Ho la netta sensazione che la Kenyon abbia sprecato un ottimo personaggio, Alexion. Braccio destro di Acheron, Alexion ha alle spalle una storia dolorosa e un eterno presente di solitudine che gli fa desiderare il contatto umano con tutto se stesso. I suoi monologhi interiori sono molto belli ed è impossibile non essere commossi dal suo dolore e dalla sua dignità.

Accanto a lui c'è Danger, Cacciatrice Oscura di origini francesi, la cui famiglia è stata sterminata durante la Rivoluzione Francese, in seguito al tradimento di suo marito. La Kenyon a mio parere non è riuscita a caratterizzarla al meglio. Essendo stata tradita da umana, è estremamente restia a fidarsi di chi non conosce, ma non abbiamo l'impressione che per lei sia così difficile iniziarsi a fidarsi di Alexion.

La loro storia si snoda in un susseguirsi di colpi di scena puntualmente smentiti. Ogni volta che il nemico (Stryker, capo degli Spathi) progetta un piano per ucciderli, i due se la cavano in modo così semplice da risultare quasi comico. E questo non mi ha convinto.

L'astro più luminoso di questo romanzo è sicuramente Simi. Divertente e irriverente in modo così infantile da essere assolutamente irresistibile. Scopriremo alcune cosette su di lei e faremo la conoscenza di sua sorella... divertente quanto lei e assai promettente come personaggio. Già me le immagino insieme a fare shopping e a svuotare le carte di credito di Acheron... e a sbavare sui poster di Travis Fimmel... ( )

3.5/5 ( )

En el reino de los Cazadores Oscuros existe un código de honor que incluso ellos, los chicos malos de la inmortalidad, deben respetar: "No hacer daño a ningún humano. No beber sangre. No enamorarse jamás". Aunque en ocasiones hay quien se rebela, y entonces se ve obligado a intervenir Alexion, el juez y verdugo de los Cazadores Oscuros, el brazo ejecutor de Aqueron.

As always, I have included some terms and definitions along with some character profiles at the end of this summary/review because this series just gets more and more complicated as it continues and I don’t want to confuse anyone who has not read any of the books in the series yet.

I am re-reading this series and it never ceases to surprise me how much I have forgotten about some of the things that have happened in the series. Although I remembered the main characters in this book, I had forgotten almost everything else about it. I guess it is a good thing that I’m reading them again to refresh my memory. Not only does it help me get reacquainted with the characters and events of this series but it also helps my pocketbook as I have not bought a new book since I have started the re-read. Okay, that is a lie, I downloaded the Dark-Hunter Companion by Sherrilyn Kenyon to help me with a few questions about terms and certain characters but other than that, I have not bought any other books since August 6th.

Alexion is not a name but an Atlantean title. Alexion is neither human, Dark-Hunter nor Shade. He is what Acheron calls, “other.” Alexion’s original incantation was Ias of Groesia. He’s the reason there is an “out clause” for being a Dark-Hunter. Ias was the third Dark-Hunter made after Acheron. He was turned into a Shade when his traitorous wife dropped the medallion with his soul in it during the ritual to reunite him with his soul.

Acheron took pity on Ias and gave him a form…kind of…because Acheron was young and did not have full knowledge of how to use his powers, Alexion didn’t turn out quite like anyone who Acheron has revived since. He can never be human again, certain senses like taste are gone and he has to drink Acheron’s blood to survive. He lives in Katoteros with Acheron and Simi and his job is to observe life through a sfora and once in every few centuries or so, he goes down to the human realm and takes care of rogue Dark-Hunters. When he does this, he is judge, jury and executioner of them. He can only be away from Katoteros for ten days before he has to return. But the good news is that he cannot be killed by anything except a Charonte demon and since Simi is the only Charonte demon left in the universe, (so he thinks) he’s not likely to be killed.

This book threw me for a loop when I first started reading it because it started out with a college student named Melissa running from a group of Daimons. I automatically assumed that she would be the heroine of the book. WRONG! She runs into a Dark-Hunter and thinks she is saved but the Dark-Hunter sinks his fangs into her and drains her almost empty of blood and then hands her over to the Daimons so they can take her soul and finish her off. Okaaaay, I guess she’s not the heroine of the story since she is kind of dead now.

Acheron sends Alexion down to deal with the rogue Dark-Hunters in Mississippi. Marco is preying on humans and Kyros is trying to convince other Dark-Hunters to break away from Acheron.

Danger has little patience for Dark-Hunters who break the Dark-Hunter code. When Kyros calls her to his house to try to convince her that Acheron is just using them, she doesn’t believe him. But then he calls someone named Stryker who flashes into the room. She can feel the tingling sensation that all Dark-Hunters get when a Daimon is near but then it goes away. Stryker tells her that he is a Daimon and can mask his power just like Acheron can. He tells her he is Acheron’s brother and that Acheron is at war with the other Daimons and is using the Dark-Hunters to fight his war. He tells her all kinds of lies including that Acheron will send out an assassin to kill all the Dark-Hunters who go against him. The assassin will wear a white coat and call himself Acheron’s Squire.

She drives home contemplating what Stryker and Kyros had said. On the one hand, she knows Acheron and doesn’t think he would ever hurt a human or use them but on the other hand, she doesn’t know much about Acheron and he keeps a lot of secrets. She enters her house to find Alexion in her living room. He is wearing a white coat and introduces himself as Acheron’s Squire. She immediately stabs him and he poofs apart like a Daimon but then reforms again. He tells her that he is there to save the Dark-Hunters who can be saved and she has a choice to either help him or to die.

At first, Danger doesn’t trust Alexion so she doesn’t tell him about Stryker but as she starts to get close to him, she tells him what Stryker said. Alexion knows he has big problems if Stryker is behind everything. He tries summon Acheron but Acheron ignores him. Acheron has to stay out of it because if he interferes, he could be messing with free-will which could be a catastrophe. Just look at what happened with Nick Gautier. He got mad at Nick for sleeping with Simi and ended speaking words in anger which cursed Nick. Acheron’s words hold a lot of impact and come to truth so he has to be careful what he says.

Marco gets beheaded and Stryker blames it on Alexion.

Danger and Alexion sleep together and start to have feelings for each other but they both know they can never be together. Alexion can’t live on earth for more than ten days and once his judgement is rendered, no one remembers him but he will remember and he knows it will hurt. They decide to make the most out of the time they have together. Danger wants Alexion to have good memories so she takes him to the movie theater to see a movie.

When they return, a Dark-Hunter named Viper is at Danger’s house. He tells her that Euphemia, a Dark-Huntress had been killed earlier that evening and everyone is saying it was Alexion. They show him their movie tickets to prove it was not Alexion. He is convinced and leaves.

Stryker has big plans. He hates Acheron and wants to destroy him and since he can’t find a way to kill him, he will kill the ones he loves and he knows there are two people Acheron loves the most, Simi and Alexion. If a few Dark-Hunters die in the process, it is just icing on the cake. He knows that only a Charonte demon can kill Alexion and the goddess Apollymi has a few in Kalosis where they live. He will send one down to kill him. If that fails, he will insert a weak human soul into Alexion and he will be forced to kill himself or let the soul die and he is sure Alexion would never let the soul die. A weak human soul will cry and whine, driving the host crazy until dies. That is why Daimons try not to intake weak souls.

Stryker sends a Charonte demon and it attacks Alexion but Alexion speaks a command to it in Atlantean and it stops attacking. The Charonte returns to Stryker and tells him he is too afraid of Apollymi to attack Alexion again. So Stryker finds another Charonte demon, Xirena, who he knows hates the goddess to kill Alexion. Xirena tries to kill Alexion but then hears the name Simi and gets curious. It turns out that Simi and Xirena are sisters. Xirena ends up bonding to Alexion which makes Alexion her master.

Since the Charonte demons didn’t work out, Stryker fights Alexion. He stabs him and when he is reforming, he inserts a weak human soul into him. Alexion knows he only has a few days before he has to kill himself to let the soul go free. He mopes around and starts making plans for his judgement on the Dark-Hunters. All of the sudden, Danger stabs him. He poofs apart into a zillion particles like he usually does and then reforms. The soul was freed when he poofed apart. Danger said that she just had the thought that it might work.

Meanwhile, Acheron is in Katoteros. He is sad. He knows a lot of the future and knows that Danger is going to die and there is some vague thought about Alexion meeting his doom too. But Acheron can’t interfere. To emphasize this, Savitar appears in Katoteros and tells Acheron that it is a bad idea to interfere and reminds him what happened to Nick. This is the first time we meet Savitar who is…well, I don’t know what he is exactly but he is just as powerful as Acheron, if not more but Savitar has no love for anyone and it is iffy what side of the fence of good and evil he falls on at times.

Let me go off on a little detour to tell you about what happened to Nick Gautier in the last book. Nick slept with Simi, not knowing she was Acheron’s daughter because Acheron had never introduced Simi to Nick. Acheron wanted Simi to always be pure and not have carnal knowledge because every other female has the hots for Acheron and wants to sleep with him. They can’t help it. Acheron just oozes sex like he sends out pheromones that make people want him. He was afraid that if Simi ever had sex that she would be just like them and then their relationship would change. There is a lot more to it but that is the jest of it. When Acheron found out about Nick having sex with Simi, he freaked out and threw Nick through a wall. He then told Nick, “You are dead to me. You might as well go and kill yourself to save me from doing it later.” Not even a few days later, A Daimon killed Nick’s mother. Nick found her and summoned Artemis and demanded revenge. Artemis scoffed at him and denied the request and told him that he had to be dead before he could request that anyway so Nick said, “Make me a Dark-Hunter.” And shot himself. She made him a Dark-Hunter only because she was afraid of what Acheron would do if she didn’t.

Back to this story — It looks bleak for Alexion and Danger. Even if they do live through everything, they can never be together. But this is a romance novel so one can always hope a miracle happens.

Terms

Dark-Hunter – a warrior who sold his soul to the goddess Artemis for a single act of vengeance. They hunt and kill Daimons to protect mankind and are immortal. Each warrior has his own unique power or set of powers such as mind-reading, telekinesis and healing. Because Daimons have animalistic instincts and features such as fangs, so do Dark-Hunters but they do not drink blood. They also cannot go into the sunlight. They cannot marry or have a lover for more than one night. Because Dark-Hunters are so powerful, two cannot be near each other or their powers will drain. They also cannot hurt or kill each other because what one does to the other happens to them also; if one hits and breaks the nose of another Dark-Hunter, his or her nose will break also.

Out Clause – there is only one way for a Dark-Hunter to get their soul back from Artemis and that is through Acheron. He literally loses blood, sweat and flesh to get a soul back for one of his Dark-Hunters so he will only do it for the ones he deems worthy. If a Dark-Hunter falls in love with a man/woman who truly loves her/him in return, the woman will receive a medallion with the Dark-Hunter’s soul. The man/woman has to stab the Dark-Hunter through the heart and kill them. Then take the medallion and place it on the Dark-Hunter mark, the double bow and arrow. The medallion is hot like lava and will burn the hand of the man/woman while they are holding it but if they hold it there long enough, the Dark-Hunter will awaken and have his soul intact. But if the medallion is dropped before the soul reengages, the Dark-Hunter becomes a Shade.

Shade – a bodiless, soulless entity who walks the world for eternity, not being able to touch anything yet still feeling hunger and thirst but never being able to quench it. Shades can’t communicate with anyone except the Oracles and good luck getting an Oracle to return the communication.

Squire – someone who takes care of a Dark-Hunter. A Squire does everything from running errands to running the household. They are sworn to protect the secrets of the Dark-Hunters.

Sfora – an orb that is used to watch people in another realm.
Kalosis – the Atlantean hell realm where Apollymi is imprisoned…well, not exactly imprisoned since she is lives in a palace and rules the realm.

Katoteros – once the home of the Atlantean gods before Apollymi destroyed them all. It is the heaven realm where Acheron lives when he is not on earth or in Olympus.

Characters

Acheron – main character of the Dark-Hunter series. He has lots of secrets and until you get to the book named Acheron, he is shrouded in mystery. He was the first Dark-Hunter ever and is over 11,000 years old. We know he is the son of Apollymi, the Atlantean goddess and he has unimaginable powers but he hides most of them and erases anyone’s minds of any events that have revealed powers that he doesn’t want anyone to know he has. He also oozes sexuality and danger.

Apollymi – also known as the Destroyer, a powerful Atlantean goddess who destroyed everyone else in her pantheon over an event that nearly tore out her heart. After sinking Atlantis into the ocean and practically annihilating the world, the Greek gods imprisoned her in the nether world called Kalosis. She may be contained but she is far from helpless. Nobody wants to piss her off because she will crush them.

Stryker – the leader of the Spathi Daimons. He is a demigod, son of Apollo. He hates Acheron with a passion and wants to see him dead. He lives in Kalosis under the rule of Apollymi who won’t let anyone hurt Acheron but Stryker thinks he is clever and finds ways to go after Acheron, thinking Apollymi is none the wiser.

Simi – a Charonte demon and Acheron’s daughter. She is bonded to Acheron which means he is her master and she is supposed to do what he commands but it seems the other way around. Acheron spoils her and she spends a lot of time watching QVC and charging things on his credit card. She lives part-time on Acheron as a tattoo. Whenever she feels he is upset or in danger, she comes off his body into human or demon form to help him.


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Alexion is Ash's Enforcer he's sent to try and save Dark Hunters from going to the darkside. Danger requests Ash's help and gets Alexion instead. She waffles at first who to believe but eventually chooses right, and tries to make the most of the brief time Alexion has.
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