Mass Market Monday: Demon From The Dark by Kresley Cole

MASS MARKET MONDAYS

Demon from the Dark
by Kresley Cole
9781439123126, $7.99, Pocket Books (Simon & Schuster)

This is the first book I've read from the Immortals After Dark series, though apparently it's installment #10. Luckily, I didn't find I needed to read books 1-9 to understand what was going on. It's a very interesting world! I'm looking forward to reading more. In the context of this book, there are many worlds - maybe alternate planes of existence is a better way of describing it - and bad things are happening in almost all of them. The supernatural creatures in the world of Earth are being hunted down and kidnapped, brought to a secret laboratory on a hidden island, where a madman performs nasty experiments on them in an attempt to explore each supernatural power so that he can create the ultimate weapons to wipe out all supernatural creatures.

Carrow Graie is a prank-playing, partygirl witch who has just been captured and brought to this place. Her best friend's daughter, eight-year-old, Ruby, has been kidnapped too. Carrow is offered a deal: the madman will let her and Ruby go, if she travels to another dimension and brings back a demon. She has no choice but to accept and hope for the best.

Malkom Slaine is an outcast among everyone he once knew. Originally demon, he was made part-vampire during his own capture during a wartime centuries ago. After killing his own best friend and the evil sorcerer who turned them, Malkom retreated to the caves on top of a mountain to plan his revenge on the man who betrayed him. Living alone, he has terrorized the other supernatural beings of his own world by keeping control of the water supply. It is this tormented soul Carrow must somehow seduce in order to bring him back to Earth.

They don't speak the same language, physically or emotionally. He's a brute, but she needs to rely on him, as she's relatively helpless against the creatures of this new dimension. Yet, as a demon, he has the power to know who his true mate is, and as fate would have it, it's this green-eyed witch who's just fallen through the magic portal. Can he trust her after he's been betrayed so often? She's the first soft touch he's ever known, but is it enough to save them both against all the evil in the world? And if they save each other emotionally, is that enough for them to save the rest of the poor souls held in this horrible captivity?

My favorite part: Malkom has piercings and a hot tattoo wrapped around a gorgeous body Carrow bathes between pages 145 and 184. Any scene that lasts that long you know has to be good.