"Immortal Darius and a wolfish witch caught between Demon and New York City"
Book 1: In Seattle "the Calling" had failed. The demon "Old
One" and Adrian's rogue Immortal brother Tain had been too
strong even for the combined power of himself, Amber
Silverthorne and their friends with powerful life magic who
had gathered on Beltane to summon the Immortals. Adrian had
promised Isis he'd back off until all the brothers had been
assembled to continue the quest to free Tain and destroy the
demon. Amber had promised to continue the search to locate
his brothers. Book 2: In Ravenscroft, home of the Gods, Adrian's brother
Darius is dying. For the first time in seven hundred years
The Calling has summoned him to earth. He is compelled to go
for it is the purpose for which he was created, but he
cannot. Sekhmet, the aspect of the Mother Goddess who bore
him was holding his life essence in an orb around her neck.
Talk about your over protective mothers! Without his essence
Darius could not leave Ravenscroft. It is literally ripping
him apart. Then the Calling ends abruptly relieving the pain
in his body but not in his heart. What kind of life was this
for a warrior? Sekmet refuses to allow Darius to leave, to respond to
Earth's summons for aid. He decides he would rather die than
continue to live such a life and snatches the orb from his
mother's neck dashing it against a wall. It does not have
the desired affect however as his essence takes the form of
a serpent and touches the area above his heart sketching a
tattoo there rather than allowing him to die or being
absorbed into his soul making him whole. As it does Darius
is abruptly expelled from Ravenscroft, only the look on his
mother's face alerts him to the fact that something has gone
very wrong. He has lost his immortality and is no longer
accepted there! Unfortunately he doesn't know that -- yet. In New York City crime is at an all time high. Bounty hunter
and werewolf, Lexi Corvin has heard about the events that
had taken place in Seattle and suspects the super demon is
at work here as well. It is the week before the full moon
which has left her edgy with pent up aggression and
repressed sexuality. She had a job, bills to pay and simply
couldn't take off a week per month to satisfy her wolfish
urges. She could definitely use someone to rough up and so
she'd switched her own case for her male co-workers tougher
one, a skip who abused his spouse. She was almost enjoying
giving the poor excuse for a human being his comeuppance
when a sudden blast of light and the ensuing shock wave
knocked her off her feet. When the smoke cleared she was
faced with ..... Darius. A witch as well as a werewolf Lexi
had seen his face before, in her scrying flame during the
Calling. She was looking at an honest to goodness Immortal. Darius' first thought was to kill the man who would strike a
woman, barring that his next thought after taking in the
woman's appearance was that he'd been confined in Ravencroft
for far too long! Unfortunately as she soon tells him, he
has bigger fish to fry. Soon Darius is on the phone with
Adrian and learns that his brother Kalen, has been sighted
in Scotland (Book 3), that Hunter was still missing, and
that his youngest and weakest brother Tain had been taken,
tortured and turned seven hundred years ago by a ancient and
powerful demon while Adrian had been kept busy with the
Unseelie diversion. Tomorrow Darius would be winging his way to Seattle. Tonight
Lexi wasn't the only one with pent up sexual energy! Too bad
he was a bit too presumptuous, which found him exploring the
city alone while Lexi finished up her paperwork on her skip.
When her best friend Mai calls to invite her to investigate
the Crypt a new vampire club in town, Lexi is just
frustrated enough to take her up on the plan. Before Lexi
has a chance to really get to know any of the men there
better she bumps into Darius again. The Calling should have brought Darius to the place he was
needed most, where death magic was strongest. It has brought
him here, not to Seattle. He'd followed the death magic
through the city to the place it was strongest which had
brought him to the Crypt. The answer was obvious the demon
was here. And he was right. The demon Amadja is lurking beneath the club with its
captive Immortal Tain. After a brief encounter with one of
the demon's succubus in the club Darius has been drained of
his memory as well as a healthy portion of his essence. The
sanity challenged Tain recognizes the essence for what it is
and knows Darius has heeded the Calling. Darius and Lexi keep turning up in the same places for
completely different reasons, he hunting down the demon, she
in an effort to save her best friend who the demon has
chosen as a pawn in its latest bid to purge the world. It's
clear they are attracted to each but either something gets
in the way of them getting together or they are interrupted
mid-encounter. It's no wonder Lexi is starting to get a
complex. She tells herself their attraction is just
moonlust; that any attractive healthy man will do. She'd
watched her twin perish, a sacrifice to true love and sworn
to herself never to allow a man to touch her heart. Darius
doesn't believe what Adrian has told him about Tain. He is
certain that all he has to do is get him away from the
demon. Unfortunately in his current state he is vulnerable. Amadja and Tain's latest plan is unleash the "hounds of
Hell" and will allow no one to interfere. When it become
obvious that Tain truly wants to die, and has no qualms
about taking his brother with him, Lexi comes to understand
her sister's sacrifice. A world without the man she loves is
not worth living in. This installment spends less time on the actual romance than
on building the Demon's plot, nevertheless it works.
Stopped for now the Demon and his Immortal captive, Tain
next appear in Scotland where they will take on Kalen, son
of the Etruscan Mother Goddess Uni.
Reviewed by Leslie Tramposch
Posted August 17, 2008
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