Blood from a Silver Cross

by E S Moore

[EBookObsessed]

Kat Redding has gotten herself into a lot of trouble in the last year. She’s been on a path of self-destruction after her brother’s death. She was almost seduced by a angel. she’s has caught the attention of not one but two Vampire Houses. She has Alpha Creepo Aiden sniffing around her to mate with him in his quest for world domination…or at least domination of Columbus. She has made a bargain with a demon, was almost killed by human zealots, and she still isn’t sure how she feels about Jonathan Alucard, leader of the Luna Cult.

The worst part is that with all the attention she is getting, her home is no longer her own secret. Too many individuals know where to find her, and now her human friend Ethan and the displaced werewolf Jeremy are in jeopardy as well. Kat has decided it is time to stop this spiraling self-destruction and get her life back; short of packing up and leaving town, that is easier said than done.

After killing the wrong vampire, Kat is still being forced to act as the assassin for Countess Baset, and if she refuses, the Countess won’t go after Kat. She’ll once again go after Kat’s friends.

After being captured by the werewolf alpha, Aiden and force into a blood bond with him thanks to his batshit crazy vampire pet, Kat is able to feel where he is, but that means he can track her as well. She might be enjoying his “gift” of immunity to silver, but that doesn’t mean she’ll ever agree to mate with him. Ewww!

Aiden isn’t the only one following her around. After doing a little destruction at his territory, vampire Count Mephisto has been having her trailed. If it is not for revenge, what does he want?

And maybe she’s told Jonathan several times that there can’t be anything between them, but who the hell is that female hanging all over him every time she tries to talk with him? Kat doesn’t trust her but is that simply jealousy talking?

Now Jonathan needs her help to determine who would have crucified one of his werewolves right in front of the Luna Cult. All clues point to the human extremists known as the Left Hand, but how could they get so close to the Cult without being seen unless there is someone inside helping them out? Is it truly suspicion or just jealousy that has Kat ready to tear into the newest werewolf recruit?

THOUGHTS:

****Some spoilers if you aren’t caught up with the series*****

I have been following this series since To Walk the Night was first released. It has a whole Underworld feel to the story and several interesting side characters, including Jonathan, my favorite.

My problem with this series was that after the first book, Kat’s character became very erratic. Kat and her brother were human vampire hunters, who took out the smaller vampire houses, until they were captured and Kat was turned into a vampire and her brother was fed both vampire and werewolf blood which only leads to madness. In the second book, she found her maddened werewolf brother and was so obsessed with “saving” him, several people were hurt including werewolf Jeremy losing his arm, and Jonathan being badly injured and Kat just walking away leaving Ethan (her agoraphobic human friend) to take him somewhere to be treated.

At this point she has literally walked away from the only two people who cared if Kat lived or died, leaving one bleeding to death all over her floor, and ends up in some Twilight Zone Town where the leader is trying to un-vampire her and in a world where vampires and werewolves rule the night, this Town seems to be unfazed by these predators. Her time in Delai was rather boring and the only reason she leaves is to answer the call of the Demon she made a deal with, even after her friend Ethan begged her not to do it.

When she returns home, I was quite surprising that her friends will actually speak to her after abandoning them for several months with no word of what became of her or if she would ever return.

She’s wasn’t done yet and in her usual “kill first, question it later” philosophy, Kat not only causes trouble in one very powerful vampire’s territory, but she kills the lover and assassin for another powerful vampire, and Jonathan gets dragged in and tortured until Kat agrees to work for the Countess.

And we’re not done yet…werewolf Aiden has decided that Kat needs to mate with him and when she refuses, he captures her, paralysis her with silver. At this point, Kat starts to realize her vulnerable she is because paralyzed, naked and strapped to a table, he could simply rape her and mate with her again her will. Lucky for her, he decides to “gift” her with the immunity to silver like his werewolves as a sort of pre-mating present.

Now after the last book I had enough of Kat’s crazy and reckless behavior. All she did was get herself (and her friend’s by her association with them) in trouble. It was no longer a kick-ass series. It was more of a teenager having a hissy-fit and acting out with no regard for what could happen from her stupid decisions.

I swore I would give the series one last book before I would walk away entirely and I was pleasantly surprised by the complete change in the main character. At this point, Kat has finally realized that she has made some serious enemies and she has put her friends in danger.

She is trying to figure out how to get herself out of the sticky situations that she has put herself and her friends into.

Although I wouldn’t call this a story with a happy ending, what happens in here will shake up the series as we know it, but it was a better story then we have seen in the last two and much improvement on the main character.

I would have liked to have seen her take Jeremy up on his offer to help her. I could think of some investigation he could have done for her while she was busy splitting her time between looking for the Left Hand and working as the Countess’s assassin. She still refuses to allow herself to lean on anyone, but one step at a time.

I don’t know if this was the author’s storyline from the beginning or if he too realized that Kat was going astray from kick-ass heroine to annoying character, but I do appreciate the turn around. The ending does leave the story with a big question mark as to what will happen next but as long as Kat stays and track and we get some Jonathan in there, I’ll keep reading.

Received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.