Darkness Rises by Diane Duvall (Immortal Guardians #4)
Paranormal Romance
October 1, 2013
Zebra

Reviewed by Helyce

Krysta has been hunting vampires for over six years. Her special ability to read the aura of a vampire gives her the upper hand when fighting. She’s got it down, playing the victim, drawing the vamps in and then turning the tables and fighting to the death. But one night, when she is over powered, a handsome stranger comes to her rescue. She’s sure he’s a vampire, but he’s different.

When Etienne comes across Krysta one night hunting vampires all alone, he steps in and helps her out, saving her from what would surely have been her demise. He’s more than a little curious about her; she’s beautiful and he’s attracted to her almost immediately. When he learns that she and her brother are gifted ones, he’s amazed that they’ve stayed off Seth’s radar for so long.

When an old enemy resurfaces, Etienne and the rest of the Immortal Guardians will do whatever is necessary to remove their threat, even if they need to use Krysta to do it.

This is book 4 in Duvall’s series and I gobbled it up the minute I got it loaded on my Kindle. In here we meet Krysta, a woman who learned about vampires at a very young age. Unbeknownst to her, she is a gifted one-a human who is born with some sort of special ability. In Krysta’s case, she is able to see a person’s aura. This gift allows her to singlehandedly and successfully kill vampires which she’s been doing for six years. This is a personal crusade for her, having lost her fiancé to a vampire attack. Recently, however, it seems that the number of vampires is escalating and one night when she’s in over her head, Etienne steps in to save her.

Krysta is shocked and confused upon meeting Etienne. Confused because she thinks he’s hot and she’s attracted to him and shocked because she can see clearly that he is a vampire. Etienne cannot stop thinking about Krysta and secretly follows her home where he learns that she and her brother are both gifted ones. Sean’s gift is healing, but when he heals Krysta he takes all her wounds unto himself. Needless to say, the more wounded Krysta is the more pain Sean takes on. They both know that something needs to change; it takes too much out of Sean to heal Krysta on a nightly basis. But Krysta is nowhere near ready to give up the fight.

I really enjoyed this book. I love this series and while the conflict introduced was basically a rehash of the vampire war in the previous book, it was not enough to ruin the rest of the story. Krysta is a kick ass heroine along the lines of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Following the death of her fiancé, she forged a personal war against the vampires in order to somehow right that wrong. Training to fight better and be stronger, she fought with the help of her brother until it became too much for him to fight and heal her. Even as it became clear that the vampires were growing in number and that it was becoming more and more dangerous for her to be out alone, she continued.

The romance with Etienne forms slowly as Krysta must first wrap her head around so much in a short period of time. While Etienne has all the characteristics of vampirism, he’s definitely not the same and she learns quickly exactly what they are all up against when Etienne is felled by the enemy. When she’s brought into the realm of the immortal guardians, things move a bit quickly and the outcome is predictable, but no less enjoyable.

While one story arc is ended, we continue on with the miracle of Marcus and Ami (from Night Reigns) who are expecting a baby—something that should be impossible. Even Seth, the oldest of the Guardians has seen no precedence. Add to that a new character, Zach who we are not clear exactly who or what he is or why he’s around. We just know that his being anywhere seems to piss off Seth. Seth continues to be an enigma. Ms. Duvall gives us the barest scraps on detail where he is concerned and it’s driving me nuts. I have a theory, but I’ll hold on to it for now.

Though parts of the story seemed a bit déjà vu, this was for me a very entertaining read. Fast paced, lots of action and a fair about of humor I will impatiently wait for next year’s release of book 5!

Rating: A-

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