Dark Desires After Dusk by Kresley Cole

Cadeon Woede is a Rage Demon, the brother of Rydstrom Woede, King of All the Rage Demons and heir to the throne of Tornin. But Tornin was usurped by Omort the Deathless, the unkillable Sorceri who conquered Tornin when Cadeon refused to travel there and defend the Kingdom. Now, both are outcast from their kingdom, and their ability to trace, or teleport anywhere they have been, has been stripped from them by Omort, leaving them to have to walk, ride or drive where they must go.

But Cadeon blames himself for the fall of Tornin, and has pledged his help to Rydstrom to regain his kingdom from Omort- and when Groot the Metallurgist says he can forge a sword capable of killing Omort, both Cadeon and Rydstrom promise him anything for that sword.

Unfortunately, Groot's price is the Vessel- a woman named Holly Ashwin, a Valkyrie raised among humans who knows nothing of what she is or what it is possible for her to become. All signs of her heritage in the Lore scare her, and she is taking multiple psychoactive drugs to contain what she sees as her problems- an attraction to lightning and wanting to be hit by it, even to the point of running out into thunderstorms to do so. Holly has carefully tried to tame herself into becoming normal- normal for a human, that is, but Cadeon realizes that Holly is his mate. Can he really give her up to Groot for the sword when he wants her for himself?

But Holly is also known as The Vessel, which means when she is impregnated, her child will either be a Great Warrior for the Light or a Great Warrior for the Darkness, depending on who the father is. This makes her doubly valuable, and when a group of Vampires kidnap her in an attempt to impregnate her, Holly is struck by lightning before they can rape her, and she proceeds to kill them all as her Valkyrie instincts come to the fore.

But once the battle is over, she is horrified, and even Cadeon's coming to her rescue makes her feel out of control and other. Her overriding need to be normal, and to marry a nice, normal human man and settle down to a normal human life battle with her true Valkyrie self.

As Cadeon takes her northward to meet Groot, he constantly tempts her out of her safe definition of "normal", and she begins to see that perhaps "normal" isn't really what she wants, after all. But when Cadeon turns her over to Groot for the sword, can she ever forgive his betrayal and become his mate? Or has his actions lost him the only woman he ever really wanted? Can Obsessive-Compulsive Holly ever accept her life as a Valkyrie and also as the Vessel wanted by so many?

Yet another book by Kresley Cole, but here we have Holly, who is so frightened by her Valkyrie urges when she thinks herself a human that she medicates herself to the point of near-insensibility to make herself be normal. For a creature of the Lore, however, human normal is incredibly limited, and during the course of the book, she finds out that limiting herself and living in a tightly-confined definition of "normal" is only getting herself taken advantage of.

On the other side of the equation is Cadeon Woede, a good-time party boy Rage demon who must give up the woman he recognizes as his mate to get the sword his brother needs to reclaim his kingdom. Both Cadeon and Rydstrom have some bad feelings over Cadeon's refusal to protect Tornin, which caused it to be captured by Omort in the first place, and Cadeon wonders if he can give up something that will cause him equal pain- Holly, to Groot to undo his first mistake. Or will he simply be making another, even bigger mistake?

This book was a wild ride. Holly starts out prim, proper and restricted, and Cade wild, uncensored and loving of a good time, but both have to move towards each others's positions to have any chance of building a loving relationship that can stand the test of time. And Holly has to get over her ideas of what is "normal" when she sees how badly she is being taken advantage of by the people who expect her to be "normal". But can she overcome the fears she has lived with her entire life? It isn't easy, but then, what's worth having that isn't?

Sequel-bait is set up here with Rydstrom and Omort's sister, Sabine, Queen of Illusions, but it's very well done, being only a passing mention in the book. This book is less good-time party by frat boys as "Wicked Deeds on a Winter's Night" was, but the thread is definitely there, and Cadeon and Rydstrom appeared in that book as well. It was good to see their characters fleshed out here, and the book is very enjoyable, as is the world-building. Highly recommended.