Marked by Midnight

It has been fun to catch these ‘in between’ shorter stories of the Midnight Breed universe while I wait for new releases of the next full-length story. This one jumped right into a murder mystery and a fast paced romance. It was tense and passion-filled.

This one was with characters that I don’t recall encountering before, but its possible they appeared as minor characters in earlier stories so it could be read out of order. Although, I rather had the impression that this one might lead into a future story since there was a plot thread that was left temptingly dangling.

Matthias Rowan is the head of the Order in London. His team of Breed Warriors mostly clean out the rogues who prey on the humans and try to support the local law enforcement in the form of JUSTISS, the organization of cooperation between Breed and human.

There has been a spate of killings with bodies dumped into the Thames bearing a head shot and a tattoo on their hands. Except the latest body is killed differently and has a partially worked tattoo on the arm. Mathias and his men decide to check the tattoo lead. This decision has him confronting a less than honest beautiful and haunted tattoo artist that captures his attention as no woman ever has. He must tread carefully as she may or may not be innocent.

Nova is covering up a really brutal and rough past. She holds him at a distance and it stays that way until her vulnerability and fears that the darkness from her past may have found her again. She doesn’t trust easily, but Matthias seems the only thing standing between her and danger.

I enjoyed this installment as I typical due with this series. The characters of Matthias and Nova were engaging if not too deep. He is a steady leader and lethal warrior with a sense of duty, but carries a gentleness and admiration for a tough woman who is doing the best she can. Nova is spunky even while on the inside she is barely holding it together after the damage done by a fiend in her younger years. Trust and opening up is a tough thing for her, but Matthias’ caring and honesty break through her walls because he shows her that he is nothing like the male who raised her.

The plot grabbed me from the beginning. I liked these two together and how the trust developed as well as the passion. The mystery was interesting and was a good foundation for the action and forward motion of the plot. The solution was obscure, but made sense in the end. Really my only issue was how quickly the romance went from a few passionate encounters to whipping out the ‘I love yous’. It’s a novella and they did go through some traumatic stuff which formed a bond so I guess I wasn’t too surprised about that.

Looking forward to the next Midnight Breed story. Those who enjoy vampires, a brotherhood of warriors, and sizzling hot romance should try this series.