The first in the new Darkyn series and an absolute winner. This is not a happy-ever-after novel, nor a light paranormal read but rather the first part of an expanding story of forces that aren't quite what they seem at first sight. Though it is capable of being read as a stand alone novel, after finishing it, I went right out and got the second novel (Private Demon) and am already anticipating the 3rd (Dark Need: June 2006).

Dr. Alexandra Keller is a successful and much sought after reconstructive surgeon. Her successful practice enables her to do pro bona work for those who have been seriously and sometimes viciously hurt.

Michael Cyprien, reclusive millionaire, desperately needs her help, and to that end has her kidnapped after she refuses his request yet another time. When she finally see's the reclusive millionaire, even she must agree that he does indeed need her help, and when his special circumstances become apparent it's a challenge she can't resist.

Michael Cyprien is a 400 yr old vampire, but he has been so horrendously tortured that it will take hours, possibly days of surgery to help him. His incredible recuperative powers have become a hindrance because he heals faster than most surgeons can work.

In order to aid her efforts, he refrains from any sustenance prior to the surgery, and that along with inability due to his injuries to take sustenance in the normal way leaves him ravenous when he awakes and finds the Alex locked in his room with him. Coming to his sense just moments before she dies he forces her to take his blood. When that doesn't immediately initiate the change he assumes that maybe she won't change and releases her.

When 4 hideously tortured members of the Darkyn are rescued from the Brethern, Alex is approached to help them. Alex, however, has been undergoing changes herself though she has been able to slow things down and she now has lots of questions.

Will she be able to help these four new victims who have been so brutally abused and tortured? Who are the Brethern and why are the really after the Darkyn? How will Alex's brother John, a priest, recently indoctrinated into the Brethern, deal with the new developments in Alex's life? Will Alex be able to reconcile her new circumstances and her attraction to Cyprien?

This is a great book, full of some very interesting and rather unexpected twists and great multi dimensional characters with some subtle plot lines you simply can't wait to learn more about. It is definitely looking like the beginning of an awesome series.

Even though four million dollars would go a long way in her charitable medical practice, Dr. Alexandra Keller (Alex), turns it down; the reclusive millionaire who repeatedly ups his offers of recompense for her services sets off her internal alarms. Since Michael Cyprien is not used to taking "no" for an answer, he doesn't, having her kidnapped and brought to him to perform an impossible (for multiple reasons) surgery.

Then, when she has saved his life, he takes hers. Oh, he does not exactly kill her, but turns her into what he is, a Darkyn, a vampire. Instantly, she becomes her priestly brother's enemy, though John Keller does not know this immediately. The young minister, long tortured by his own id, has recently been recruited into the service of a secret Catholic order, to fight what his sister has become.

Both siblings are now unwilling participants in an ancient war against the forces of a Hell only one of them believes in.

In saying this is a very dark book, I am not being deliberately ironic or making a bad pun. The tone is dark, gritty, and for the most part, hopeless. Alex's noble intentions and determination are negated by the bitterness that spreads throughout her life. Whatever intrigue this book might hold is killed by its total lack of joy and overly gritty descriptions of things that for the most part do not need to be described.