This was probably one of my least favorite. While I really liked the story, it just felt really incomplete. Like there should have been 5 more chapters or something. The only thing I can think is that Feehan is going to come back to these characters in another way that gives more closure to this story.
Don't get me wrong, it's not a cliffhanger, it just feels like there should be...more.
In this story, we meet Joie, a body guard. She's mentioned in Dark Symphony as a way to protect the Scarletti family during the day hours when Byron was asleep. But we never meet her, and really know nothing about her.
She's shot and astral-projects while being worked on in the hospital. During her little jaunt, she finds Traian in a cave in the Carpathian Mountains. They talk before she's pulled back to her body. Once she's recovered she takes a vacation with her siblings, Jubal and Gabrielle, to the mountains looking for the cave. And Traian.
They find him alright - pinned to a wall by some vampires. Joie manages to put one down for a while, enough time to get Traian free. Then the 4 of them are on the run, trying to find a way out. Traian is too weak to fight, so they can only escape.
On their way out, the come across a cave with all kinds of magic stuff in it. Traian calls it a mage cave. And here's the twist: one of the mage items seems to like Jubal. It even has the family crest of their dad engraved on it. It seems to protect Jubal, keeping him warm and even killing a vampire.
This creates a lot of suspicion in Traian. This is where we start to learn a bit more about the relationship between the mages and the Carpathians. There was apparently a war and trust is now not high on the list of things Carpathians give mages. Actually, most of the mages are thought to be gone. Joie has a dream, and based on that, I think we can interpret that her father is a mage and her mother is a jaguar. Or at least a shifter of some kind. And neither seem thrilled with a Carpathian in the family.
Of course, we don't really know because the book ends before the parents enter the picture for real. It also ends without the vampire dying. See, when Traian was captive, before Joie et al saved him, the master vampire took his blood, which makes him a danger to the rest of the Carpathians. So the book ends with them...kind of on the run. I mean, not like hiding, they're off to see her parents, but they can't join the rest of their kind. They even send Jubal and Gabrielle to Mikhal for protection so they don't endanger them.
It does seem Gabrielle and Gary may have some spark. Since Gabrielle has psychic ability, and that can make a lifemate, we'll see where that goes.
Really though, it just felt cut off. Like there should have been more.
Again, all I can do is assume Feehan will revisit these characters and bring some closure in a later book.
Dark Descent, Christine Feehan
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