Davyn is damaged, broken physically and mentally after being raised in captivity. He joined the Blackjacks to seek revenge against those responsible, but isnāt truly a part of them. He maintains distance while hiding his disfigured wing and his true heritage. His reputation as one of the deadliest is well-deserved.
When he once more finds himself back in chains, fighting for his life, he doesnāt regret what led him there and accepts his fate. As long as sheās safe, thatās all that matters.
In the two months since he disappeared, the Blackjacks havenāt given up hope, neither has Thea. Davyn sacrificed himself to save her and the guilt is consuming her. She thought she knew better and he paid the price for her arrogance.
When they finally bring him home, they can repair his body, but she might be the only one who can reach through the darkness of his mind and save him. Otherwise, heāll be lost to her forever.
Davyn is damaged, broken physically and mentally after being raised in captivity. He joined the Blackjacks to seek revenge against those responsible, but isnāt truly a part of them. He maintains distance while hiding his disfigured wing and his true heritage. His reputation as one of the deadliest is well-deserved.
When he once more finds himself back in chains, fighting for his life, he doesnāt regret what led him there and accepts his fate. As long as sheās safe, thatās all that matters.
In the two months since he disappeared, the Blackjacks havenāt given up hope, neither has Thea. Davyn sacrificed himself to save her and the guilt is consuming her. She thought she knew better and he paid the price for her arrogance.
When they finally bring him home, they can repair his body, but she might be the only one who can reach through the darkness of his mind and save him. Otherwise, heāll be lost to her forever.
Thea closes her bedroom door and leans against it as she catches her breath. Her black sleeveless tank top is soaked in sweat and clinging to her skin. Every muscle is on fire, every joint aching. The large gash on her arm stings like crazy under the bandage.
She needs a shower but the thought of walking across her room doesnāt appeal to her. After a few minutes the sweat on her skin begins to chill so she pushes off the door and shuffles across the vast room to the en-suite. Thea turns on the light and peels off her damp clothes as she waits for the water to heat up.
Seven long weeks have passed since she was kidnapped by the True Order and held in that terrifying underground lab. Since she was rescued sheās been on her best behaviour. The True Order are still hot on the Blackjackās heels and the last thing she is going to do is put herself in their sights again.
Fallon had taken the task of training Thea twice a day, six days a week. The compound is safe. There is so much security, she doubts a fly would get through the defences without alerting someone. But itās outside the compound that sheās vulnerable. As one of the few humans in the house, sheās adamant she wonāt be the weak link. It doesnāt matter how many bruises she gets, how many cuts or knocks. Every single one helps make her less of a hindrance to the team.
Fallon is an incredible teacher and doesnāt hold back, and Thea loves every minute of it. She had thrown herself into her training, eager for any distraction from everything else going on around her.
Things between herself and Court hadnāt improved much over the last few weeks. They were still getting used to their new relationship after living a lie for so many years. Accepting that Court is a vampire was hard enough, but finding out that he is actually her father and not her brother, completely turned her world upside down and forever changed their relationship.
In addition to the whole being her father thing, he is still trying to come to grips with his amnesia. Finding traces of his DNA in the Orderās lab only added to his confusion. He doesnāt remember being there, but the evidence suggests he must have spent quite a lot of time there. That information added another level to the nightmares sheās been plagued with since she got back. If she let herself think about him spending time down there, being hurt, having his DNA altered so he could be used as a food source, she would break.
As if all that wasnāt hard enough to deal with, the loss of one of the Blackjacks throws things to a whole new level. She steps into the shower, eager to hide her guilty tears under the running water.
Davyn was the Blackjack who killed one of the vampires holding her and brought her to safety in the tunnels. He saved her only to be captured himself. The last image she saw was the feral vampires pulling him to the ground and dragging him along the corridor.
The Blackjacks had searched but, apart from a pool of blood and his gun, they hadnāt found him. Davyn had saved her life but paid for her freedom with his own. Sheād only needed saving because she had broken the rules and gone out without a Blackjack to watch her and keep her safe. Itās all her fault.
She angrily shakes her head, hitting her fist against the wall. Sheāll never forgive herself. Never. Thinking back on the whole situation, she knows she acted like a spoiled brat. Sheād desperately wanted to know what it would feel like to have a vampire feed from her. After a lot of persuading, Davyn had reluctantly agreed.
Her anger turns to something else, something that sends a shiver through her. Having Davyn feed from her was the single most intense experience of her life so far. But then her father found out and the two vampires had fought. She knows why Court was upset, but the whole thing was blown out of proportion and sheād made things so much worse by running away.
She knew there were people looking for Court. She knew the team was doing everything they could to protect her and Court. But that didnāt stop her from stealing his car and leaving the safety of the compound.
She needed space, time away to think without all the alpha male vampire stuff clouding everything. But all she did was walk into a trap which resulted in Nix being captured along with her.
Court had gone to rescue Nix while Davyn was sent to save her. Sheāll never forget the moment he burst into the room she was being held in, and killed the vampire guarding her. Heād taken down anyone in his way as he led her to freedom. The tears flow freely when she pictures him smiling at her as she got to safety. But he wasnāt so lucky. She watched helplessly as heād been dragged away from her and never seen again.
The loss of Davyn had hit every single member of the group. Theyād had so much loss, so much pain to deal with over the last few years. First they lose Court, only to have him come back to them three years later, then Davyn disappears. She can see the effect of the trauma on the group. Each had been hit in a different way - Nix especially. Their leader had reluctantly given the order to leave him behind, just like she had all those years ago with Court. Sheās just grateful that Nix and Court had found each other again and were helping each other through their individual heartache.
She turns off the shower and towel dries her hair before padding across the lush carpet to the wardrobe. Opening the double doors she ignores her clothes and reaches for the last hangar on the left. She pulls the black jacket down and buries her face in the leather. Thea closes her eyes and gets lost Davynās scent. He had given her his jacket after he saved her from the lab, and she had neglected to hand it over to Nix. She knows itās just a jacket, but she canāt bring herself to let it go. Itās all she has left of him.
She has to believe heās still alive. Thereās no other choice for her. Her father came back to Nix after three years. Thereās nothing to say Davyn isnāt alive and well. But if he was, surely heād come back. From what she can make out, the Blackjacks are all he has. If he could come home, he would. The thoughts had gone round and round her head continuously since he disappeared. As much as she desperately needs to believe heās okay, deep down she fears he isnāt. Something is stopping him from coming back to them. Back to her.
She hangs the jacket back in her wardrobe and sits on the end of her bed. The guilt is threatening to swallow her but she canāt escape it. Shep has barely spoken to her since they got back. He blames her for what happened. He told her in great detail how he blames her. She knows the others probably feel the same although they are too polite to say it to her face.
Shep is right though. She is responsible for someone she cares about being taken. Maybe if Shep knew how she felt about Davyn heād back off a little. Maybe it wouldnāt make a difference. Davyn had caught her attention the first moment she saw him. His impressive body covered in black leather, and his green eyes glowing when he had burst into Courtās apartment. He was spectacular and she was instantly attracted to him. It made no sense. Heās a vampire and sheās human, but she was drawn to him. Not that he made it easy.
Heās standoffish, abrupt, downright rude at times, but she could see something deep inside that she desperately wanted to get close to. They hadnāt kissed, barely touched each other, but sheād never felt this level of attraction before.
Thea scrubs a hand over her face and grabs a pair of leggings and a baggy sweatshirt from the wardrobe. After getting dressed, she slips his jacket on, and drops onto the comfortable couch. She takes the TV remote from the cushion beside her and flicks through the channels.
Brooding and over-thinking everything sheās done wrong isnāt going to help her or Davyn. Hopefully she can lose herself in a random reality show until itās time to fall asleep. Just one night without the nightmares would be great.
Ā
Ė
Davyn spits out a mouthful of blood and wipes his mouth on his sweat-soaked arm. He pushes to his feet and faces his attacker. The male smiles at him, his large fangs tipped with blood - Davynās blood. The bastard got in a lucky bite, but it wonāt happen again. His opponent dances on the balls of his feet, hopping around on the dirt ground like itās on fire. He rolls his neck and crooks a finger in Davynās direction.
āIām waiting pretty boy.ā He waves a knife at Davyn. Itās already stained with his blood, but adrenaline is masking the pain from the large slice running down his left arm. He underestimated this asshole. It wonāt happen again.
Davyn knew this guy was an idiot, but his pathetic taunting solidifies his opinion. Heās going to enjoy taking him down. The other vampire lashes out with his fist, but his hot-footed dancing puts him way off the mark. He tries again, and again, tiring with each badly planned swipe.
Davyn bides his time, waiting for the idiot to get close enough, then plants his own fist straight into the cocky vampireās face. He feels the satisfying crack of bones breaking as he smashes the guys nose and hopefully a cheekbone or two.
While the guy nurses his bloody face, Davyn swipes his leg out, knocking him to the ground. Blood is now flowing freely from the hole in his face but Davyn is far from caring. He stomps on his opponentās leg, shattering his knee and putting an end to any chances of this guy getting out of here alive.
Davyn leaves him writhing on the ground, his curses muffled under his hands as he cradles whatās left of his face. Davyn stumbles over to the large knife lying a few feet from the idiot. He picks it up and turns the blade in his hand.
He walks back over to the other vampire and without pausing, drops to one knee, driving the blade deep into the idiotās heart. His hands fall from the mess of his face as he dies.
Davyn gets back up and looks at the life heās just taken. Itās not the first and unfortunately, it wonāt be the last. He ignores the crazed cheer from the crowd as he takes a few steps back from the male he just killed. Guards rush into the arena with large electric cattle prods out in front, all pointing at him. He knows the routine well enough by now.
He turns his back to them, holding his hands out to the side. He glances up at the crowd as they fix heavy chains to the shackles welded around his wrists, driving the spikes lining them into his skin. Money is still passing from the bookies to the blood thirsty punters. The well-dressed men and women, both vampire and human, excitedly talk about the match as they sip their chilled champagne and expensive wine.
A few looks are cast in his direction, but all he can see is the greed in their eyes. They donāt care that he just killed someone in front of them. All they care about is the thrill of the bet. The sick fucks are actually enjoying themselves.
Once secured, heās dragged from the arena and along the dimly lit corridor back to his cell. Adrenaline keeps him upright and moving along the winding dirt track to his new home. They open the cell and quickly remove the chains before they throw him in. Davyn lands on his injured arm and dark spots dance in the corner of his vision. He rolls over and pulls his arm out from under him. Thick clumps of dirt have stuck to the blood oozing from the wide cut.
He drags his metal bowl of water closer and slowly trickles the contents down his arm, trying to get the worst of the filth out of the cut. The last thing he needs is to lose his arm. He wipes a wet hand over his face, trying to clear some of the blood off it. His fingers brush against the hole at the edge of his eyebrow. It still feels weird without his piercings. Heād taken out the piercing from each eyebrow before his first fight. Didnāt want the fuckers heās thrown in with tearing them from him during a fight.
He leaves a little water in the bowl, hungrily drinking the foul tasting, cloudy liquid. It barely quenches his thirst, but itās all heāll get until later. He leans on his side against the wall and closes his eyes. Heās tired, hungry, and hurts everywhere.
A guard throws a small plastic bottle of blood through the bars before disappearing back along the corridor. Now that the adrenaline has worn off, Davyn doesnāt have the energy to get up and pick up the bottle. Heās not sure he even wants it. All theyāre fed down here is animal blood. He hasnāt got a clue what animal itās from, but itās far from fresh. If he doesnāt get some proper blood soon, heās not going to last much longer.
He wraps his arms around his naked chest and shivers. The cells are cut from solid rock, the walls damp and cold against his skin. What he wouldnāt give for a hot shower and his warm bed. Hell, even a change of clothes would be appreciated. He closes his eyes and tries to drown out the moans and screams around him. Not everyone is taking to this life well. While heās not having any fun himself, heās well used to living in a cage. After his mother died, his father had locked him in one for years. He can survive this. Doesnāt mean he wants to though.
He never thought of the Blackjackās compound as anything other than somewhere to sleep and train. After spending who knows how long in this hellhole, he realises he misses it. He misses the Blackjacks and the life he had with them. Heād fought and trained with them - nothing more, but even those two things had become a part of his life.
Then Court came backā¦ with Thea. He knows he has no right to think about her, but tell that to his brain. The second he saw her in the apartment, she was in his head and no amount of effort on his part had pushed her out. Even the fact that sheās Courtās daughter and a hundred and forty years younger than him hadnāt stopped the thoughts. And heād tried. He really did.
Heād tried to keep away from her, but she wouldnāt give him peace. Then he found her at his door when he was releasing his wings. Wings heād kept hidden from the Blackjacks since heād joined. Heās a Prime. A pure bred male, which means he has the added bonus of having wings. Just his luck to have a fucked up, seriously disfigured wing.
The damn thing ripped his back open every time he had to release it so heād taken to hiding in his room, blaring music and drinking himself senseless when he had to let it out. Thea had seen the whole sorry show. Heād tried to scare her off. Tried to show why others kept away from him, but she hadnāt run away. Instead sheād said she liked his Irish accent!
A few days later, Nix had ordered him to take Thea shopping for some things, as all her belongings had been left when the Order attacked their apartment. Heād enjoyed and hated every minute of the hour-long car trip. And then she mentioned his wings and he fucked everything up by freaking out and saying some shite things to her.
He knows she got out of the tunnels when he rescued her. Court and Nix were close enough to help her get out of the shaft. The rescue may not have gone entirely to plan, but at least heād gotten her out. That was his main objective. He would have preferred she didnāt see him being taken away by the vampires. That wasnāt part of the plan. Heāll never forget the look on her face as she watched him being dragged to the ground. He may have been hallucinating, but heās pretty damn sure she was cryingā¦ for him. It makes little to no sense, but heās nearly positive she was.
He shakes his head and has a stern word with himself. She was probably crying because she was terrified. She had been kept in that place, alone and in the dark. Not surprising she was crying. He may try to convince himself thatās the case, but deep down, a little part of him hopes she was crying for him.
No one has ever cried for him. Why would they? Heās not someone people care about. Thereās nothing about him that would appeal to a female ā especially someone new to their world. Heās disfigured, defective, scarred, unable to feed without feeling ill. Even one of those would be enough to drive her away, let alone all of them.
Someone further down the corridor screams. Davyn buries his head under his arms and focuses on remembering Theaās face, her long dark hair, her scent, the taste of her blood as it hit his tongue. He knows heās just adding to his torture by thinking about her. He knows she could never be with someone like him, but isnāt he allowed to dream for a while at least? Get lost in his head instead of his horrific reality.
Knowing sheās back with her father and is safe makes being here a little more bearable.
He canāt remember much after he was dragged to the ground. There was a hell of a lot of pain caused by boots and hands, then he was shoved down a chute of some sort. The walls had been smooth and the landing hard. While he had been peeling himself off the floor heād been injected with something and woke up here. The vampires suffering Blood Fever wouldnāt have been able to operate a hammer let alone a syringe. Someone in full control of themselves had been waiting down there for him.
He may not remember who took him, but he sure as hell knows who has him. It doesnāt take a genius to figure out heās back in Ireland as most of the voices he hears have an accent. Only one vampire in Ireland has the connections, the funds, and the reputation to pull something like this off.
The self-titled Raven King ruled most of the vampires in the country - by force rather than choice. Any one lucky enough not to get in his sights managed to live a normal life, but had to hide the vampire side of themselves like their life depended on it - which it did. Davyn was unlucky enough to have lived under his rule for decades. The man was a bloodthirsty S.O.B. who didnāt take no for an answer.
If he is a new toy for the King, this is only the beginning. There will be a hell of a lot more pain heading his way.
Ā
This is the second installment to the āBlackjacksā book series. While in the first one we got introduced to the characters and their dynamic together, this one dives into Davynās life. Davyn was taken in the last book while attempting to save Thea, a human who happens to be the daughter of one of the Blackjacks.
The book starts with Davyn being held against his will, forced to take part in battles as those who had taken him try to break every part of who he is. The only thing that seems to get him through it is thoughts of Thea and the comfort that his sacrifice had kept her safe.
Thea, and the rest of the Blackjacks, do everything in their power to get Davyn back, but, when they do, he is not the same. He had been through too much, and they worry that they might never get him back, but Thea is not going to give up on him.
On one hand, the book portrays the psychological struggle of having been on drugs well, and validates emotions that people are usually uncomfortable with.
On the other hand, the story constantly felt like it was lacking something that might be found on the next page, but it wasnāt.
The first book in the series did a great job distributing the spotlight amongst the characters, this one felt too limited. I get that this could have been done to keep the focus on Davyn and Thea, but they just couldnāt seem to handle it on their own enough to make the book interesting.
The romance between Davyn and Thea did not really feel like one. They had hardly had a real conversation before declaring themselves to be in love with each other, and the scenes that combined them were always awkward before they suddenly decided that they were a couple. This could be explained by them being āmatesā and their attraction heightening everything, but the concept was not elaborated on enough for the point to drive home.
Rather than answering the questions from book one, book two just adds to them. This could be to raise the stakes for future books, but it could also make readers lose interest altogether.
Some scenes were dragged too much, some scenes needed more richness to make them impactful. There were also many intense scenes that ended up being anticlimactic. The book also has several errors that could have used some editing.
All in all, the book is good, but it could have been better.