Kiss of Midnight by Lara Adrian

Gabrielle Maxwell is something of a loner. She's an artist who expresses her artistic sense through pictures of abandoned and empty places. But just as she's finally entering the big time through the first showing of her pictures, her friends convince her to go to a club for the night. Gaby agrees, but the entire club scene turns her off. Not only that, but she feels like she's being watched. When she finally does decide to go home, she somehow wanders into something like a gang war and manages to get away by using her cellphone camera to take pictures of the six men killing another, because the bright flashes distract the gangbangers.

But the police, who she runs to after seeing the carnage, don't believe her, even when she shows them the pictures. They do the equivalent of patting her on the head and telling her not to worry her pretty head about it, and when she insists she knows what she saw, they imply that she had too much to drink or is on drugs, which just royally annoys her.

But her complaints and angry protestations that she knows what she saw attract the attention of someone at the precinct, who takes time out to tell his master what Gabrielle has seen, so that his master can decide what will be done with her.

Lucan Thorne is a first generation breed warrior who was at the same club with Gabrielle, and managed to smoke the Rogue Vampires that attacked the other man. Well, all but one of them, and that one fled. But he's concerned about what Gabrielle may or may not have seen out behind the club, and he decides to track her down and take her cellphone and wipe her memories. When he presents himself to her as a police detective, she's happy that the police have decided to take her seriously, and easily gives up her cellphone. Wiping her mind, though, is impossible. Lucan finds her very hard to influence- she easily shakes off his commands.

And when he catches her scent, he's not sure he even wants to wipe her memories, because all he can think about is what her blood would taste like if the rest of her smells so good. He leaves, but promises to bring her cellphone back, and wonders at how much he wanted her. He's never been one to want a woman beyond maybe drinking some blood, but lately, his bloodlust has been growing, and that's a bad thing, because an unending bloodlust is one of the signs that a vampire is going rogue. Lucan's been trying to contain it, but without much success.

When he goes back inside to drink some of her blood after she's fallen asleep, he doesn't bite her because he realizes that she is a Breedmate, one of the few women whom Breed warriors can mate with, and if he drank her blood, she'd be irrevocably tied to him- and that's the last thing that he wants. He has no time for a mate. He's got Rogues to catch and kill and nests of Rogues to hunt down.

But soon he realizes that he can't keep away from her, and commits the (to him) sin of starting a sexual relationship with her. But when he realizes that her Breed Mate talent is to track down where the Breed live and congregate, he realizes what a treasure she is and acts to bring her in and protect her. The only problem is that the Rogues have also come to realize her talent, and want her for the exact same reason. But with Lucan's bloodlust spiralling out of control and a traitor lurking inside the walls of the Breed's Headquarters, it may be only Gabrielle's talent and love that spans the line between defeat and victory for Lucan and his men.

This is the first book in the series, but I read others in the series before it. All the same, even though I kind of knew what was going to happen, it was still great to read it. Lucan likes to portray himself as calm and in control, but inside, that control is slipping as he's plagued by a bloodlust that is slowly pushing him in the same direction as the Rogues he fights. And he's a first generation Breed, which makes the consequences for him should he fail in his fight even worse.

Gabrielle, by contrast, can see within the facades that would keep others out. It's part of her psyche, as much as the way she sees through the facades of buildings that seem deserted and which actually harbor rogues or Breed vampires. And she is the only one who can help Lucan when he does start to tip over the edge. Yeah, he's a dickhead about things, but she seems to realize that he's fighting as hard as he can to stay focussed, sane and maintain his place. Only when he realizes that he doesn't have to be the invincible bulwark is he able to build a life with Gabrielle, the woman he loves.

I really enjoyed this book, and it gripped me just as much as it would have if it had been the first I read of the series. It really does set up the conflict between the Rogues and the Breed Warriors, and gives lots of background on the alien beings who first came to earth. I just think that the timeline given is too short. Aliens came to earth 900 or so years ago? And no one noticed? Just not all that believable to me. I know my medieval and dark ages history, and I think *someone* would have said something. Recommended nontheless, because the rest of the story is good, and the romance spectacular.