Dominic, of the Dragonseeker lineage—one of the most powerful of the Carpathian lines—is desperate to go to the very heart of the enemy camp and learn their plans. There’s only one way to do so: ingest the parasitic blood of a vampire. He knows that it is a mission from which there is no return. With little time before the blood takes effect, he’ll get the information he needs, relay it to the leader of the Carpathians, and go out fighting. There is no more honorable way to end his life.
Solange Sangria is one of the last of the jaguar people, a royal pureblood, a dying species that cannot recover from bad decisions made over hundreds of years. She has long been alone, fighting to save the remaining shapeshifters from the hands of Brodrick the Terrible: her own father, who slaughtered her family and everyone she loved. Wounded and weary, she plans one last battle, hoping to stop the man who has made an alliance with the vampires, accepting that she will not come out alive.
They are two warriors who have lived their lives alone. Now, at the end of their time, they find each other—an obstacle neither can hope to ignore.
Book 21 in the Carpathian Dark Series
Sparrowgal's rating: 8/10
Sparrowgal's thoughts - Spoiler alert!
Solange and Dominic feature in the previous books in the series - Dominic in Dark Curse and Solange in Dark Possession. Dominic, of the legendary Dragonseeker line - legendary because none of succumbed to the dark side and gone vampire, volunteered to spy on the vampires as his blood is the most resistant to their dark calling. He ingested their blood and the parasites within work endlessly to turn him. Solange, is a warrior, proud and fearless, and all she wants is to protect her jaguar sisters from the marauding hordes of jaguar men who kidnap and rape female jaguars and confiscate their offspring.
Both were looking to die, with a bleak mission in sight. After finding one another, death with completion of the mission was no longer the goal. Solange was going to kill Broderick and Dominic was to infiltrate the vampires - with the parasites in his blood he could move amongst them undetected.
There are a lot of complaints about the sex scenes in the book. Geez, Dominic is old fashioned, and Solange is a man-hater, but she is confident as a fighter, not as a woman. How else would you act when the man you have feelings for, when you have no experience to draw on? Would you not trust him if he wants you to do something that pleases him? Especially since he has done so much to please you? Dominic is not as chauvanistic or overbearing as most Carpathians of his age have been in previous books. I think Feehan is moving towards a more tolerant male instead of the protective, coccooning males that Gregori and Mikhael were.
What I liked best was the blood exchange in this book. It seemed sad to me that in previous Jaguar and Carpathian matings, all jaguar blood was overwritten with Carpathian genes. However, like Dark Possession, both keep aspects of their species, and the Jaguar is not lost within Solange. That's because Solange is Royal jaguar blood, pure and strong. Though of course, it will be no longer, with offspring diluted by Carpathian blood, but we'll see.
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