This has been an excellent series from the start, but the author's clearly saved the best til last. I mean, Pestilence was soooo bad that his tale just had to be THE tale of the series, and he had to pay - and boy, did he. In blood, in tears, in heartache.
This tale picks up immediately after Reseph's memories have been wiped, and after he's been transported out of Sheoul-gra and hidden by Reaver, whilst the Horsemen, DART and the Aegis search for him. All's been engineered by Reaver to allow Reseph to suppress Pestilence, with the woman who saves him, Jillian, connected to him in the most painful of ways. The world that he's sent back to as Reseph is one that's been decimated by demon-killings, and whilst he senses a link to something not quite right, he has no memories at all of his past as Pestilence.
Jillian's gentle ways, her strength, her selflessness and her belief in him are the making of Reseph, and they begin to fall in love - which is beautiful and vivid, almost coming off the pages, and perhaps the most believable love of the quartet of books - until the remaining Horsemen find him and his memories come flooding back, making him realise just what he's done as Pestilence...
There may be a way of saving him, which requires the ultimate sacrifice on Jillian's part, but Reseph tries to protect her from him by driving her away, revealing the true connection between them, but she knows that the naked, injured man she found lying in the snow is the real man deep down inside Reseph/Pestilence, so she enters into a deal with Harvester, which of course, has a catch...
Obviously, a lot of strings are tied up in this book, and there are several revelations - a character who had seemed to be up to no good turned out to have an ulterior motive, feelings, regrets, loyalty and a benevolent side. A character who's always been around, but in only one particular guise, is revealed to have the deepest connection of all to the Horsemen, and the AEGIS show their true colours. The Horsemen themselves are beginning to be able to truly live their HEA, complete with additions to their families.
This tale tied everything up perfectly, and there was brief mention of UG, Shade and Eidolon, whilst Kynan featured a few times as part of the DART team, leading in to the next book in the Demonica series, coming in 2013, which is that of Reaver (Bound By Night, available on pre-order now?). I kind of think we got to see who his mate will be, but then again, I'm not 100% sure. If it is who I think, then it'll be a tale to rival this one - which is a firm Keeper of a tale.
P.S. - BOUND BY NIGHT: The first installment in a sexy new paranormal romance series by Larissa Ione, author of the bestselling Demonica series! Nicole Martin was only eight years old when she narrowly survived a massacre: her family's vampire slaves rebelled and killed everyone in her household. Twenty years later, Nicole now dedicates herself to finding a vaccine against vampirism...and eradicating the gruesome memories...
