Dark Slayer (Carpathians, #20) - Christine Feehan

416 pages

A rumor has persisted in the vampire world of a dark slayer—a woman—who travels with a wolf pack and any among the vampires who meets her is slain. Mysterious, elusive and seemingly impossible to kill, she is the one hunter who strikes terror into the hearts of the vampires.
Ivory Malinov is that woman, betrayed by her own people, by her family, by everyone she held dear and she hunts during the night with only her pack to sustain her sanity. She has not spoken to or been with any other person for a hundred years other than to feed from or slay. She stumbles across a body on her way back to her lair and discovers—her lifemate.
He is Razvan, branded a hated criminal, detested, feared and loathed by all Carpathians—he is also a dragonseeker of one of the greatest lineages of all Carpathians Held captive nearly his entire life by his grandfather, the Carpathians bitterest enemy, he is seeking the dawn to end his terrible existence.
This is a story of two people, horribly betrayed, wounded in spirit, fighters to the death, who must struggle to unite against a common enemy.
 
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I think I've said this for the past 3 Carpathian books I reviewed, but this really is the best Carpathian book so far. Or close to it atleast. Dark Slayer is about Ivory Manilov and Razvan.

Ivory is the sister of the 5 Manilov brothers who purposely turned Vampire because they thought they could rule the world that way. Ivory was tortured and hacked and left for dead by the Mikhail's brother Draven and the vampires under Xavier's direction. However mother earth and the wolves saved her and now she slays the undead along with her wolf pack - with no allegiances to the undead, Xavier or the Carpathian race that left her for dead.

The grandson of the evil mage Xavier, Razvan has been in his grandfather's clutches since he was fourteen and has had his body and mind used for crimes against Xavier's enemies. He's lived only with his honour and endured to save those he loves, but now he's giving up.

Many things are thankfully different in this book. The two meet and don't want to be tied to each other because they're both being hunted, but cant abandon the other nonetheless. Ivory is the warrior in this book, while Razvan is more the calming influence with tremendous inner strength (that just sounds corny now, but you know what I mean)
He had learned long ago that he couldn’t control others or events, only his own reaction to what happened...“I do not control others, Ivory, only myself. I do what I must, no matter the cost.”

I can honestly say these are the strongest characters I've come across in anything I've read so far - both mentally and physically these two have endured and have been honed in the fires of hell. They have a single minded determination to accomplish whatever they set their sights on - be it Xavier or ravishing each other. Despite their strengths, they both have vulnerabilities - and it is lovely how they are there for the other at their times of need. At time I thought there was too much of the inner dialogue - with how they didn't deserve each other and how they had found joy and happiness. But considering both their tortured pasts, the gratitude and joy they found in each other did make sense, and it wasn’t so bad to read.

Razvan's lack of ego is refreshing after all the previous Carpathian men and their i'm-the-best-thing-that-ever-happend-to-you attitude. He's happy following Ivory's lead in areas that are her forte, and they support each other as partners. The part where they Razvan uses his skill at strategy along with Ivory's abilities and tricks the ancient Carpathians had me laughing for quite a while.

A lot of the old characters are back in this book along with some new ones. We catch up with what's been happening in the other lives and how they're fighting the undead, Xavier and they're own extinction with the inability to keep their babies alive. There's also sad re-unions with Razvan meeting his sister Natalya (who I wanted to slap in this book a lot of times) and his daughter Lara and coming to terms with the new knowledge of what Xavier had been using his body for.

Lovely story this. I wondered how the two would meet, how they would reconcile with the Carpathians and whether they would defeat Xavier and where the series will go from this book onwards. Feehan does a almost perfect job on all counts. A lot of things are wrapped up in this book, with enough to keep you waiting for the next book.

Really, this isn't an adequate review. It'll make you laugh, it might make you cry. It'll keep you invested in the lives of these two. So go read the book. (But read some of the previous books first so it makes a lot more sense)
See my reviews on some of the previous Carpathian books here