Midnight Awakening by Lara Adrian

Elise Chase's world ended the day her son Cameron died. After using the drug Crimson, designed and manufactured by a human, he was inevitably driven Rogue and slain by the warriors of the Breed. With no hope left in her heart, she left the Breedhavens and now lives in a small crappy apartment, cranking the music and television up to shut out the thoughts of the humans around her, while she takes out rogues with titanium weapons.

But her sideline in rogue-hunting brings her to the attention of the first generation Breed Warrior Tegan. Tegan's job is killing Rogues, and he's not happy that a Breedmate, someone who should be loved and protected, is risking her life in this way, and tearing herself apart by living outside the Breedhavens. But he doesn't feel anything for her- he can't. Long ago, Tegan lost his own breedmate to the Rogues, and ever since, he's shut down his emotions so that he doesn't have to feel.

But when Elise risks her life to intercept a package desperately sought by a Rogue she slew, the Rogues get her image from the store security cameras, and Tegan must protect her life by bringing her back to the warrior compound. Inside the package is a diary from a Breed named Odolf, and is filled with an unencryptable code. Also inside is a dermaglyph from another first-generation Breed named Dragos.

Dragos is long-dead, and his Breedmate with him, but a check on the Odolfs shows a breed family living in Germany. The last of the family is insane and a Rogue, being held in a treatment facility. Tegan is all for leaving right away to check it out, but Elise demands to come with him. Tegan refuses, but she contacts the facility and gets him permission to enter by trading on her dead husband's name. Only with one catch- she'll be coming with him.

Tegan is upset, but he can't stop thinking about Elise and he realizes that he wants her. He lets her take some of his blood, but doesn't take her own, refusing to bond with her, even though he wants to. Elise feels dirty after drinking his blood and him refusing to take her own in return, but she can't help but be attracted to him. Even though he's not happy to be having her accompanying him, he treats her with courtesy during the trip, and realizes that whatever is in the diary could be potentially explosive for their race.

Long ago, the Breed slew the aliens that had mated with the human women and created the Breed, but if any of them survived into the modern day, the world could be much more hazardous. Now it seems as if two of them might have survived- the one whose crypt Rio had to destroy and now another one, and Lucan's Rogue brother Marek wants to control that ancient so that his Rogue Breeds can control the world. Can Tegan and Elise track down the information needed to find the ancient before he rises again?

Elise Chase was a prominent character in the previous novel, Kiss of Crimson, and here she shows up again in a pairing that was telegraphed in the previous novel. In the other book, she was a weak and retiring flower of a woman, but her decision to leave the Breedhavens and live on her own, despite the incredible pain this decision inflicts on her shows she has a steel spine and is no fainting miss. She's also managed to kill over a dozen breeds on her own, with no training, which further cements her "Kick-ass" cred.

And she'll need it to keep up with Tegan, who is an extremely strong First-Gen Breed Warrior. He may seem strong, but he's also damaged goods, having cut himself off from his emotions after the death of his breedmate. This may arguably have made him a better warrior, but when his emotions start coming back around Elise, he rediscovers a zest for life, and a need for love. Both characters had to learn to bend, Tegan most of all, but Elise was also locked into becoming too rigid after the death of her son.

It was an interesting novel to read, but on a scale of one to ten it was only around a 6 for me, middle of the scale. Exciting, more or less, but not enough to buy or want to keep.