTS
takes place on earth in the swamplands. Along with Bridget,
we learn about the Sidhe and their traditions and way of
life. Bridget learns this information in bits and pieces
from many different sources. This story deals more with the
history of the Sidhe and how they managed to make their way
on our planet by making COVENANTS with their neighbors when
they helped them out. These were all oral promises that
were made by people of the community to the Harkers. The
COVENANTS were handed down through the generations and were
always honored. This story is also filled with adventure
and plenty of it, right down to an emergency surgery on
Shelley and Nathaniel. This is definitely a story I
recommend reading. Reviewed by Chere Gruver
Posted January 6, 2004
Reviewed by Chere Gruver
Posted November 17, 2006
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