The next captivating novel in Christine Feehan’s #1 <New York Times <bestselling Carpathian series.

Autorentext
Christine Feehan is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of many novels, including the Carpathian series, the GhostWalker series, the Leopard series, the Torpedo Ink series, the Shadow Riders series, and stand-alone romantic suspense novels.

Klappentext

"Silke Vriese Reinders knows a war is coming. The demon slayer has seen it over and over again in the cards--and the battle won't be just for the survival of her remote village but for all mankind. Silke knows the only way to win will be with the help of the Carpathians. A fact that fills her with trepidation, as she is fated to be the lifemate to one of the ancient supernatural warriors--bound to a complete stranger and responsible for his soul. One of the oldest, most dangerous Carpathians, Benedek Kovak is more beast than man. He's been locked away for centuries, and the only thing that has stopped him from becoming one of the monsters he's sworn to defeat is the thought of his lifemate. When Benedek senses the impending danger, he sets out to find her before it's too late"--

Zusammenfassung
Immortal passions rage as evil grows in this gripping novel in Christine Feehan’s #1 New York Times bestselling Carpathian series.

Silke Vriese Reinders knows a war is coming. The demon slayer has seen it over and over again in the cards—and the battle won’t just be for the survival of her remote village, but for all mankind. Silke knows the only way to win will be with the help of the Carpathians. A fact that fills her with trepidation, as she is fated to be the lifemate to one of the ancient supernatural warriors—bound to a complete stranger and responsible for his soul.

One of the oldest, most dangerous Carpathians, Benedek Kovak is more beast than man. Locked away for centuries, the only thing that has stopped him from becoming one of the monsters he’s sworn to defeat is the thought of his lifemate. When Benedek senses the impending danger, he sets out to find her before it’s too late. But their enemy has laid a trap that pushes him closer to turning than ever before.

For so long Benedek has felt nothing. Now, some dark art is compelling him to indulge in cravings he thought long buried. He has no hope that anyone can restore what’s left of his tainted soul, but Silke is nothing like he imagined. Perhaps she’s strong enough to fight back the darkness. Perhaps together they can defeat an adversary hell bent on destroying them all....

Leseprobe
Chapter

1

In the distance, dark clouds gathered over the sea in an angry roiling boil. The wind slammed hard into the surface, creating rough, hazardous waves that rushed toward shore like angry stallions. There was little beach between the sea and the vast forest that stretched almost to the shoreline. The canopy swayed and rocked, rustling tree branches and sending leaves and needles swirling through the air like weapons of destruction.

Darkness brought out the creatures of the night. Bats wheeled and dipped as they feasted on insects. Great round yellow eyes blinked from some of the higher tree limbs as the owls surveyed the forest floor, and the voles and mice rushed through rotting vegetation to get home. The merciless wind swept in from the sea, slamming into the stoic trees, bending them, causing creaks of protest, but the trees held, as they had for hundreds of years.

The village of Nachtbloem rested on the outskirts of the forest, so close that the wilderness crept forward as if to recover the site that had been carved from the woods. Night flowers grew wild in every meadow, tipping their faces toward the moon. The village was situated near the river and close to the ocean, where many of the inhabitants made their living fishing or sending their wares to neighboring countries via the sea route.

Often fierce storms brewed over the ocean and crashed over their homes, pouring water into the river so that it reacted like a snake. The river would swell up, a thrashing, roaring serpent, spewing the frothing, maddened water from its banks to flood the roads. With the roads impassable, the people were trapped in the village until the abundance of water soaked into the ground or they managed to fix it. It had happened often enough in the last two years that it no longer fazed them.

Silke Vriese Reinders knew storms like the ones Nachtbloem experienced were different. Everyone in the village was aware the weather wasn't normal even though the storms came consistently in the usual months. It rained often in Holland, but in comparison to other countries, the weather was rather mild across the land. Living on the coast, they shouldn't experience such violent storms.

With one arm, Silke encircled a tree trunk while she watched the ferocity of the waves pounding the shore. In the distance, waterspouts leapt across the choppy surface of the water, but the towering columns were ominous as they spun wildly, forming more and more geysers as they hurtled toward shore.

"Doesn't look good," Tora Kros said, standing on the other side of the tree. She was tall and willowy, with shining dark hair and gorgeous emerald green eyes.

"I think of these storms as tests," Silke said. "Look into the clouds, Tora. You can make out the faces of our enemies."

Tora followed her gaze to the dark clouds laced with lightning. As each cloud rolled and boiled as if in a cauldron, eyes glowed from the jagged lightning, demonic faces staring malevolently at the shore, forest and village. The faces distorted eerily as the clouds roiled and churned. Each face twisted and turned with the rolling cloud, but it was clear the glowing, malevolent eyes were marking the village and forest, attempting to see everything they could.

"A war is coming," she whispered aloud to her best friend. "I read it again in the cards this evening, just as they have warned me for the last two years."

The tree she held on to was solid, although slenderer than quite a few of the others. She needed the grounding when she was all too aware of the land shifting under her feet. In days long past, mythical creatures and demon slayers were considered part of everyday life. Now they existed only in video games. Movies were made about vampires and evil demons. Television shows depicted supernatural beings. No one believed in these things in modern times; at least it seemed that way. Those living in Nachtbloem knew better.

Three hundred people, give or take a few when elders died and babies were born, resided in the village of Nachtbloem. Although many people in Germany, the Netherlands and even Belgium claimed to be fully Frisii, the people living in that remote village were direct descendants of those from Germania times. The story of the battle between the Frisii and Roman invaders was always kept fresh in their minds, handed down from generation to generation during storytelling time.

In AD 28, the Frisii were the only people able to defeat the Roman army when their land had been invaded. At first, the Frisians lived alongside the Romans without rancor. When new leadership of the Romans demanded taxes to be paid in forms the Frisians didn't have, wives and daughters were sold into slavery in order to satisfy the leader of the Romans. The Frisians rebelled and decided, with a small force, to attack the fortress where the leader was hiding. The Romans fought back and even managed to get reinforcements.

The Frisii were a people who, once riled, refused to quit. They got the job done. The Romans had an overpowering force, so the villagers pulled back to the forest they were so familiar with and prepared for battle. The forest held its own secrets, many known to those people long ago and to many of the villagers in the present …