Kindle Edition Audiobook Amazon Goodreads Category:  Fantasy Publisher: Isaiyan Morrison ISBN-10:  0692361715 Type: Fiction Pages: 241 Copyright: March 10, 2015 ISBN-13: 9780692361719 Price: $1.99 (eBook) She gave me her blood, and my life changed forever. Anastasia. My sire. The only influential figure in my already-fragile life. She did this to me. She caused all the pain and suffering. There was a time I believed I owed her everything. After all, she gave me immortality and the never-ending thirst for the energy contained in the blood of my victims. But now vampires hunt me and the humans want to use me as their personal weapon. They believe I'm some kind of apotropaic figurine that can damn all Deamhan and force us back into hell where we belong. Me? I just want to live. I just want to be Maris. That way, the only one I can damn is myself.  Excerpt I waited until they were out of sight before I followed the scents of my sire and Silvanus down the hallway. I walked by the female maid who moved aside and continued her work. I approached two large opened doors leading to a room with white marbled walls. I saw Anastasia standing in the center. Her body blocked my view from Silvanus. Anastasia looked over her shoulder at me and she spoke in my mind. Head back. I heard Silvanus speak. “She came all this way. Might as well let her in.” I cautiously entered the room. Silvanus stood up from a large throne covered in colored gems and stones. He towered over us, looking like a glimmering African statue. I thought of him as an immortal king and I lowered myself onto my knees to show him respect. He laughed at the gesture. “I'm not something to worship. Stand up.” I immediately stood on my feet. “It's you who I should be kneeling to, if I knelt to any Deamhan.” He then looked to Anastasia. “I suspected that the descendant would be an aristocrat and not the daughter of a whore.” “Do you doubt that she's the one?” Anastasia asked. “No.” He sat back in his seat and I moved back, cowering behind my sire. “I didn't mean to humiliate you, Maris.” Upon seeing my reaction, he smiled at me. “You're just, unusual is all.” I held my head high, pretending to not be bothered by his comment. “If I come off as brash and insincere, please don't think of me that way. I'm just upset with your sire,” he said. “It seems that she can't follow a simple Decretum.” “I did what you asked of us all,” Anastasia replied. “I protected her. I brought her here safely to you.” “Yes, but as a Deamhan and not as a human.” Taken aback, I looked at my sire who didn't have the guts to look back at me. Instead her eyes remained forward and her face expressionless. “Maybe it's better that she's this way in the long run,” Silvanus continued. “As a human, she wouldn't be able to protect herself from the Dorvo Coven.” Silvanus repeated the name with a hint of distaste in his voice. “They will still come for her, especially Ruby, and she won't stop until she has her but now, since Maris is one of us, that will make Ruby's task quite difficult.” “She wouldn’t be stupid enough to come here,” Anastasia said. “Oh but she will.” Silvanus’ reply left my sire tongue-tied. “When have you ever known her to give up so easily?” He repositioned himself in his chair. “And now Maris is bonded to you, which gives you leverage over Ruby and over me. What devious game are you playing, Anastasia?” “Would you have been content if I left her to die, then?” she asked. “Of course not, but I know you. I know how you work. I know what you will do before you do it. You waited until she was almost dead to come in and save her pending death. That would make siring her your only reasonable choice.” I listened intently to his strong accusations, all the while refusing to believe what he said. Anastasia saved me and I thanked her for it. She protected me from the vampire who came for me the first night after my transformation, and I would always thank her for it, regardless of what Silvanus thought of her. “I'm no longer the woman you remember from your past,” Anastasia said to him. “I've changed.” “Changed?” He spoke with clenched teeth. “Why are you lying to me in my own home?” He pointed at her. “May I remind you that you are only alive because I promised your sire, who is my sibling, that I would spare your life? I promised her that I would give you plenty of opportunities to right your wrongs against our kind.” I immediately sensed fear in my sire. “And I thank you for that. However, regardless of what I do from here and now, you will never trust me,” Anastasia replied. “You will always think wrong of me.” Before I opened my mouth to speak, in one blurred movement, Silvanus rose from his chair and stood in front of Anastasia. He placed his hand around her throat and lifted her just inches from the floor. Immediately my protective instincts kicked in and like clockwork, he glared at me and mouthed the word, “no.” I stood still, watching him choke her. I heard the bones in her neck crack and instead of fighting back, Anastasia took the punishment. Her eyes fluttered and she held onto his forearm. “You've been a Ramanga for what—almost two hundred years now, maybe three hundred?” He continued. “And you still roam the countryside like a mad, wild, Deamhan orphan. You sire unwanted children and keep them around like servants, all willing to do your bidding because of their bond to you. You've used Deamhan for your own protection and now you tend to do the same with Maris. But I tell you now, Anastasia that will not happen again.” Unable to help her, I did the next best thing that came to mind. I dropped to my knees, crawled over to Silvanus, and I begged for him to spare her. I didn't care if my act was low and embarrassing. All I cared about was Anastasia and her wellbeing. He ignored my helpless attempt, but I pleaded to him again. “She is all we have,” I said to him. “She is all we know.” “That is your bond talking nonsense,” he replied to me. “Bond or not, she is my sire,” I said in a harsh tone. “If you kill her, I will gladly die along with her.” He quickly eyed me. “I will fight you until either you kill me or I kill you,” I spurted back at him. Silvanus quickly let her go and Anastasia fell onto her back. His light brown eyes, now dark, beamed into my soul. “Are you threatening me, dear Maris?” I swallowed hard. “Yes.” “You're still young.” He stepped back and straightened his jacket. “You clearly don't know anything about your sire.”

An easy five stars, this blew me away.
I felt like this book, was written with so much passion, I felt it while reading the book. It was full of action, fighting some quite gruesome. I feel so bad for Maris, she suffered so much while human and suffers now as a deamhan. Maris is very special amongst the difference demons and vampire, half want her dead, while the other half is trying to save her. A nasty war breaks out amongst all the different fractions of demons. Bringing in the oldest of daemon, to take from Maris what makes her special and hopefully stop the waring and anyone from wanting to kill Maris anymore. I think there's a lot more to then that personally. Things are not always as easy as they seem. Maris has lost much, but maybe with Ayden things can be better. He says he's come to help her? She seems to feel something with him she's never felt before, not even with the bonds she had with her siblings. Ayden says he's come to help her, that a very powerful pure blooded deamhan, will becoming for her. Demeans coming after her, wasn't that supposed too be put to an end years ago. I am dyeing to find out what happens next. Things could go many different ways.
This is an excellent, exciting book, it portrays demons and vampire not as completely evil, nor good but somewhere in the middle and of course some are better some worse then others. These characters are awesome, I love them. They're definitely likable, with many facets to them. This story blew my mind, this whole series is excellent, as of now anyway. I can't imagine it all of a sudden getting bad. I can't wait to read the next book, this Author can really write. I'm officially a huge fan. I was glued to this book front cover to back cover, and so annoyed when it was over. I was just overwhelmed by this story and the series, so far. I highly recommend this book, this series, this Author.

Fantastic book with a unique premise.
When I was first checking out this book I thought it was going to be just a standard vampire story minus the cliche love story since, as the author put it, "If you're looking for romance, you won't find it in this novel." And that would have been fine by me if that had been the case, because I really enjoy a good vampire/supernatural suspense and thriller. If all this book had been was a standard and well written vampire novel I would have been satisfied. What I got was way better than that. This book really goes much deeper into lore and even comes up with some new and unique perspectives on the supernatural world. This book goes beyond vampires and into a new type of delight that the author spun into a wondrous and dark tale of humans and deamhans. I enjoyed this book so much that I've gone out of my way to recommend it to my friends.

yes!!!
I LOVE this series! Each book just gets better. Isaiyan does an awesome job with developing her characters and making the reader go from hating them to sympathizing with them or vice versa. The back story of Maris was amazing.