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Demon from the Dark (Immortals After Dark Series, Book 8)

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Demon from the Dark (Immortals After Dark Series, Book 8) by Kresley Cole
Paranormal Romance- Aug 24, 2010
4 ½ stars

In her latest IAD Kresley Cole finally reveals where and why members of the Lore have been taken! And we find out more about missing Regin the Radiant. (I can't wait for her book!) We are also treated to a new type of demon one who has been changed against his will and been so traumatized and tortured that this reader cannot help but want him to find his fated mate.

Malkom is a bad tempered and miserable hero who trusts no one. Why? Because his only and best friend betrayed him. His mother sold him to an abusive vampire who used him for sex and blood. And now the demons he saved all want to kill him! Bitter, a little. Untrusting, a lot! Alone and living in Oblivion, a hellish plane with little resources his life is pure torture but he refuses to give up. But poor Malkom doesn't know what is coming at him next!

Carrow is one of the most beautiful witches in her coven but her powers are held in check by a collar and she is imprisoned against her will. When she is `asked' by her captors to find and lure the powerful demon/vampire Malkom into a trap she refuses. But when Ruby, a young witch that she cares for is taken hostage Carrow knows she must obey their orders or Ruby will be killed.

Carrow courageously enters Oblivion but when she finds Malkom she runs away in terror! He is huge and dirty. But his body is delicious... And Carrow knows if she doesn't capture him Ruby's life will be forfeit. As Carrow works to gain Malkom's trust she also comes to care deeply for the man hidden beneath all the grime. A man who has been so abused and mistreated. In his loneliness she sees her own. Although her background is wealthy, Carrow never had her parents love and she knows how it feels to be unwanted. But can she betray a man who has become more to her that she ever realized?

This story reminded me of Beauty and the Beast. It definitely was not one of the author's more lighthearted reads. The relationship between Malkom and Carrow is slow in the beginning since they both must learn to trust each other. I really felt for Malkom and admired his courage and ability to try to trust again after so many disappointments and betrayals. I found Carrow an interesting character and it did take me a while to warm up to her because I really wanted Malkom to have a mate who would be worthy of him and I didn't want her to betray him.

As with all of Kresley Cole's stories this was a moving story and I did find myself falling in love with Malkom. He really is an admirable character. Despite all of the injustices he has endured his caring nature shines through. I just really wanted for him to be happy.

But what I found myself enjoying the most were actually the secondary characters! The author alludes to Regin the Radiant and her capture and I wanted more details! Plus there is also a very intriguing story about a Sorceri named Lanthe and a fierce winged demon Vrekener who she has injured. And is he mad! If anything this book whet my appetite for her upcoming books which I hope will feature either Regin or Lanthe.

This book will have you anticpating the next IAD, please Kresley Cole, make it soon!!

Reviewed by Steph from the Bookaholics Romance Book Club

Amazingly, Kresley Cole has topped herself with a new Lore hero! Malkom Slaine, a vemon (1/2 demon /½ vampire), is damaged by his troubled past and has spent centuries being haunted by the beatings and betrayals he has had to endure. He lives for vengeance. Once you betray him, you pay. Enter Carrow Graie, party witch extraordinaire with her own damage. Carrow has been captured by The Order, an evil group rounding up immortals for their own nefarious reasons. The Order threaten to kill Ruby, Carrow's orphaned neice, if Carrow doesn't lure Malkom to the Order. Even though neither speaks the other's language, they are able to communicate. Many LOL moments with Malkom and Carrow "negotiating" in sign language! Though Carrow is falling for her vemon, she knows she must save Ruby. Yet another betrayal for Malkom, who is mesmerized by his mate. Will Malkom be able to forgive Carrow, just when she realizes she can't live without him? Whether he forgives her or not, Malkom's not about to let her go and will go to any lengths to keep her.



Kresley Cole delivers yet another amazing installment in the Immortals After Dark series! And as an extra treat we get to catch up with favorites like Mariketa and Bowen, Rydstrom and Sabine. Malkom and Carrow's book is a page-turner you won't be able to put down!

`Demon from the Dark' is the tenth book in Kresley Cole's `Immortals After Dark' paranormal romance series.

Carrow Graie has been kidnapped. Along with hundreds of other immortal creatures, from vampires to nymphs, she has been captured by human military-types who lock her up in glass cages and intend to do experiments on her witchy-self. The stakes are raised when a witch from Carrow's coven is murdered, and her daughter taken prisoner. Now Carrow has to rescue herself, and little witch Ruby. And it just so happens that the humans have a proposition for her...

Carrow is to travel to a demon dimension and retrieve a vemon (demon-vampire hybrid) to be bought back to the prison for experimentation. There are only for vemons in the entire world, so Malkom Slaine is very rare indeed. . .

Carrow is on a mission - capture Malkom and bring him back to be experimented and tortured. Should be easy, since Malkom is a horned, ravenous, hairy beast. . . but what happens when Carrow introduces him to personal hygiene and he keeps saving her life in the demon dimension? What happens when Malkom turns out to be hot and hunky and Carrow suddenly can't stand the idea of betraying him?

I wasn't sure going into this tenth instalment, since I've had a few hits and misses with the `Immortals After Dark' series. I tend to only like the books concerning the Lycans and Valkyries - because I love the Lycan's Scottish brogue and the Valkyrie have some hilarious secondary characters (Nucking Futs Nix!).

I was also a little sceptical about this tenth book because Carrow and Malkom were completely unknown characters to me. I hadn't been anticipating their story, because they weren't secondary characters in past book. Carrow may have been mentioned in passing, but not enough to pique my interest about her HEA.

So I went in to `Demon from the Dark' very sceptical, but I came out with a new `Immortals' heartthrob to lust after!
`Demon from the Dark' is a paranormal retelling of Beauty and the Beast. Carrow is a witchy party-girl who grew up in the lap of luxury, but had an isolated childhood. She's had many boyfriends, but few honest relationships... until she travels to a demon dimension and meets Malkom Slaine.

I was initially wary of Malkom as a love interest because his physical description is so foul. He's tall and towering; with wildly long hair, no concept of tooth-brushing, caked-on dirt and he eats chicken blood. Eew. To top it off, Malkom has two large horns above his ears and is a blood-drinking vampire. Carrow's first-impression of Malkom is not helped by a language barrier between them. Malkom can only speak demon but no English, Carrow knows some Anglish and neither of them can understand a word the other says. . . Kresly Cole's signature hilarity ensues.

Malkom definitely starts out beastly, but is eventually transformed. Carrow bathes him, introduces him to a tooth-brush and cuts his hair, and realizes that beneath the dirt is a burning hunk o' vemon man! We also learn that there's more to Malkom than the ravening beast he starts out as. He actually has a very tragic past; he was a child blood-whore and sex slave, then he was a prince's friend, royal betrayer and when Carrow meets him he is in the midst of his centuries-long punishment. . . he's perhaps the most complicated `Immortals' man we've met in the series, but he's also the sexiest.

Carrow and Malkom's sexual relationship starts out rocky. Malkom recognizes Carrow as his mate from the moment he smells her, but the language-barrier prevents him from explaining his maddening lust to her. . . there's no rape, but Carrow has to lay down the law where Malkom's lustfulness is concerned.

But when these two do get hot n' heavy. . . watch out! They burn up the page! These two are the absolute cutest couple to come out of the `Immortals After Dark' series. Their Beauty and the Beast, will-they-or-won't-they tension is delicious and Malkom is so manly and rough around the edges! I loved these two together, and I especially adored Malkom. `Demon from the Dark' is my favourite `Immortals' book after `A Hunger Like no Other' - and that's a big call!

Kresley Cole's series of Immortals After Dark is #2 on my auto buy list. I loved every one of the books in this series so far. None of the books leave holes and you just have to wait for the next book to find out what happens next. I love how she mixes up the characters and their destined mates to be. After all it would be boring if everyone just kept it in the same species. Can't wait for Dreams of a Dark Warrior, looking forward to future books.

In "Demon from the Dark," the 8th book in Kresley Cole's acclaimed Immortals After Dark series, multiple members of nearly every faction of the Immortal world of the Lore have been abducted by an unknown Mortal Order and brought to a concentration camp of sorts. They are imprisoned in cells of cinder-block and impenetrable glass (with gasses released from the ceiling to knock out the more "unruly" captives), and brought out only when needed for scientific experimentation--typically referring to vivisection, or just general torture. It is a truly horrifying situation for these "subjects," many of them recurring characters from Kresley Cole's previous books.

One such character is the New Orleans witch Carrow Graie, a.k.a. "Carrow the Incarcerated," dubbed so for the amount of nights she's had to sleep in County, due to myriad offenses--public magic, stealing a cop's horse, etc. She grew up in a noble but exceedingly cold house, and in total contrast draws power from the happiness of those around her. Carrow has been brought to this mysterious Order for a specific purpose: to enter the Demon Plane of Oblivion, a truly hellish landscape, and return with the elusive Malkom Slaine, a Scārba--a demon poisoned with vampire blood, thus giving them many traits of the latter. Colloquially known as vemons, the Scārba are the most physically powerful beings in the Lore, and generally regarded as abominations--and highly dangerous.

And if Carrow doesn't go to Oblivion and retrieve this vemon, then she and her late cousin's seven-year-old daughter Ruby won't go free.

Malkom Slaine, a vemon for the greater part of his life, as lived one of abuse, isolation, and general misery. Sold by his prostitute mother at a young age to a vampire lord, he was subjected to many sexual depravities until he was "too tall" for his "master." After living a rough, hunger-filled life on the streets of the city of Ash, he was eventually recruited by Prince Kallen the Great to fight for his army, and later to lead it. Kallen became the only friend Malkom ever had, but Kallen is no longer living. After being subjected to the atrocity of the Scārba ritual and turned into a vemon, Malkom eventually slaughtered the vampire who had turned him, and any other vampire who crossed his path, until they had fled the realm of Oblivion. Now he lives in complete isolation, a criminal and monster to his people, waiting for the traitorous demon leader Ronath to finally face (and fight) him.

This was his life, until Carrow crossed his path.

Out of all eight books (so far) in Cole's IAD series, I would say that this is by far the best one. And that's seriously saying something, when you look at some of the amazing past stories like "A Hunger Like No Other" (Book 1), "No Rest for the Wicked" (Book 2), "Kiss of a Demon King" (Book 6), and "Pleasure of a Dark Prince" (Book 7--an adventure to rival Tomb Raider). But "Demon from the Dark" has a twisting plot that grabs you and never lets go, including some serious scares later on (George Romero fans should be pleased).

But even more than the engrossing story, probably the best part of DftD is the progression of the relationship between Carrow and Malkom. And it is far from easy. In addition to the language barrier (Malkom purposefully forgot most of his "Anglish" long ago, as it reminded him too much of the vampires and the horrors he endured under their control), Malkom is a truly tortured individual who, despite most outward appearances, longs for the love and affection of someone who can look past the "abomination" that he is. As soon as Carrow entered the hell plane, Malkom knew instinctively that she was that person, and so he strives to please her in all ways he knows--including learning to write, and remembering Carrow's language.

As Carrow remarks herself, betraying the beastly/wild Malkom to the Order would have been easy--not physically, but it wouldn't have emotionally pained her. However, as the time draws near to return to her world with this new Malkom learning to love, she grows heartsick at the mere thought. And Malkom does change in this direction--steadily but surely. (This is why I am surprised at some of these negative reviews referring to Malkom merely as a "caveman"--they remembered his initial appearance in the story, and refused to look beyond that.)

A triumphant love story and an action-packed plot make "Demon from the Dark" one enjoyable read!

This one had an odd segue. It was so abrupt I kept thinking I missed a book. But blammo...you've got Carrow, Regin, Melanthe, Lothaire, and a whole host of other Lore imprisoned on a cloaked island run by the Initiative, erm...I mean the Order. They're mortals who don't trust the Lore, want to investigate them, and somehow make them stop. And at their helm is Declan Chase who may actually be a lackey and may actually be Aidan the Bezerker (which may explain why he likes to perform daily vivisections on Regin). In the fray comes 7 year old Ruby, baby witch, and hostage for Carrow. Declan wants her to go to Oblivion a hell dimension and bring back the baddest Vemon ever, Malkom Slaine. He's so beyond "humanity" and "redemption" that he himself only lives for death and punishment of his enemies. And given that he's hording water on a desert world...that's pretty much anyone. But as with all "villains", you realize there's a reason for his pain: he's a much abused man, former child blood slave used for other reasons as well (think Zsadist from BDB series), betrayed into that slavery by his mother, etc., etc. He's a Toranth demon turned Vemon by a Horde viceroy. Naturally, Carrow is the one who's blooded and mated to him and he goes bezerkers in a non-Aiden kind of way. I guess this is the beginning of the Accession? I liked how the self-proclaimed gutter trash ends up with the noble blood witch. And 4 barbells? Yikes!

This is definitely one of my favorite from the series!!

Malkom Slaine is part demon part vampire, a being that shouldn't exist. He's tortured past makes him unable to trust anyone - and we can't help but cheer him on as we learn about his past. He, more than anyone, deserves a happy ending.

Carrow was abducted by the Order, an organization of humans bent on warring and destroying immortals. (Hey, what's a paranormal series without fanatic humans that want to kill everyone, right? Let's not get into that.) The conditions for her release (and that of her adopted daughter) is to bring back Malkom, so she sets off to Oblivion by herself to bring back this crazy demon.

Malkom, while crazed, still recognizes Carrow as his mate. The way Malkom feels toward Carrow, the way he treasures her, really brings tears to your eyes. He is utterly grateful for his good fortune, and shows it to Carrow with all that he is. Carrow, on the other hand, slowly grew to like/love the brute beast, whom she found a noble man underneath.

This is one of the few books in which I love both the hero and heroine. Either of them will do anything they want. Not to mention Carrow ended up chasing Malkom, not the other way around, so my favorite part is definitely Carrow's determination to win back Malkom's trust and have a future with him (unlike the myriad other females who didn't appreciate their good luck and did not deserve their men!).

Now I can't wait for Regin's story, although I'm curious to see how Regin can forgive Chase after all that's happened in this book. February can't come fast enough!!!

Kresley Cole's "Demon from the Dark" is the 8th book in her totally amazing Immortals After Dark series. The heroine in this book is the witch, Carrow, who we were briefly introduced to as Mariketa's best friend in "Wicked Deeds on a Winter's Night (Immortals After Dark, Book 3)." I have to say, I was not excited about reading her story. Her character never stood out to me, and the hero, Malkom, is an entirely new character.

Why did I ever doubt Kresley Cole? She rocks my socks off.

Carrow was one of the supernaturals kidnapped at the end of "Pleasure of a Dark Prince (Immortals After Dark, Book 7)." We find out that a group of humans is collecting samples from all the otherworldly species. But they don't have a dempire (demon/vampire hybrid.) They kidnap Carrow's little witch niece, after killing the child's mother, and blackmail Carrow into helping them catch Malkom. Carrow is sent to Malkom's demon realm and quickly discovers she is his destined mate. Problems abound. He has lived a solitary and harsh life for centuries. He doesn't speak English. And sadly, he has known nothing but cruelty and betrayal. They manage to fall for each other despite the language barrier, but Carrow can't make him understand what she is doing and why she will have to lead him into a trap.

WHAT IS SO GOOD ABOUT THIS BOOK:
In a word: Malkom. I cared so much about his fragile heart, I wanted to beat down everyone who had ever hurt him. I ached for his sadness. I hated what Carrow had to do. It was masterful writing. Kresley Cole at her very best. And of course, you know that means there was some great sex in here too.

I'd give it more than 5 stars if I could.

I dont know how she does it but every book that Kresley Cole has written in the IAD series is just outstanding. Her plots are NOT all about sex. They are actualy plots that make a reader wonder how the heroine and hero will overcome the obstacles before them. Its riveting and funny. I love the banter between the characters. We even get to see some old ones in previous books make an appearance. I can't wait for the next IAD to come out. I hope Kresley doesnt lose her touch and keeps on writing these awesome storylines.

I wasn't sure how I was going to like this installment of the IAD series. Just like so many of her other books. I loved it, parts of this book made me sad for the hero I almost cried for him. You should pick it up it's another great read.