is the third book of the Darkyn Series,
Lucan, the pet assassin of the Darkyn King, has settled in Florida and has been given his own Jardin to rule, He is no longer at Richard's beck and call and is still nursing a deep hatred of Michael Cyprien, He has opened a nightclub with a Goth theme that is his playground where he uses the women who frequent the club indiscriminately for sex and food, He is one of the few Darkyn whose powers work on Darkyn and human alike, He can kill just by touch,
Samantha Brown is a Homicide detective and her life is a mess, Her former partner sexually harassed her and almost caused her death, yet she is the one that has the dicey reputation in the dept, However she has the uncanny ability to read a crime scene and close cases on murderers,
A series of murders leads her straight to Lucan, He is at first attracted to and then obsessed by the human as he learns that she can resist his enthralling scent night blooming jasmine, Samantha is troubled by her uncharacteristic super lust reaction to him, but fights the distraction because he is her prime suspect,
In the meantime, Michael and Alex find themselves traveling to Florida at the desperate urging of one of Michael's Jardin, A member of his family, who is undergoing a horrifying metamorphosis wants to die, is on his way to seek out Lucan so that Lucan can touch and kill him.
The situation is potentially catastrophic as is could expose the Darkyn to the Brethren and to the human public, Alex, still trying to find a cure for vampirism, wants to save and possibly study the poor man,
And John Keller, having left the priesthood, stays with an old friend who is a member of a Franciscan order and learns some more about the Brethren.
This book is great from the standpoint of character and relationships, Lucan is a very fascinating character, Viehl introduced him in the very fist book where allowed his resentment of being the Darkyn assassin to shine through, This was a very brief scene but the impact resonates, As a reader, I could not forget Lucan, He is also a very bad guy, In If Angels Burn he defiled nurse Heather simply because he could and just because she was under Michael's protection, He had no thought or care for her innocent bystander status, I am always fascinated when an author can take a character and make them a protagonist without prettying them up for easy consumption,
And then there is Samantha, She is also a fascinating character, She is investigating a series of murders, she has a prickly relationship with her exneighbor, Keri with whom she had a one night stand, and she is being stalked by her expartner.
Why can she resist Lucan's scent and his touch What is the significance of her ability to read a crime by touching blood She's not Darkyn, but something is going on with her.
And the information dribbled throughout the book regarding the enmity that Keri has for Sam and the reasons for it just adds some excellent texture to the character.
We also see relationships explored and fleshed out, Michael and Alex are in love but his dealing with Richard behind Alex's back will come to bite him on the ass in a big way, Michael and Lucan hate each other but each are loyal to Richard, Richard fosters a very dysfunctional adversarial family relationship with these two "sons" of his, Alex loves her brother John, but still feels abandoned by him and resentful of his church, And John is just seriously fucked up in the head,
Like in her previous two books in the series, Viehl packs a lot of story and plot in apage book, It is really amazing that she creates a great romance story in there Lucan/Sam, continues the romance arc of Alex/Michael, and manages to continue building the Darkyn world brick by brick.
And as an added bonus, the story really moves, Alex and Michael's relationship continues to deepen, she drops more information about Richard Tremayne, the bad ass Darkyn king, A few more Darkyn names are mentioned that have significance
in later books, there are some great flashbacks about Lucan's past, and we meet the seriously beautiful Marcella who in my mind looks like Angelina Jolie, there is also the revelation of the reasons why Michael was so horrified in the first book at the thought of Alex trying to live off animal blood instead human blood.
The plight of the poor Darkyn, Faryl, who did that very thing and now seeks death was revolting,
And finally, there is the climactic ending that doesn't quite go as planned for any of the parties involved except maybe Richard, The book ends on a humdinger of a cliff hanger and sets up the next book very nicely,
Awesome series! Really enjoyed reading this book! He still isn't my favourite MMC, but yeah, still a really great book! I can't wait to read more, because oh, that ending!
First read Aprilst,
He's not my favourite MMC but I guess he'll do.
His love is the one thing that I like about him, and even then, he doesn't exactly treat her the right way, Yep : Good story though! Police officer Samantha Brown is chasing down a lead on a murder when she meets Lucan, Lucan one of the Darkyn is immediately reminded of a long lost love when he sees Samantha, The fiercely independent Samantha is unwilling to yield to his powers over her, but Lucan wont take no for an answer, As the murders begin to pile up, Samantha discovers Lucan is her best ally but he is his own worst enemy,
I started really intrigued and the end fell flat just a bit, This was a good read! I am really enjoying this series! Samantha Brown was a policeman that was busy with cases of killing, she was highly appreciated as a cop.
But once she was shot by a madman, The only evidence she had was the a medieval cross inscribed "Lucan"the name of the owner of a new nightclub near the murder scene, Drawn into a seamy underworld, Samantha falls for Lucanwho believes he's a vampire and Samantha is his reincarnated first love, Now, she must save this mysterious, seductive man who seems beyond redemption if he is to fulfill her deepest, darkest desires,
PREVIEW:
lena was dumped by the club guy after a day of spendind time with him, he is a cheater, he dates girls and the next thing you know bam, its over, she will not be dumped, she is special and she will show that to him, so she brought a new dress and all and went back to the club, and he just called a cab and said she should leave, she declined the cab and walked on the sidewalk, and a strange guy went up to her and holed out a cross and asked if it were hers.
. but it wasnt, it was her exdates cross, she took it from the man gratefully and thought about him taking her back as his when she returned it tomorrow, the strange man ends up taking her to the chruch, and says that she should clean herself with holy water for the sins to go away, she did, and suddenly she couldnt breathe, but bshe died she heard him say "you should have letted him touch you",
gt
samantha brownsam went to a scence with her other detective buddys, and there was a lady laying on a bench with a cross around her fingers.
sam finds the cross later on and gets it from the dead lady, and behind it had five letters, . . "LUCAN".
Lucan, former chief assassin of the Darkyn high lord Richard Tremayne, suzerain of a newly formed and still nameless jardin was sent a box of dead flowers in them.
and then later on he found out there was copper in themone of the things that could kill him, but bhe recieved the box, he heard about someone dieing close to his club, and turns out it was the lady that he dumped a few days ago after using her to feed.
samantha went to work to find out from her boss that two new guys were coming in to work with them for a while, a guy and another one named Wesley Dwyer.
ohno. wesley the last time samantha worked with him she ended up almost dead, while she was working with him she had to move houses so that he'll stop stalking her, make a new phone number so that the guy would stop following her, and tried staying away from him because he was creepy from day.
but noone believed that dwyer seduced her, all the guy just thought she either lied or made it up to get attention, later on harry showed sam a name of a new club owner, . . lucan enterprise. looks like he may be the name of the lucan on the cross,
sam meets lucan at the club later on when she went in to his office to ask questions, and lucan ends up sucking her blood from her hand to his mouth.
but blucan can do anything more, sam pushed him away saying she doesnt want it, lucan then looks in her eyes and makes her forget everything and think that he told her everything he knows about lena,
after lucan fed frombeautiful women his joy he did not feel, all he could think about was sam and how she looked just like frances, frances never letted lucan touch her until the day bshe died, . . and sam reminded her of frances, but sam seems more of a mysterious person, lucan told his servant to find info, on everything about sam, and later on the servant comes back to say that sam is, lives alone,childless, and people think that shes a lesbian, has been in no relationship at all, and worked for the detectives foryears.
sams partner harry dies later on, which breaks sams heart because he was a great partner and they were the bestest of friends, sam tried to use her powers to see who killed harry but she couldnt see the murderers facesam's power is to touch someone that is dead and she can see the last few moments of life of the person bthey died/got killed.
sam will find the killer, and she plans to make the killer pay, sam finds out that lucan is a Darkyn/vampire,
later on sam ends up having with lucan, and the next day lucan dumps her,
FACT:
lucans powers come from his hand, he can kill any breathing thing with one touch, thats why he always wears gloves,
when lucan loses his temper or gets mad, he shatters glasses that are near him without touching it,
lucan and sam fight which leads lucan to put a sams gun on him and says to shoot him, but sam didnt do that and admits shes in love with him.
then lucan gets all crazy and they both ended up making good love to each other,and then lucan ties her up to handcuffs so she cant stop what hes about to do the next dayRisk dieing fighting michael
lucan stole michaels lover alexandraalex and bites her so that when he fights michael, michael might smell his lovers scent on lucan and get distracted and weaker.
later on sam gets free of her handcuffs with the help of her neighbor goth teenage friend chris, chris later disguises sam as a goth and sam went to the club to see michael, the crypien, and a bunch of guards,
later on Wesley Dwyer comes out of nowhere and shoots sam on the side while sam and alex were trying to calm the faryli think i mayb spelled it wrong.
lucan ends up making a truce with michael and the crypien in the end, and lucan knew that sam was dieing but he had to try and give sam alexandra's kn/vamp blood.
in the end lucan thought sam would never come alive again and was about to give up and send sam away when sam woke up to having fangs.
sam is becoming a kyn, and sam and lucan love each other in the end forever,
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