Primal Needs by Susan Sizemore

Sidonie Wolf is a vampire of the Wolf Clan, and because she has borne a child for her family, she has become a prime female. But there is no Prime male who appeals to her because her heart is only given to one man, the Werewolf known as Joe Bleythin. But if anyone in her family knew this, Joe would be killed outright, and Sidonie would be shunned, so to keep the man she loved safe, she erased his memories of their love and their affair, hating herself for doing it and knowing that Joe would never understand.

Joe knows that there was something more between Sidonie and himself, but he was cut to the heart to realize that she erased their love like it was nothing. So he left the detective agency they worked for together and joined a group called the Dark Angels. But when a series of fires endangers both Weres and Vampires, they are thrown back together, and the leader of the Dark Angels decrees that they must find the perpetrators of the fires and bring them to justice.

Joe has recently undergone a ritual to allow him to regain the memories that Sidonie stole from him, and so her betrayal cuts doubly deep, but they can no longer deny what they feel for each other, so the order to work together becomes nothing but torture for both of them... a delicious torture they aren't sure if they should hate or enjoy.

But even as Sidonie and Joe work to find out who set the fires, and what supernatural group was manufacturing a subsitute for Dawn, the drug that allows Vampires to go out during the day without being harmed, Sidonie's father asks her to look into the kidnapping of his old flame, a human named Rose Cameron, a movie star from the Second World War, whom Tony had loved, but not brought over. Soon, it seems that the same people who set the fires to wipe out the tracks on their drugrunning are the same people who kidnapped Rose and are running experiments on her, something having to do with her being Tony's lover and sharing some of his blood. But can Sidonie and Joe find out the true culprits before their illegal love affair is discovered and Joe is put to death by Sidonie's clan? And what will happen to Rose and Tony, whose love is also forbidden?

This novel almost reads like the middle of a trilogy, because Sidonie and Joe's love affair has been and passed before the beginning of the novel. Both are reacting to incidents that we, the readers, have only a hazy acquaintance with, but which Sidonie remembers with startling clarity and Joe through a mirror darkly thanks to Sidonie's mucking around with his memories.

It ends up being like the saying from Babylon 5 about the three sided sword "Your side, their side and the truth". Whose version is most accurate, and how can we know it is accurate? But in the end, being thrown together by fate, it no longer matters whose side is accurate, for once again, Sidonie and Joe are rediscovering the love they have for each other, which renders their past moot. The present and future is what will really matter for them.

On the other hand, I did find the structure of the various groups of vampires to be a little puzzling. I wasn't sure I really understood what was going on and how the various ranks worked and mattered. It would have been nice to have something of it spelled out to avoid confusion. I haven't read much of this series so it was like being dropped in the deep end and expected to swim right out. A short explanatory paragraph or two would have been very welcome.

I enjoyed this book, but was rather puzzled by all the terms that the vampires were using in about equal measure. I think the author and publisher should work together to make sure that first time readers weren't left adrift on the shoals of "Huh?" As a romance, it's not bad, but the uncertainty makes it fall just short of recommended for a first time reader.