Jessie Leigh has been on the run since her mother's murder.
The hardships of life in hiding have driven her brother
Caleb from her side but the connection and magic they share
let her know he is still very much alive. She has enough to
do keeping her own ass covered with the Holy Order of St.
Dominic and the U.S. government on the hunt for anyone with
even a hint of paranormal power.
Silas Smith has been a soldier of the Holy Order a bit too
long, battered and exhausted, he resents being pulled in for
yet another mission, one that has him in too close contact
with sexy Jessie. Even so, he knows his duty and the dangers
involved in bucking the system. He is willing to do whatever
it takes to stop the serial killer wreaking havoc and
raising black power with the bloody ritual murders occurring
in the dark seams of New Seattle. Romancing her brother's
location out of Jessie Leigh won't be a hardship but
convincing her he means the murderous little shit no harm is
going to be a tall order with those whiskey-toned eyes
seeing more than he wants of his soul.
Brought to bay by a soldier of the Holy order who thinks her
brother has been involved with serial ritual slayings,
Jessie knows Silas needs her insight to bring Caleb in. She
knows
better than to trust that her brother will remain unharmed
by the forces of order but if he has gotten himself mixed up
in the ugliness of blood magic she needs to find him in
order to get him free from the murderous coven. She is wily
enough to use Silas even as he is using her, provided she
can keep her own magic a secret.
Karina Cooper has written an intense, complex and highly
readable first novel. Based in a post-apocalyptic world
after Seattle and other western cities have been destroyed
by earthquakes and swallowed by the sea, the Dark
Mission series is shaping up to be a winner. The murky
backdrop of a new world order where witches are blamed for
the natural disaster of fifty years past and only the
wealthy can afford to live in the sun is a fascinating
setting for this urban fantasy/paranormal romance. BLOOD OF
THE WICKED caught me from page one and even now haunts me a
bit. Cooper has set up a terrific series of deeper questions
to be answered in Book 2, Lure of the Wicked, coming
in July 2011.
As an independent witch living off the grid, Jessie Leigh
has spent her life running, trying to blend in among the
faceless drudges in the rebuilt city. She thought she was
finally safe, but now she's been found in a New Seattle
strip club—by a hard-eyed man on a mission to destroy her kind.
A soldier of the Holy Order, Silas Smith believes in the
cause: trawling the fringes of society for the murderous
witches who threaten what's left of the world. Forced into a
twisting web of half-truths and lies, he has to stay close
to the most sensuous and electrifying woman he has ever seen
and manipulate her into leading him to the witch he has to
kill: her brother. Silas doesn't know that Jessie's his
enemy, only that he wants her, needs her, even as he lies to
her . . . and must protect her until his final breath.
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