When Darkness Hungers (The Shadow Keepers #5) by J.K. Beck

WHEN DARKNESS HUNGERS (Shadow Keepers 5) by JK Beck

WHEN DARKNESS HUNGERS is the fifth storyline and June 2012 release in JK Beck’s The Shadow Keepers series.

Alexis is an ex-FBI agent who left the force to search full time for the vampire who killed her sister. Tormented by guilt, Alexis focuses the hunt for Tori’s killer with the help of a friend-a witch. Leena’s powers stem from a family history tormented by vampires and daemons and it is with those powers that Alexis hopes to track down the killer. But vengeance comes with a price, and it was a price that Alexis was willing to pay.

Serge is a 2000year old vampire, who is barely able to contain the daemon that rides him hard. But a curse placed upon the vampire has left him with a power that even he is rarely able to contain. The daemon’s need for torture and pain is nothing compared to the creature that lurks just under the skin, and it is that creature that Serge let’s loose when on the hunt for rogue vampires on a killing spree. But the PEC (Preternatural Enforcement Coalition) as well as the Alliance and Division 6 are not happy with the killings.

Vampires killing vampires must be sanctioned and apparently they believe one of their own has gone rogue. Without knowing who they are looking for Division 6 must use all of their resources to find the vampire responsible-but the bodies left behind are not the work of a normal kill. Fearing something bigger is at work the Division and the Alliance bring in their special team. But the reports of mummified bodies increase without any new leads or information.

Serge and Alexis paths will cross of many occasions. With the help of Leena, Alexis is able to track the vampire that killed her sister, but what she witnesses will force her to step back and re-evaluate the true nature of a vampire and his need to kill.
With Serge she sees the compassionate side of the beast, but what he hides beneath the surface is the one thing she never wants to learn. Forcing herself to look closer, she realizes that Serge is not the evil she was tracking, but a man that she has fallen in love (with). But when Serge finally discovers the true identity of Alexis’s dead sister, it is only then that Alexis knows the pain of loss in more ways than one.

Once again, JK brings many of her characters back and re-integrates the familiar by way of the Alliance and Division 6. Severin Tucker uses his ability to control minds at the crime scene, but not everyone is so easily controlled: Richard Orion continues as the medical examiner looking to find ways to control the beast of the newly turned and an explanation for the mummified corpses of vampires: and the percipient Daemon Doyle who is able to pull out the last images from the recently deceased to help track down their killer: and Lucius Dragos (Luke) the vampire liaison to the Alliance and the new governor of the Los Angeles territory , and best friend to Serge.

Alexis and Serge’s relationship is slow to build. In fact, their paths only cross a few times in the first half of the book. JK writes her stories with plenty of background information so that new readers to the series are not lost but in doing so the reader can be overwhelmed with the copious amount of detail. I would suggest reading the series from the start to alleviate the confusion. Like walking into the middle of a movie, sometimes going back to the beginning is the only way you are able to understand all the nuances and subtleties in the mind of the characters. I am looking forward to reading WHEN TEMPTATION BURNS-release date July 31, 2012.

READING ORDER:
1. When Blood Calls
2. When Pleasure Rules
3. When Wicked Craves
4. Midnight (eNovella)
5. When Passion Lies
6. When Darkness Hungers
7. When Temptation Burns

LINKS TO ORDER:
The Book Depository
Amazon Kindle
Amazon Books
KOBO
B&N Nook and Paper Books