A Darker Crimson by Carolyn Jewel

Claudia Donovan is a cop who has literally pulled herself up out of the gutter by the dint of hard work and strong hands. Born in the lower, which are the slums of Crimson City, and despite a checkered past that has given her a young daughter to look after, she is doing relatively well for herself.

Called to the scene of a supe on supe murder, Claudia sees that one of the bodies looks more like a human than a supernatural creature. Also hanging around the scene is a vampire named Tiberiu Korzha. He claims that the human-looking victim is actually a demon, but Claudia has a hard time believing that. She's more inclined to think that Tiber is just lying to her, trying to make her job harder, and to cover up a murder he has committed.

But when she is attacked by a strange, almost unkillable creature, she must flee along with one of her teammates, Commander Jaise, when his own teammates think that he and she might have been tainted by the creature she was fighting, and which killed the rest of the team. She doesn't particularly like Jaise, even though she thinks he's rather good-looking, mainly because he only seems interested in getting into her pants, and he's blazed a wide trail through all the other women at the station. She doesn't want to become just another notch on his bedpost.

But when both of them are sucked into another dimension where the moon glows red instead of silver, she gets the shock of her life. Not only do demons really exist, but Jaise is one himself! And more to the point, they have her daughter! Claudia is angry at them for stealing her daughter, but manages to find a female demon to talk to. The woman tells her that the demons have been imprisoned here for thousands of years. Occasionally one of them manages to get summoned to earth by a magician seeking knowledge, and sometimes, the demons manage to stay on the earthside. But the demons want to be free to roam Earth. They want Claudia because she can open the gate between Earth and the Demon dimension. And they have her daughter, because her daughter is half demon.

Claudia doesn't want to believe any of this, but the demons foil any attempts for her to escape, and she soon finds that Tiber is here also, to discuss a truce between the demons and the vampires. The vampires are becoming more and more convinced that the humans are getting ready to attack them, and despite how powerful vamps are, humans outnumber them. But he's surprised how well Claudia has dealt with being imprisoned by demons, and he feels a powerful need to protect her as much as he can. Especially once they find out that Claudia will only be able to open the gate so many times before she dies from a lack of energy.

Their time on the Demon World must be limited, and Tiber can save Claudia by making her a vampire. But does she have the strength to go through with it? And when she is abducted and raped by another demon, Tiber doesn't know if he can stand the damage this world is doing to Claudia. Can they escape, with her daughter, before it is too late?

I liked his book very much, because Claudia and Tiber became very real characters for me, rather than just characters in a book. Claudia goes from horror to despair to something like hope more than a few times, and as Tiber takes care of her, she begins to realize that she actually feels something for him. Tiber, at first, is attracted to her, but soon comes to care for her as more than just a quick meal. And despite not having made another vampire in hundreds of years, he is willing to do so to keep her alive- even when he promised himself he would never do so again.

A man who would compromise his strongly held principles to keep someone he loved alive? Well, I found that pretty hot. But it's more than just the characters. The world-building is pretty excellent as well. I got the feeling that the demon world was real enough to actually have existed, although most of the demons living there aren't all that well fleshed-out. The demons are pretty scary, as a Bak-Faru demon has sex with Claudia and makes her want it- right until it's over, at which point she cries. It's the worst kind of rape, a creature that can make you agree and want it, even when you don't.

This volume introduces a fourth player into the Human-werewolf- vampire politics, thereby opening up the world of Crimson City more than a little as well. With a mostly well-done story and excellent writing, I'd recommend this series, and this book, to anyone who enjoys Paranormal romance. Recommended