The average citizen is unaware that vampires exist, so any crimes relating to vamps is handled by a special unit of the FBI - The Violent Crime Specialized Homicide Unit, commonly referred to as the Blood Squad.

The Oakland branch of the Blood Squad is led by Killian Gray. Her team has the highest solve and capture rate of any squad in the states. Killian is loved by her team. She is caring and fair. She is tough. She is brave. She is beautiful. And she is dying. She has a seeing-eye wolf named Wana who is her closest friend as well as her eyes and strength.

Someone really, really strong with an uncanny knowledge of vamp anatomy has murdered fourteen vampires and lined them up in a neat row in a warehouse in The Blood Squad's jurisdiction. It is obviously some kind of message, but what does it mean? And who had the ability to pull off something like this?

Dacon Valerian, the head of security for the vamp civilization, is forced to work with the humans on this case. He doesn't like it one bit. He likes it even less when he meets Killian. When he discovers who her relatives are its almost a deal breaker.

Both Killian and Dacon are loathe to work with Killian's brother, Chance, the leader of the Hunters. The Hunters are trained vampire killers, they serve no other purpose. It has been decades since the war, but Chance still keeps them intact and ready. Killian's mother was the leader of the Hunters during the Vampire Wars, when the rivers ran with blood. The minute Killian turned eighteen, she left home and hasn't spoken to any of her relatives since. Not even when her mother died. Now the three of them are forced to cooperate to maintain the fragile peace.

Killian despises even the appearance of weakness, so she refuses gentlemanly courtesy from Dacon who still practices his old world manners. He comes to admire her strength of will and her sheer determination to function despite the disease that is destroying her body. With his vampire senses he can tell she only has a couple of months left to live if her disease continues at the same rate.

Dacon doesn't understand how it could be possible, since Killian is not only human, but a sick human, but he finds himself falling in love with her. He disguises some of his blood in a glass of wine and gives it to Killian without her knowledge. She awakens the next morning with clear vision, no headache, no spasms and tremors in her limbs. She can grasp objects and walk unassisted.

The effect only lasts about twenty-four hours. So Killian realizes what he's done the second time she awakens almost completely well after drinking his wine the night before. Killian is very angry with Dacon. He doesn't tell her that what he has done is a serious crime under Valerian law.

When Killian is mortally wounded by the rogue vampires they've been chasing, minutes before her death, Dacon turns her into a vampire to save her life. He whispers that it is his life for hers to his brothers who are standing with him. He takes her underground to the vampire's hospital because they have the knowledge and the equipment to save Killian. So all of the vampires are aware that Dacon has turned Killian.

When Killian awakens and finds out she is a vampire, she is so angry that she storms out screaming at Dacon that she never wants to see him again. So she has no idea that Dacon has been tried, convicted and is awaiting execution for the crime he committed in saving her life.

Killian finds out about Dacon's fate only a couple of hours before he is scheduled to die. That is when she also finds out that there is no avenue for appeal or a stay under Valerian law. Killian has only just found the love of her life. How can she just sit back and allow him to be killed for saving her life? Yet, she can't do anything to unsettle the fragile peace between the vampires and the humans. She just has to save him. There must be a way!

I think this story is series material. I could read about these characters forever. When I had to stop reading BLOOD SQUAD for a couple of hours, I couldn't get it out of my head. I had to rush back to find out what happened. The romance between Killian and Dacon is the stuff fantasies are made of and the scenes where they get together will have you kicking off the covers. I highly recommend this book.

Overall rating:
Sensuality rating: Very sensual

Reviewer: Karen H.
November 7, 2005