Demon's Mercy (Dark Protectors #9) by Rebecca Zanetti 
Series: Dark Protectors #9
Published by Lyrical Press on January 22, 2019
Genres: Paranormal/Urban Fantasy
Pages: 320
Format: eBook
I received this book for free from in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
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Duty meets desire . . . Mercy O’Malley hates killing people. So when she’s assigned to take out Vampire-Demon Logan Kyllwood, she lures him to a seedy bar in Scotland, then decides to kidnap him instead. How can she cold-bloodedly end all that heat, those green eyes, that ripped body? Unfortunately for Mercy, attempted murder and kidnapping are just foreplay for the Kyllwood brothers. Logan may be the youngest of the bunch, but death and violence are already a way of life. Now he’s ready to complete a painful, terrifying ritual to become one of the Seven, dedicated to protecting this world from the most dangerous evil it’s ever known. But first he has to deal with a blackmailing Fey, a ransom demand and his own pounding need for the last female he ever should have fallen for . . .
So happy for Logan’s story. Garrett and Logan have become two of my favorite characters of the series.
I was so happy that Logan got his own story. Since Logan and Garrett beat each other up after finding their siblings (Zane and Jainie) in bed together, they have become like brothers. They grew up during the war between the vampires and the kurjans so they are well trained soldiers and very dangerous but they still have that bit of youth to them so they are also up for a little fun too. They showed up in the Realm Enforcers series ready to help out with the enforcers mission and only partly to get them out of trouble since they were bored and flirting with shifter girls.
I love that they are always up for some fun. This is missing from the older immortals who are always so serious. Yet when things get dangerous, they quickly switch over to the serious and deadly soldiers they are.
In Demon’s Mercy we are introduced to the Fae, and I am not certain if it is simply because Rebecca’s last release, Hidden, features a cult, but something about Mercy’s story rings a little false and I don’t believe it is a lie from her, but a lie she was raised to believe (back to the cult). We are told as a background that because the Seven created their dimensional prison bubbles (without a lot of knowledge of what they were doing) that Mercy and the few Fae trapped on Earth were separated from the rest of the Fae. It is really unknown if they other fae are all dead or just trapped somewhere else. So the elders Fae trapped on earth with Mercy are too old to procreate and they test-tube created 10 babies (5 boys, 5 girls) to keep their race alive. These 10 babies are now 25 and are expected to mate and create more purebred Fae babies, including Mercy. So I am torn if I want to believe that there was truly an accident leaving Mercy and the 9 other breeders and a few older Fae as survivors or did this group want to create their own Fae Utopia, simply separating from or trapping the others. Hmm…There is just something fishy about the whole thing.
So the Fae believe that when the circle of the seven is complete, the dimensions will implode and they have to stop Logan, who is not yet one of the seven officially. So Mercy is told to stay out of it, but she has decided to capture Logan and reason with him not to join the Seven. She tells him that his completing the seven will cause dimensional collapse everywhere, blah, blah, blah and he needs to see things her way. Mercy is going to reason with the demon where the other fae just want to kill him to make it stop. Again, will it really cause problems or is someone pulling strings and telling Mercy that the seven will cause the end of the universe. Hmmm…I honestly can’t make up my mind if Mercy is just gullible, brainwashed or is she actually going to allow the universe to implode because she has the hots for Logan? While she sees Logan’s point of view about the danger of not protecting the prison dimension, she is very focused on being in the right.
The Fae seem to have some pretty nifty toys and a greater control over teleporting, which I can understand would make them seem powerful and Mercy keeps insisting that Logan and the Seven continuing to risk the safety of everyone will create a war between the Fae and the Realm. Um…please see above where there are only a bunch of old folks and 10 millenials who make up the “Fae Nation” against the combined Realm which now contains of the Demons, Witches, Vampires and Shifters who are mostly made up of trained soldiers who have been fighting the Kurjans, and each other, for decades. So, it really wasn’t much of a threat, and every time Mercy brings it up, I’m almost shocked that no one is reminding her that the Fae, even with the toys and the teleporting, aren’t that much of a threat. It would be like my threatening to pull my blog’s support (and my handful of followers) from Nora Roberts next book tour.
I really like Logan and Mercy is a good choice for him. I do feel a bit sad for Garrett since he will be sitting home alone on Friday nights now that his BFF is settling down.
The Viking is next. He was a nice guy and some really bad things happen to him in this story. We also see that life hasn’t been kind to Quade for the last millenium or so. Ronan is going to have to stop complaining that like Sisyphus he had to move one pile of Chakra stones back and forth for his millenia, because that was paradise compared to the dimension that Quade got stuck with.
The Dark Protecters is a great series and I am more than happy to jump back in.
Favorite Scene:
Mercy swallowed. “Where are we?”
The door opened, and three males strode into the room. Three very tall and impressive males with shockingly hard bodies and inscrutable expressions. Power blasted through the oxygen.
“You’re at Realm headquarters,” the male in the middle said. “I’m Dage Kayrs.” Oh. The king. He had black hair with a streak of gray at the temple but he didn’t look a day over thirty. The King of the Realm was one of the most respected and feared rules in the history of, well, everybody. Power all but cascaded from him.
Mercy met his silver gaze directly. “Mercy O’Malley. Fae.”
The male to the king’s right was Zane Kyllwood. She’d read a dossier on him, and he looked so much like Logan that she would’ve known him, anyway. Even his eyes were the same pissed off green she’d seen on Logan several times. “King Kyllwood,” she murmured.
His eyebrow went up, but he silently took a seat as Dage did the same. “Zane will be fine–I was never formally named king, just the ruler. One king in the Realm and in the room is enough.”
The third male flanked Dage Kayrs, his eyes a deep gold and his jaw solid rock. A familiar jaw. “Talen Kayrs,” he said by way of introduction.
Yeah. He and Garrett looked so much alike they could be brothers. Or father and son, obviously.
So much power and testosterone and pure maleness swirled around the room that Mercy felt dizzy Or maybe it was the undercurrent of raw anger that pricked her skin and threatened her ability to breathe normally.
“Well. I’ll start.” The king placed large hand on the table, his voice pleasant and very peaceful.
Mercy relaxed a little. It was nice to be around a calming influence for once.
The king leaned forward. “What the holy fuck of a fuckup of a disaster have you assholes gotten into?” Dage yelled, his booming voice echoing off every wall to clash back in the middle and ripple out again.
Mercy snorted. Shocked, she clapped her hand to her mouth as both Logan and Garrett swung toward her. “Sorry.” A giggle escaped. Then another one. Soon she was laughing hysterically, trying to apologize, tears streaming down her face. The males stared at her with various expressions of disbelief, and she hiccupped, trying to stop. “Um, sorry.” She sucked in air.
“Fairy?” Zane asked calmly, as if that explained everything.
The king nodded, blue rims appearing around his silver eyes. Not many people probably laughed at the King of the Realm when he was shouting in their direction.
Mercy held up a hand and tried to regain control. “I’m not crazy. We’re not crazy. Honest.”
“Uh huh,” Garrett muttered under his breath.
Mercy regained her composure. “So, well. You all obviously have both Realm and family business to discuss, so perhaps I should take my leave.” She began to stand.
“Sit. Back. Down.” Logan enunciated each word with such chilling effect that she did exactly that.
Garrett didn’t move, but Zane looked at his brother, assessment in his green gaze.
The king looked her over, and she swore he saw right to her soul. “Perhaps you should excuse us for a moment.”
“No,” Logan said, his chin down.
Surprise flashed across Dage’s face, and he cocked his head, studying the soldier. “I do believe that’s the first time you’ve every contradicted me, Logan Kyllwood.” The king’s tone hinted that it might be the last.
Mercy shivered, and the spit in her moth dried up.
Logan didn’t twitch. Nor did he look the least bit concerned. Man, he was a badass. “I do believe it is,” he agreed.
Talen Kayrs rested his jaw on his fist as he looked at Logan as if he’d started speaking in tongues. Even so, a glimmer of what hopefully was amusement lurked in his golden eyes. “I do believe fists are about to start swinging, and in that case, the lady should leave,” he said helpfully.
Zane cleared his throat. “Let’s start with the lady. Have you been kidnapped, Miss O’Malley?”
She blinked. What the hell should she say? Of course, she’d been kidnapped. Yet loyalty to Logan prevailed. She didn’t want to get him into trouble with the Realm or his family. “No,” she said.
Dage frowned. “You’re a terrible liar.”
Oh, she didn’t want him to have the wrong idea about her. She sighed. “I’m not that bad. This is such a tense situation. I mean, there are too many undercurrents, you know?” Her voice rose, and she just couldn’t stop talking. “Brother to brother, father-son, uncle, the king, the ruler, soldiers, and so on. Plus, the vampires and demons were in a war not too long ago, right? So this is a whole lot of tension.” She wound down, her stomach cramping. “My point is that usually I can lie much better than this.” There. She’d said it.
Logan took her hand, planted it on his muscled thigh, and squeezed.
She subsided.
The king pinched the bridge of his nose as if his head was about to explode.
“How much of what we’ve heard is true?” Talen asked softly, his gaze on his son.
Garrett met the gaze evenly. “Sixty percent.”
Mercy blinked. That was quite the quick response. She did owe the Realm a warning. “If the Seven finishes the last ritual, the Fae nation will have no choice but to declare war.”
The king didn’t so much as blink. “Thank you for the heads-up.”
“You’re very welcome,” she responded. Logan squeezed harder, and she hid a wince.
“Who are Ronan and Quade Kayrs?” Dage asked quietly.
Garrett scrubbed a hand through his shaggy hair. “Your great-uncles–brother to your great-grandfather, Jacer Kayrs. And they’re both still alive. At least Ronan is. We don’t know for sure about Quade.”
Dage’s left eyebrow rose. “It’s odd I know nothing about them. Very odd.” His puzzlement swelled through the room with a hint of the anger he’d already shown.
Mercy swallowed. She really needed to contact her people. “Listen. The Seven, who Logan will tell you all about, did not kill Enhanced women to create the shields that become their torsos. They did kill seven Cyst members, who had killed Enhanced women, in order to pervert the laws of physics and create a situation that will end the world as we know it.” She glanced at Logan. “Can I go now?”
Silence met her from every direction.
“Yes,” the king said. “Soldiers will escort you to safe quarters, while the rest of us have a little chat.”
Excellent. She did not want to be present for that talk. Nope. Not at all.
“She stays here,” Logan said evenly, definitely the calmest force in the room.
The king’s chin lowered. “Why is that?” he growled.
Logan held his hand up, palm out, showing the mark. The mating mark.
Dage’s gaze cleared, Talen’s eye widened, and Zane leaned forward. “Bro,” he said quietly.
“Well. I guess she stays,” Dage agreed quietly.
Wonderful. Now she was totally outnumbered. She opened her mouth to argue, and Logan squeezed again. Her small huff brought a smile to the king’s face. Great. Now he was amused.
She was so going to kick Logan’s butt after this.
