My second favourite of the series. ( )

The pain of conversion to Carpathians is difficult enough for the women, but a child being converted by a vampire leaves tainted blood and horrible scars, inside and outside. At the a young age, Destiny knew horrors most humans can’t even imagine, the only way she survived was her mental connection to Nicolae Von Shrieder. He taught her how to survive, how to hunt and how to live again even though he could not find her. Being connected allowed him to help, but Nicolae couldn’t protect her they way he wanted and he couldn’t convince her that he was different from the monster that had terrorized her for so long. When he finally tracked her down, Destiny was afraid she would have to destroy him like she did all the other vampires she hunted. When Nicolae first heard her voice, he knew she was his lifemate and he was going to have a difficult life, no one had ever heard of a women hunter, or one of the light having vampire blood making her feel like the dark one.

Book 13 ….. Strong, courageous and funny, Destiny is a very competent women and hunter. The more ancient these men get, the more compassionate they seem to be. Nicolae has such great control of himself and Destiny is such a well developed character, I really enjoyed watching the change (almost like another conversion) from the vampire world to the life of a Carpathian. This book is packed full of great characters. The addition of Gregori, Savannah, brother Vikirnoff, Father Mulligan, MaryAnn Delaney, Velda, Inez, and even the vampire Pater to help tell this story was great, they are wonderful characters and I hope to have a few more stories that include some of them (Vikirnoff and MaryAnn especially). ( )

And it's not just "a" book review - it's my LAST book review of the year! Luckily, Dark Destiny was a really good book to end 2008 with. This is book 13 in Christine Feehan's Dark Carpathian series.

Dark Destiny is the story of Destiny (duh), a female Carpathian hunter - something unheard of in the previous 12 books of this series. Destiny was not born a Carpathian though. She was just an innocent child of 5 or 6 with strong psychic abilities, when a vampire found her. He killed her family and converted her, then spent years abusing her in every way you can possibly fathom. That's when she cried out to her savior.

Nicolae, ancient Carpathian hunter and protector of his people, heard the suffering of a child in his mind. He spent years trying to shield her from her pain. He taught her how to survive her captor, and eventually, how to destroy him and escape.

From that day on, Destiny traveled the world, hunting and destroying the undead. She hated herself for what she had become, and so she hid from Nicolae, afraid that he was a vampire, afraid that she would have to one day destroy the only thing that kept her alive.

Nicolae was patient, he knew his salvation depended upon finding her, and he finally tracked her down in the mountains not far from Seattle. He and his brother Vikirnoff arrived just in time to help her escape a brutal attack from a group of vampires.

After much persuading and explanation from Nicolae, Destiny decides that he is not a vampire, even though she can see the beast within him "roaring for release". She doesn't think she can be his lifemate however. Because her blood was tainted with the poison of the vampire that made her, she believes she is evil as well.

Nicolae and Vikirnoff believe that if they can get Destiny to their homeland in the Carpathian mountains, the healers among their people will be able to rid her of the toxins in the vampire's blood.

Nicolae endures as she tries to work through her trauma so that they can be together, and is delighted when she eventually reaches out to him for help with a neighborhood mystery.

Something is terribly wrong in Destiny's neighborhood, with the people she has chosen to protect. They are acting out in violence, completely of character, harming their loved ones. Afterwards, they have not memory of what happened. Destiny and Nicolae cannot detect the vampire's touch in them, but something is amiss.

Together, as they struggle to be what each other needs, they try to unravel the mystery of what is happening to the city.

Dark Destiny is one of the best Dark books I've read so far. Destiny was a strong female character - she had to be, and Nicolae was by far the most patient male yet! The "supporting cast" was good as well: the little old ladies Velda and Inez - practically the eyes and ears of the neighborhood; the social worker Mary Ann - risking her life to protect and save battered women in need; Father Mulligan, the local priest who knows about the Carpathian race and the good they do to defend humans and immortals alike from vampires.

Dark Destiny was well written, with an original storyline and fantastic, fully-formed characters. ( )

They were masters of the darkness, searching through eternity for a mistress of the light…

Her childhood had been a nightmare of violence and pain until she heard his voice calling out to her. Golden and seductive. The voice of an angel.

He had shown her how to survive, taught her to use her unique gifts, trained her in the ancient art of hunting the vampire. Yet he could not bend her to his will. He could not summon her to him, no matter how great his power.

As she battled centuries-old evil in a glittering labyrinth of caverns and crystals, he whispered in her mind, forging an unbreakable bond of trust and need. Only with him can she find the courage to embrace the seductive promise of her… Dark Destiny. ( )

I liked the fact that Destiny had a far from perfect childhood and was a survivor. The sympathetic secondary characters in this helped make the main story more enjoyable. ( )