Darcy Smith always sensed she was different from everyone else--if only she knew how different. Possessing a secret strong enough to end an entire race of demons, Darcy unwittingly becomes a pawn in an epic battle between the vampires and the weres as she discovers a new world filled with ecstasy--and dark passions...
Consumed with lust for Darcy, Styx--the Anasso of vampires--will do everything in his power to keep her out of the lair of Salvatore Giuliani, the deadly leader of the weres. But protecting the woman he loves could cost Styx the ultimate price...
Salvatore Giuliani knows time is running out for the weres. Pushed to the brink of extintion, he will stop at nothing to make Darcy his ultimate conquest and queen--for she alone holds the key to his survival. But which of these men can Darcy truly trust? For all it takes is one bite to plunge her into a lifetime of servitude--or a lifetime of pleasure...
I found the blurb on the book to be rather misleading as I was expecting a love triangle but it is clear within the first couple of chapters that this book is about Darcy and Styx. It is true that Salvatore is interested in capturing Darcy for his own interests but he is written in a way that he is clearly not hero material--at least not in this book. He might be redeemed later on in the series, but Alexandra Ivy will have some work on her hands to make him palatable as a hero. He is much to interested in backhanding his fellow weres and has a bad habit of making it clear that the majority of weres are beneath him as they are not pureblooded but rather turned by a bite and given the truly awful name of "cur".
Salvatore, for reasons we don't learn for quite a long time in the book, is very interested in acquiring Darcy who grew up in a large number of foster homes before leaving to survive on the streets at the age of sixteen. Despite the rough start, she is not afraid of hard work or of having dreams--specifically of owning a health food store. Unfortunately, that dream is some time away as she is currently both a waitress and bartender to make ends meet. When a man in an Armani suit approaches her one evening while working and insists that she leave with him, she prudently waits for a possible distraction and then tries to make a getaway. Unfortunately for Darcy, there was another player in the chess game that her life is becoming.
When Styx discovers that the king of the weres is desperate to get his hands on a young woman in Chicago, he determines he will get to her first and use her as a bargaining chip to get information from Salvatore as well as to prevent the weres from trying to declare war on the vampires. When Darcy flees from Salvatore, Styx is able to step into her path and snag her, bringing her to one of his coven's homes. When Darcy finds that she has jumped from the frying pan to the fire, she is surprisingly level-headed about it all. She has always known that she isn't like most humans, she can heal instantly, hasn't aged since she turned 18, and is faster and stronger than most humans. To learn that there are vampires, weres, and more isn't that difficult to take in.
Unfortunately, Salvatore is still out there planning ways to get to Darcy as she is believed to be the key to stopping the weres' slide into extinction. Styx is finding he has feelings for Darcy and that she may even be his mate, the one woman who he could bind himself to for eternity but she is also an important pawn in a game with deadly consequences. Darcy herself is finding she is falling for her captor as well as the others in the demon world that she may or may not belong to. When Styx consistently goes out of his way to make her life in captivity easier, Darcy has to remember that technically she is still a prisoner.
This is the third book in the Guardians of Eternity series. I read the first two a year ago, but I was able to seamlessly fall back into the world of demons thanks to Ivy's strong world-building. I very much enjoyed this book that didn't always proceed in the direction I expected. There is a lot going on here and the ending left several possible directions for the series as a whole to go. I can't wait to dig into the next book and am determined not to let another year go by before I do so!
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