Narcissus in Chains
Nathaniel, one of Anitas were-leopards who is the least able to look after himself is in trouble and Anita is forced to do something she knew she had to do soon any way. Contact Jean-Claude for help. It has been 6 months since Anita estranged herself and she's learned a lot on how to control her magic and protect herself with it, but it's still not enough to fix the holes in her aura. Upon having Anita contact him he immediately bargains with her. Merge the marks, fix the auras and then he'll help her rescue Nathaniel. Anita hates ultimatums but since she had planned to contact him to do just that in a few weeks time once her contraception was up to date, she agreed. So Jean Claude, Richard and Anita meet up at the S&M club called 'Narcissus in Chains' where Nathaniel is being held to merge the marks. Some light petting later and a huge release of power and magic later and Anita goes to rescue Nathaniel and damn near dies.
She wakes up three days later in bed with two strange wereleopards. Micah and Caleb. Turns out Micah’s a visiting Alpha who was invited into the region by Elizabeth, one of Anitas wereleopards, without Anitas permission. Elizabeth is also the one who left Nathaniel unprotected in a S&M club knowing that he as an ultimate submissive is incapable of saying no, or knowing when to use the safe word.
Micah has a rare talent of being able to heal using touch and helped heal Anita over the last three days. Only problem is, these last three days Jean Claude has been in jail on suspicion of having killed Anita because someone reported seeing him holding her covered in blood. Anita is all prepped to get up and out and get him out of jail since she is evidently not dead but there's more news. During the fight, one of her were leopards fell on her during the fight whilst shifted and though having saved her life during the fight, has likely infected her since that is the only explanation of how she has healed from mortal wounds in less than a week. If she is about to become a wereleopard, it means she can no longer be lupa of the local wolves and be Richards mate. and Richard has kidnapped the wereleopard in question and sentenced him to death for effectively 'killing' the lupa.
Also put onto her plate, by estranging herself 6 months ago she cut off her control from Damian, a vampire she healed and became master of before she left. Without the connection to her Damian went insane and went on a killing spree and Jean Claude had to put him in a cross wrapped coffin for everyone’s safety (including Damiens) until Anita came back and re-claimed him magically speaking.
Merging the marks has also passed on a curse from Jean Claude to Anita. The ardeur. It is the ability to feed on people through lust and sex. But it's not just an ability, it must be done, once or twice a day lest Anita runs wild into the street and seduces random people. Which is sort of what happened soon after she woke up next to Micah. Anita has not known Micah more than an hour and yet she lets him have sex with her in a shower cubicle. Whilst this happens they find out that the beast inside Anita was able to do something with Micahs spiritual beast which is a thing of legends, they were able to run their beasts through each other. In normal speech, it means Anita has found the closest equivalent thing to a soul mate.
Micahs leopards are trying to find somewhere safe to hide from an evil alpha and said evil Alpha is kidnapping and killing random were-creatures across the city. In short you could say that Anita may have bitten off more than she can chew.
Thoughts
The above is a summary, yes you heard that right, a SUMMARY. I've had to cut a lot out just to try and not make this review a novel in and of itself. This book is jammed with so much happening and so many key new players in the story from Micah to the new wereleopards, to the were-rats.
Also Anitas powers now that the marks are merged are growing at an insane rate. Yes she is now forced to have sex or at least a lustful experience to the point where it may as well be sex, at least but ideally twice a day. But holy-dooley, she is learning and taking on abilities like a Master Vampire, except she's still human.
9.8/10 jam packed amazing read and so very key to the rest of the series.
With this series I apologise for the lack of cat photos, I only own e-book versions of this so screen shots and stuff on pixabay will have to suffice. Due to this series being quite long I apologise but there WILL be spoilers.
To better understand the world of Anita Blake, read my world synopsis here