A warrior with inner demons falls for a woman who could save his soul in this seductive novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling Black Dagger Brotherhood series.
Within the Black Dagger Brotherhood, Rhage is the warrior vampire with the strongest appetites. He’s the deadliest fighter, the most voracious lover, the quickest to act on his impulses. He’s also been cursed with two hundred years of hell. Possessed by a beast, he lives in fear of the times when his inner dragon comes out and he’s a danger to everyone around him.
Mary Luce has unwittingly found herself in the vampire world, and under Rhage’s protection. With her own life-threatening curse to bear, she’s not looking for love. Besides, she’s stopped believing in saving grace and miracles long ago. But when Rhage’s intense sexual attraction turns into emotional bonding, he knows he must have her for his mate. As their enemies close in, Mary finds herself praying for something she fears she’ll never have: life eternal with the one she loves.
Back to the wonderful world of vampire warriors, outdated slang, and 90's rappers! This time the story focuses on Rhage, which I was quite excited to learn more about after his shapeshifter scene in Dark Lover. It turns out that his ability is actually a curse. I felt terrible for what he has to go through both physically and emotionally. Despite his playboy facade, he's hurting. Of course that's where the woman comes in: Mary.
Mary's story is a bit of a sad one. She has leukemia, and after a remission, it's back. She's dealing with this when she meets Rhage, but it doesn't completely dominate her plot. She wasn't defined by her cancer, and we got to know many aspects of her personality. The end of her and Rhage's story made me a little teary eyed. Oh, how I love happy endings.
Mr.X is back, but this time he's got help: Mr.O. After the events of the first book, the "lessers" have decided to stop going after civilian vampires and go straight for the Brotherhood. However, it seems like Mr. O isn't completely on board for their mission. And Mr. O was pretty darn interesting, since he seems to have a wider range of emotions than the other lessers. This continuation of the plot wasn't as interesting as the first book in the beginning; there was too much construction and self loathing, but it's obvious that something major is building up. I can't wait to see what comes next.
The one subplot I wished there was more of was John's! We don't really know much about him, and I wanted to. His unknown past is very intriguing, so hopefully the next books get into it more. This time we also get to know Zsadist a bit better, and OMG I need to read his book immediately!
