Serpent's Kiss (Elder Races, #3)

by Thea Harrison

[EBookObsessed]

Carling Severan, is a vampyre, a sorceress, and a member of the Counsel of Elder Races. Carling was turned into vampire during the time of ancient Eygpt. Although great age brings great wisdom and power, it also brings madness. Those few vampyres who have reached such an advanced age have been lost to a type of mental deterioration and they have needed to be destroyed.

Carling is one of the oldest of the Nightkind still existing, and she has notice the accelerating deterioration of her mind. As an older vampire and powerful sorceress, her “episodes” are affecting the world around her and the King of the Nightkind has asked her to confine herself to the Other land until her death.

Wyr Sentinel and gryphon Rune Ainissesthai had made a promise to Carling to come to her in one week’s time and do a favor of her choosing, if she would save a mortally wounded Tiago. Now his week was up and he needs to make good on his promise. Upon his arrival at Avalon, the first thing he noticed was the Carling’s usual army of attendants and sycophants was absent. They have abandoned her during her final days.

After Carling releases Rune from his promise with only a kiss, Rune decides he will stay and help Carling try to find a solution to stop her further deterioration.

When the Carling is next drawn into one of her “episodes,” Rune is surprised to find that her episodes are actually Carling reliving her memories. He is further surprised to find himself drawn into her memories and how real it all feels to him. When they finally figure out that Rune is actually interacting with Carling in the past and changing her past, the know they must be very careful because any change in the past could be detrimental to the future. But as Carling relives some of her most painful memories of her youth, Rune finds it almost impossible to sit back and allow Carling’s mistreatment no matter what effect it may bring to their future.

Rune and Carling’s research bring them back to San Fransciso in search of answers, but the King of the Nightkind is distressed that Carling has left her exile, enough that he will approach the Counsel to have the very powerful Carling destroyed before her madness can lead to disaster.

Rune with do whatever he must to protect Carling, even turn his back on his oldest friend, Drago. Will they be able to find a cure for Carling before the madness takes over?

THOUGHTS:

This is a great series and I am really excited to get to the next book Oracle’s Moon. We meet the Oracle at the end of this story and it will also feature the Jinn prince. I also want to squeeze in one of the short stories which involves Seremela, the medusa, that we meet in the last story, Storm’s Heart.

I thought I would enjoy Rune and Carling’s story a little more than I did since I was looking forward to it so much. Rune is such a great, laid back character, in his worn jeans and his Jerry Garcia T-shirts. He is as old as Drago and the other sentinels, but instead of remaining aloof to the human world, Rune enjoys the music and the stylings of our world and blends in well. Carling’s personality changes with her time spent with Rune, and the idea is he teaches her how to relax and remember how to enjoy the world in what should be her last days. I found I didn’t relate as well to the changed Carling hanging out in jeans. Her aloof, imperial vampyre personality were so much of her character in Storm’s Heart, it seemed wrong to have her chilling out with Rune.

It wasn’t a bad story, but there was some build up of things in the beginning of the story that I thought would be worked into the solution of Carling’s problem, but they just sort of dropped off and it sort of ended with a whimper instead of a bang. Again, not a bad story, but after the build up and the excitement in the first two books, it just didn’t meet it’s full potential in comparison to Dragon Bound and Storm’s Heart.

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