Dark Desire

Dark Desire by Christine Feehan

The stranger silently summoned her from across the continents, across the seas. He whispered of eternal torment, of endless hunger, of dark, dangerous desires. Somehow, American surgeon, Shea O'Halloran could feel his anguish, sense his haunting aloneness, and she ached to heal him, to heal herself. Drawn to the Carpathian mountains, Shea found a ravaged, raging man, a being like no other, and she trembled. In his burning eyes, his icy heart, she recognized the beloved stranger who'd already become a part of her. This imperious Carpathian male had compelled Shea to his side. But was she to be his healer or his prey? His victim or his mate? Was he luring her into madness or would his dark desire make her whole?.

--Dark Desire by Christine Feehan, Copyright ©2006 by Christine Feehan


My Review:

The second in Christine Feehan’s Carpathian series, this story takes place about twenty-five years after the first, but there’s only the barest of hints of that much time passing. A seven year gap is mentioned, as that’s germane to the storyline, but the twenty-five years, well, you had to have read the previous story and you had to pay attention to what you were reading to catch that little tidbit.

Does that time gap really matter? Perhaps not. Maybe I’m just being picky.

Yeah, probably.

Okay, so, this story opens with Jacques, the brother of Mikhail (our hero from Dark Prince) locked away in solitude, his mind splintering due to the agonizing torture he endured at the hands of human vampire hunters. Turned over to them by “the Betrayer,” Jacques hung on to the barest shreds of his identity, his broken mind reaching out desperately for someone to help him.

Shea O’Halloran, an American doctor, is haunted by visions of a man in pain, at times even feeling his pain. He calls to her, and she tries to resist but when she is confronted by a pair of mysterious hunters, Shea goes on the run and finds her way to the Carpathian Mountains. Through her exploration of the area, she comes across Jacques’ body, buried upright in the wall of an abandoned, burned-down house. She rescues him, and the doctor in her has no choice but to heal the wounds of his body and try her best to heal the wounds in his mind.

A necessary trip into town finds Shea meeting up with another of Jacques’ kind. He—Byron—along with Mikhail, Gregori and Raven, find Shea and Jacques at her cabin. Shea is grateful, for now Jacques’ healing can finally begin.

But who is “the Betrayer?” Who turned over Jacques to the vampire hunters? What connection does Shea have to Jacques and Mikhail, besides being Jacques’ lifemate? With the hunters close on their trail, can the answers be found in time to save Jacques’ sanity, and Shea’s life?

I give this story THREE STARS.