If I had to pick an all-time favorite author, it would probably be the writing duo who make up Ilona Andrews. I’ve read everything they’ve ever written and always crave more. They write the best dialogue, the best action scenes and their world-building is top-notch. While The Edge series was my intro into their writing, Kate Daniels is right up there on my comfort reread shelf. Magic Breaks is book seven in the series, but I will always remember Curran going into Mishmar to rescue Kate and Ghastek. Their love is just… *happy sigh*.
Curran.
Please let it be real.
He stared at me. His eyes were horrified. “Kate? Jesus Christ.” My lips moved. “Please be real.”
He pulled a metal hacksaw out of his backpack and started slicing through the gate. “Stay with me, baby.”
This was a dream. Another hallucination. Or Hugh was screwing with my head. I braced myself. I would wake up and he would disapper.
Two others landed on the grate. Jim. Thomas, the Rat alpha.
Jim saw me and swore.
“Get me out,” Ghastek whispered. “Please.”
“I should leave you in there, you sonovabitch,” snarled Curran. “Cut him out.”
Jim pulled out another saw.
The blade sliced through the bars above me. Back and forth. Back and forth.
Please be real. I reached through the bars and touched his fingers in cutoff gloves. His hand was warm. “Hold on baby. I’ve got you.”
A creature tumbled out of the hole and landed on the grate. Hairless and muscled, it crouched on all fours as if it had never walked upright. Thick curved talons crowned the toes of its feet. It’s chest was wide, its hindquarters muscled like those of a boxer dog. A bone ridge protruded from its spine. The massive jaws unhinged and finger-sized fangs pierced the air. Its eyes, deep set and bright red, burned with hunger.
A vampire. An ancient vampire, so old it sent a shiver down my spine.
Curran whipped around. The vamp leaped. Curran’s right hand closed on the vamp’s throat. He spun, oblivious to the talons ripping at this jacket, and drove the undead’s head into the wall. The vamp’s skull bounced off the brick. Curran bared his teeth and smashed it into the wall again and again, his face savage.
The bones cracked. Undead blood splashed the bricks. Curran ran the bloodsucker into the brick one last time and twisted its head off like he was wringing out the laundry. The vamp body fell one way, the head went the other.
“Show-off,” I whispered.
If you haven’t yet read this series, you really should.
Just the scene to read before breakfast…or not!
I enjoyed a couple of books from The Edge series and some of Ilona Andrews’ other works (Innkeeper), but the Kate Daniels series lost me after a few books. I keep thinking that I should give it another try, but there are so many other books!
Pretty much the only authors that I will read anything they write are Ilona Andrews and Patricia Briggs. I just love the worlds they create. One great thing about Andrews is that their series are all different- the ability to create all these different worlds, and not have them be the same, is just awe inspiring. I am sad I have read their entire backlist and now must wait for new things, but I love being able to reread.