When Reese Montana was a child growing into a woman, Dez was her hero, and she wanted him to be more. She knew he loved her, but the darkness inside him grew to be too much to control, and he changed. Reese knew if she stayed with him she would be drawn down into darkness with him, but she also couldn't bear to leave.

Dez loved Reese, had loved her almost since the moment he pulled her out of danger as a child and now that she was grown she was his heart. As he felt the pull of darkness, as his nightmares became harder and harder to shake off he knew he was losing his mind, and he couldn't bear to take Reese down with him. Worse yet, his godfather Louis Keban had somehow tracked him down, and the sick bastard hadn't changed. Even more terrifying, the dark artifact Keban brought with him had some deeply hooked control over the worst of Dez and before he could stop himself, he fell into darkness.

Years later Reese is a bounty hunter called down past the Mexican border by a group of people who give off all the signals of cops or a paramilitary unit. She can't figure out what they want with her and before she can make a determination she is captured and held until they can prove the impossible to her.

These people are telling Dez is alive and they need her to hunt him down. They also claim to have some kind of super powers, Dez included, and they need him and the artifacts his dark guardian is hiding to stave off the end of the world. Yeah. Right. Still, just to see Dez again, to have a chance to ask him how things went so wrong and why he let her believe he had been killed, she is willing to play along with them.

The suspense is ratcheting higher in STORM KISSED, book six in the Nightkeepers series. Andersen's tight writing style and ability to build tension on both the romantic and action sides of the storylines is never better. Questions raised earlier in the series are answered and hints of new facets to be further explored as the series continues are glimpsed in passing. Another great read.