The Bitten (Vampire Huntress Legend Series #4) » (Reprint)

L. A. BANKS is the author of the Vampire Huntress Legend series. She has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business and a master’s in fine arts from Temple University. Banks considers herself a shape-shifter. She has written romance, women’s fiction, crime and suspense, and of course, dark vampire huntress lore. She lives with her daughter in an undisclosed lair somewhere in Philadelphia. You can visit her at www.vampire-huntress.com or crimsonmoonnovels.com

"Tell me your darkest fantasy," she murmured. "Tell me what you really want…"

She is a woman who lives between pleasure and pain—the pure, scintillating pleasure of the flesh and the kind of pain that has rocked the world and left it strewn with chaos set to a hip-hop beat. Her name is Damali Richards. And when she makes love to a master vampire, it changes everything in a struggle between good and evil—with the future of humanity hanging in the balance… THE BITTENIn L.A. Bank's astounding new Vampire Huntress novel, an unforgettable scene of seduction touches off a violent race around the world—and into a realm beneath us. For Damali, once a pawn, has been given a new, pulsating power of her own—bitten by lover and vampire extraordinaire Carlos Rivera. Between them, they know how high the stakes have risen. A powerful lord of darkness has hijacked a mystical key containing the blood of Christ. And for a world where blood runs like a river, one drop of this blood will be the end…

"The stakes have never been higher, and the excitement and tension are palpable in this installment of Banks' complex, sexy series."

—Booklist

"Mixing religion with erotic horror dosed with a funky African-American beat…will delight established fans. Banks creates smokin' sex scenes."

—Publishers Weekly

Publishers Weekly

At the start of Banks's seductive fourth Vampire Huntress Legend fantasy (after 2004's The Awakening), former crime lord/master vampire Carlos Rivera bites his lover, hot hip-hop artist/gifted slayer Damali Richards, and she bites back. This passionate exchange puts Damali's humanity and the fate of the world at risk. As Damali and Carlos struggle with the implications of their bond, the pair work with Damali's Guardian team to recover a "key" containing the blood of Christ (extracted from the Shroud of Turin), which another master vampire has hijacked and injected into an unwilling human. The key's spilled blood could open the seal that unleashes Armageddon: "If he's able to open that seal, then everything you learned in Catholic school about the book of Revelations will go down. All Hell will literally break loose, hombre. You feel me?" To prevent this cataclysm and the sacrifice of an innocent victim, the couple travel to Australia, where they play a high-stakes game with four topside master vampires, with life-changing results. Mixing religion with erotic horror dosed with a funky African-American beat, Banks blithely piles on layer after layer of densely detailed plot, which might overwhelm new readers but will delight established fans. Banks creates smokin' sex scenes that easily out-vamp Laurell K. Hamilton's, though they sometimes scream for tighter editing. Agent, Manie Baron at the Claudia Menza Agency. (Feb. 9) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.