Not her best Dark Hunter novel. Still enjoyable but I felt like the ending was rushed to meet a deadline and there were too many back story and future plot lines brought into this for a new or casual reader to pick it up without knowing more about the Dark Hunter universe. I don't normally finish a book and feel like so much of the story was left unfinished for a single volume story. If this were part of a trilogy I don't think it would bother me so much. While all the Dark Hunter viniverse novels are part of a greater storyline each one feels resolved within itself. I almost want to blame it on having too many strong characters in this single novel; it was like a Game of Thrones novel where there are so many characters you almost need a chart to keep them straight. ( )

We're dancing close to two-stars category - I think this series might be losing its steam for me. I'm ready for Sascha's book, though! ( )

This is a continuation of book #19, Retribution. It is about a 2012 prophecy closely related to the Mayan prophecy where their calendar has to be reset or else evil will be unleashed on earth. There is a huge mixture of mythology in this book from Native American to Mayan to Greek and to Atlantean. It was hard to keep it all straight.
Makah’Alay Omawaya was born of the Greek goddess Sterope, one of the seven Pleiades, and a Keetoowah chief. Sterope had fallen in love with the chief’s son from afar. When war came to the Keetoowah, Sterope struck a deal with the chief at the time. If she could spend just one week with his son, she and her six warrior sisters would fight their enemies. The chief agreed but what Sterope didn’t know, was that the chief’s son was already happily married but to save his tribe, he spent the week with Sterope which resulted in pregnancy.

When Zeus found out that Sterope had become pregnant by a human, he became enraged and ordered her to get rid of it. Sterope went to her long-time friend Artemis who help birth the child and then told Zeus it was stillborn. Zeus punished Sterope by turning her into a comet that would only pass by the earth every seventy-five years. Artemis gave the baby to the child’s father who was now chief and who did not want him because he reminded him of the week he had to spend away from his beloved wife. Artemis told him that there would be dire consequences if he tried to kill the child but the chief didn’t listen. He first took the baby to the woods and left it to die but an elderly woman found him and brought him back. Artemis struck down the chief’s beloved wife in retaliation. The second time that the chief left the baby in the woods, a crow demon sent by Artemis found him and nursed him for a year. She took him back to the chief and warned him that if he did not raise the child to manhood, she would come back and kill his favored son. The chief let him live but treated him worse than garbage.

Makah’Alay was laughed at and abused by most of the tribe. His father beat him and called him retarded because he had a stutter. When he was nearing adulthood, he became friends with Buffalo. His brother Coyote acted like he was his friend but always took the credit for anything Makah’Alay did. Coyote was jealous and wanted all of the attention for himself.

In the end, Makah’Alay turned to the dark side. He set the evil Grizzly Spirit free. And then he ended up fighting the First Guardian, keeper of the gates of evil, for a year and a day until finally the First Guardian won. The Guardian divided the earth up into four different territories and chose Guardians for each. He gave Makah’Alay the East, Choo Co La Tah the North, Snake the South and Old Bear the West.

Coyote tricked Makah’Alay and took his Guardianship as Makah’Alay lie dying. Makah’Alay sold his soul to Artemis and became a Dark-Hunter. He put away his old name and became Ren Waya.

Now the time has come to reset the calendar. The only one who can do it is the Ixkib. The Ixkib is an ancient lineage. Each generation, there is an Ixkib which is handed down from mother to daughter. They essentially have powers like seeing the future and the past and other powers which lie dormant until they are needed. The tradition and knowledge gets handed down with each generation.

Kateri Avani is the Ixkib but she has no idea and her world is about to be turned upside down. Her mother died when she was young and her grandmother raised her. She has never met her father. She is Cherokee and her grandmother has always told her strange and wild tales, some dealing with her heritage and some not so much but Kateri thinks they are just tales and doesn’t believe them. She is a woman of science, a professor of geology. Her grandmother has passed on but she still comes to her in dreams. She has also been having dreams about Raven Mockers, demons who eat your heart and soul, trying to kill her. And she has been dreaming about a gorgeous man but he kills her at the end of each dream. They are disturbing but Kateri thinks they are just horrible nightmares.

One of her students, Enrique, hands her a package and tells her that Fernando, one of her colleagues with whom she had just gone on a dig in Mexico, died while on an airplane. It appeared to be a heart attack but when the coroner did the autopsy on Fernando, he was missing his heart. Kateri is shocked. She remembers her nightmare about the Raven Mockers who take the heart out of their victims without leaving any marks on the body. She looks down at the package and it is from Fernando. It is a wheel-shaped stone similar to the Mayan calendar but it has strange markings and writing on it that are closer to Greek than Mayan.

All of the sudden some huge man charges in and demands that she give him “the time stone”. He freezes Enrique in place. She tells him that she is a geologist so he has to be more specific because her office and home are filled with rocks. Then another man attacks the man who demanded the rock. She starts running towards the door and her phone rings. It’s her cousin Sunshine who we met in the second book of the series. Kateri tells her to call the police. As she is running towards the door, someone grabs her. She starts to fight but it is Sunshine’s husband, Talon. He gets her out of danger to another room and tells her that she is the mother of Armageddon. The other man who attacked the psycho who wanted the time stone comes in. She learns his name is Cabeza. He tells her that the man who tried to attack her is named Chacu and the stone he wants is called the Kinichi and her grandmother was in charge of keeping it safe. It should have gone to her mother but when she died, the duty should have gone to Kateri. She needs it to reset the calendar so that Armageddon doesn’t happen.

Before they can finish telling her anything more, she is sucked away by some unseen force and sent to a dark cave surrounded by Raven Mockers who are also demanding the time stone. One of them stabs her in the side but she is saved by Ren, the man who always kills her in her dreams. If it is any consolation, in Ren’s dreams, Kateri always kills him too. He flashes her to his home in Las Vegas.

When Kateri wakes up she is pretty freaked out about all the weird things that are happening like how Ren just teleported her from one place to clear across the country. When he tells her she was actually in a different realm…well, that freaks her out even more. Things just get weirder and worse as the day goes on. Things attack. Ren, who has iffy teleportation powers, accidentally flashes them to the 1st level of the Mayan hell realm where they have to fight their way through all kinds of demons.

They find a cave to wait for his powers to regenerate or decide to work right. Kateri and Ren get to know each other better and start to have feelings for one another. They have to get back before midnight on 12/21/12 so Kateri can reset the calendar with the time stone but with Ren’s wonky teleportation powers, it might be impossible.

I had a hard time writing this summary. I didn’t want it to be so long and I cut out a lot of the story but it still seems really long. There was just a lot of information packed into this one book. I was drooling over Ren who sounded gorgeous. I love Native American men. I think they are the most beautiful people of the entire world. When I finished the book, I sat down and drew a picture of what I think Ren would look like. I’ve been drawing some of the characters from this series lately. I’m not the best at drawing but they turned out alright.

This story had a lot of characters in it from previous stories and went into more detail about a couple of them.

Cabeza is one of the Dogs of War who Acheron moved into New Orleans to protect Nick Gautier. The Dogs of War are Dark-Hunters who have so much power that they can be around other Dark-Hunters without the drain of power bothering them. Their power still drains but since they have so much, it is minimal to them and doesn’t affect them in the least. In this story, we learn that Cabeza is Mayan and that Chacu is one of his enemies and has been for centuries. I’m hoping there will be a future book featuring Cabeza.

Nick Gautier was in this book. Nick is no longer the sarcastic but lovable person he used to be. He explains to Acheron that it isn’t exactly personal that he hates him but he just hates everyone now. He struggles with the demon inside himself every minute and tries not to turn totally evil. It is just that the Malachai is derived from evil and hatred and it is overtaking him. He tells Acheron that one of the few people who are able to help him is Artemis and she is doing a pretty good job of it so far. That sucks because I love Nick and don’t want to see him turn evil.

Since I have already read this series once, I thought that I would just be brushing up on everything but I’m finding out that I have forgotten a lot of what has happened. I remember the basics but I just can’t believe how much I have forgotten or didn’t pay attention to on my first go around. I’m glad that I am re-reading this series. I just love it that much more.

www.paranormalromanceslut.com ( )

Wow, I loved this book just as much as I loved acherons. The pain and suffering the tears shed inside and outside of this story. I didn't think there would be another that would compare to Acherons story, but this was sure came close. I just live the world Sherrilyn Kenyon has created and after so many years and so many dark hunters, she has yet to fail me yet. ( )

Amazing! ( )