In the shadows of the night in Caldwell, New York, there's a deadly war raging between vampires and their slayers. And there exists a secret band of brothers like no other - six vampire warriors, defenders of their race. Now, an ally of the Black Dagger Brotherhood will face the challenge of his life and the evil of the ages. Butch O'Neal is a fighter by nature. A hard living, ex-homicide cop, he's the only human ever to be allowed in the inner circle of the Black Dagger Brotherhood. And he wants to go even deeper into the vampire world - to engage in the turf war with the lessers. He's got nothing to lose. His heart belongs to a female vampire, an aristocratic beauty who's way out of his league. If he can't have her, then at least he can fight side by side with the Brothers...Fate curses him with the very thing he wants. When Butch sacrifices himself to save a civilian vampire from the slayers, he falls prey to the darkest force in the war. Left for dead, found by a miracle, the Brotherhood calls on Marissa to bring him back, though even her love may not be enough to save him...
I enjoyed Butch and Marissa's story. There was a sizzle with these two from the beginning, although a lot of the Romeo and Juliet "we can't be together" bs from Butch without even trying.
Poor Marissa gets the short of the stick throughout her life. She's a woman of wealth and bloodline. Given to Wrath, who didn't really want her all those centuries. When Wrath spurned her for Beth, she is shunned by society. She is absolutely lonely. She has no friends. She only has her brother, who is also embarrassed by her.
When she finally finds a man who wants her, between Butch's "woe is me, I'm a lowly human" and Mariss'a brother keeping her away from the lowly human, she can't catch a break.
Her brother finally tosses her out to the street and although it is initially hard on her morale, it finally frees Marissa from the constraints she has lived under all her life and you can see her slowing grabbing the reins on her own life and future and becoming her own force.
There is a big "how convenient" moment for Butch in this story as well, but I don't want to give that away.
Overall it was one of the better couple stories in the series.
Reading updates
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Started reading
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11 February, 2014:
Finished reading
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11 February, 2014:
Reviewed