Title: Touched by Darkness
Author: Catherine Spangler
Published in January 2007 by Berkley Jove
Genre: Paranormal Romance
ISBN: 0425214001
Other Books by Cathy: (1) Shielder (2) Shadower (3) Shamara
(4) Shadow Crossing (5) Shadow Fires
For Doctor Kara Cantrell, life has not been easy. She is a woman who knows what it is like to love and lose, and she knows the meaning of terror. She has lost the one man in her world that she truly loved, and unbeknownst to either at the time, was pregnant with the one person destined to rip her world apart again. Her son Alex is the product of her love and alliance as a conductor to Richard Wayman, the man who was brutally murdered before her eyes, brutally and finally, leaving her with a huge gap in the heart of her soul. It is a gap which continues to leave her lonely, scared, and on edge. It is the very reason that Kara chose the solitude and relative safety of this “off the beaten track” town of Zorro, Texas. It is a place away from the past, a place where she can raise her son in peace, and most importantly, a place where she can hopefully put the past behind her. The frail illusion of safety has been shattered in one fell blow with the appearance of the tall, dark stranger who exudes an unmistakable sexual charge. She fights the awareness, stubbornly clinging to her beliefs that he will go, will pass her and more importantly, Alex, by. She is afraid for her son, and afraid of what the stranger will do if he catches up with them.
Moving is out of the question, and although she hides from the truth, Alex is his father’s son. As hard as Kara has tried, there are flashes of power from her son, self-moving objects, scorched floors and other odd occurrences she has struggled to ignore. Even more is the fact she has fought to restrain, and squash those powers within him. She felt the stranger’s aura of power that Saturday outside Sal’s and ran. It did Dr. Kara Cantrell no good, and as Damien Morgan works his way into her life, and that of her son, she fears the consequences and rightfully so. Kara also fights the realization Alex must be protected, and learning about who and what he is, who and what his father was, and what Damien represents is his first and only chance. Kara swears she will have nothing to do with the man she knows is a mighty preternatural creature, an ancient soul in human form. She has run as far and as fast as she could, thinking none of his kind could find her if she got far enough away. She had nowhere to run now, no place to hide. The past has finally caught up with her, and it is time to face her destiny. The only thing left to determine is the true ultimate cost, and is Kara strong enough to pay for her son’s freedom…
Damien Morgan is a man on a mission. He is a crime writer, a man devoted to justice and writing about the wrongs that others have committed, and how they are investigated, caught, and are corrected. It is a useful occupation for him in that he is also a fearsome predator, a skilled hunter who will track his quarry to the ends of the earth. He is a creature of vengeance, and one who is devoted to seeing this prey pay the ultimate price for the disruption and the terror they cause. Pay the fearsome price for the innocent blood they gleefully shed. His soul is ancient, it has lived many lives, seen too much, but this only drives him harder. He knows what the Belians are capable of, and when he catches a whiff of the familiar power, he is determined to track it to the source, protect the young Sentinel with his life if necessary, but the goal is to get rid of this threat to the mother and child. He thinks the power shift he felt came from the boy, but a stronger and more direct assault on his senses came from the child’s mother. It was that elusive yet devastating sexual attraction of a conductor, and a very powerful one at that. Why were they here, and why were they unprotected?
Never had Damien encountered one such as her. Kara Cantrell is her name, and he was determined to claim her talents for his current quest, and to get closer to the child in her care. The boy, Alex, is young, but his powers are emerging rapidly. Damien is certain that the child is the real thing, and wonders why he has no mentor. He senses no other Sentinels around to offer the boy and his mother protection, and it is strange. There are many questions about this pair that need to be answered, but to do this means he has to be able to get closer. She fled him at the first sight, so she could know what he is. If so, why run? As he gets familiar with Kara, he feels her unique power, the sexual pull present between a conductor and a Sentinel is strong, and between him and Kara, the strongest he has encountered. So Damien strives to stay focused, knowing there is now a tangible danger around them, and although she won’t commit totally to the sexual experience necessary for him to get the clearest picture of the Belian enemy they will soon face, she is willing to give him whatever help she can. Now if only it will be enough…
“I’ve been fascinated with Atlantis most of my life, and I’m certainly not alone,” says author Catherine Spangler in a note to her readers. The fascination shows with the beautifully drawn characters in her newest romance called Touched by Darkness. The story of Dr. Kara Cantrell is one that will pull at your heart, and keep you on the edge of your seat. The ancient continent of Atlantis did not give up its hold on the earth. Some of its creatures have returned, reincarnated into opposite ranks, one for good, and light, the Sentinels, and one for the dark, evil side, the worshipers of Belial. Damien Morgan is a tracker, a Sentinel who hunts and tracks down the renegade souls who would ravish the inhabitants of Earth to the bloody Glory of their god, Belial. These Belians have already wreaked havoc in the life of Kara, when one brutally murdered her husband and threatened to take over her body and soul as well. The experience has left its mark on her, and when Damien comes into her life, she is ready to fight to get him out.
Touched by Darkness brings Kara and Damien together, both needing the same thing, yet neither willing to admit it to themselves, or anyone else. Their journey toward finding the light, and the love they crave is a tender and riveting story, and is told with great intensity and finesse. A gripping take of the dark side of life, the danger present, and the passions aroused between these two is one that cannot be put down easily. The dark and brooding Sentinel is played to the hilt as Damien struggles to keep himself from the strongest conductor he has ever encountered. A very frightened Kara hides a backbone of pure tensile steel as she faces the danger to her psyche and her son. The true caliber of the woman is shown as she picks up the gauntlet she had previously discarded and run from, and faces her worst fears. Touched by Darkness is truly a book not to be missed. It is heart-wrenchingly and brutally vivid in the telling of the struggles of these two to come to terms with what could be between them. The questions remain, dear reader, do you have the strength to enter and be Touched by Darkness? We shall see. Look to Berkley Sensation for Kara and Damien’s adventure in January of 2007…
Yours in good reading,
Rose!
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