First Drop of Crimson by Jeaniene Frost

 

From the New York Times bestselling author of the Night Huntress series comes a breathtaking new journey to the dark side of desire.

 

The night is not safe for mortals, Denise MacGregor knows all too well what lurks in the shadows—her best friend is half-vampire Cat Crawfield—and she has already lost more than the average human could bear. But her family’s past is wrapped in secrets and shrouded in darkness—and a demon shapeshifter has marked Denise as prey. Now her survival depends on an immortal who lusts for a taste of her.

He is Spade, a powerful, mysterious vampire who has walked the earth for centuries and is now duty-bound to protect this endangered, alluring human—even if it means destroying his own kind. Denise may arouse his deepest hungers, but Spade knows he must fight his urge to have her as they face the nightmare together . . .

 

First Drop of Crimson (Night Huntress World, book one) by Jeaniene Frost

Start date: August 10, 2021

End date: August 12, 2021

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Trigger warning: sexual slavery, rape, miscarriage

After a night out with her cousin, Paul, turns into a deadly attack from an unknown, supernatural assailant who can turn from a dog into a man, Denise MacGregor wants to call Cat Crawfield in for reinforcements but finds she doesn’t have any current numbers for her best friend who recently traveled around the world running away from a pedophilic vampire (see my review of Destined for an Early Grave for more information). As a last result, Denise dials the number for Baron Charles DeMortimer, otherwise known as Spade, Cat’s husband Bones’s best friend and a man she hasn’t seen since he brutally murdered a man who threatened to rape her outside of a honky-tonk. Her disgust and fear of him are overwhelmed by her terror of whatever killed her cousin (and possibly is also responsible for the death of another cousin and her aunt), and she blurts out her suspicions over the phone.

“Perhaps it’s best if we don’t involve Cat or Crispin just yet,” Spade said, calling Bones by his human name as he always did. “They’ve had an awful time of it recently. No need to fret them if it’s something I can handle.”

Denise bit back her scoff. She knew what that translated to. Or if she’d just imagined all this. (Frost 13-14)

            After getting off the phone with Spade, a little girl knocks on Denise’s door in a scene reminiscent of black-eyed children (that’s a rabbit hole you don’t want to fall into late at night). Once inside of the house, the child transforms into the man who murdered Paul earlier and attacks her.

She studied the stranger more closely. Red eyes. Smelled like sulfur. Not human, vampire, or ghoul.

“Demon,” she said.

He bowed. “Call me Raum.” (Frost 17)

            He interrogates her about her knowledge of the supernatural and reveals that he’s hunting her family members searching for someone with a connection to the supernatural world. Her ancestor named Nathanial backed out of a bargain with Raum and imprisoned him. Raum broke free and wants revenge against Nathanial who must be hiding amongst vampires or ghouls because he “can’t go into their world,” (why not?) hence why he needs someone with connections (Frost 17). He marks Denise as an incentive to find Nathanial because the marks will slowly turn her into a demon until Raum removes them from her.

We first learn about demons in the short story “Devil to Pay,” which takes place between the events in At Grave’s End and Destined for an Early Grave in the Night Huntress series. An incorporeal demon possessed a man named Blake Turner in that story. It’s explained that possessions are tricky because if you kill the human they’re possessing, the demon will only possess the next living human nearby. With the help of Mencheres and a vampire named Elise, Blake is rid of his demon out in the Bonneville Salt Flats when he’s turned into a vampire; therefore, his death released the demon from his body in an area where there were no living humans to repossess. A second type of demon is presented in this novel, a corporeal demon. It’s not explained whether these are two different types of creatures with the same name or varying powers of demons, such as the more powerful the demon is, the more corporeal they become. I found the demon mythology to be haphazard and confusing because demons had been previously explained to be one way and then described as something completely different in this book without explanation. (It’s not the first time Frost has rewritten parts of her established story to fit the current story she’s telling.)

Before I go any further, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention something, and besides, it’s been a hot minute since I commented on a book cover. I came across the cover for the audiobook of this novel when I went looking for it digitally. I was immediately struck by how similar the model on the cover looks like Benedict Cumberbatch circa Sherlock season one. I’ll insert both the audiobook cover and a photo of Benedict Cumberbatch for your assessment.

After making the connection, all I could do was imagine Spade looking like Benedict Cumberbatch with fangs while I read. Back to our regularly scheduled book review.

Spade arrives at Denise’s house as Raum disappears. Denise is terrified, but Spade handles her with kid gloves. She begs Spade not to tell Cat and Bones about her issue. Denise doesn’t want Cat to go after Raum, which she knows her trigger-happy friend is wont to do when she tells Cat what happened, because she fears Cat isn’t strong enough to defeat him.

This is a big problem I had with this story. Denise unfairly blames her late husband’s death on the vampire race because Randy died fighting in Patra’s zombie attack, and she states that she wants to stay out of vampire business. She first calls Cat to help her with her problem (before she knows it’s demon-related) and then runs through the list of people she has in her phone who are connected to the supernatural world, which isn’t what I would do if I’ve been adamant about staying away from vampires. Spade is the person who answers her call, but she shies away from him when he shows up. Girl, pick a lane. Either she stays away from all vampires—and that would include her half-vampire friend—or she doesn’t. Then there’s this confusing back and forth where Denise devises that she’ll go looking for Nathanial without anyone’s help, then she asks Spade to help her, and then, when he says no, she manipulates him out of “desperation.”

“You’re sorry? I doubt that. Yes, I know I’m asking for a huge favor, but I don’t expect you to do it for me. I was hoping you’d do it for your friend, because you know I’ll only have one place to go if you don’t help me. But hey, maybe you can tell Cat, ‘I’m sorry’ if Bones gets killed doing what you didn’t have time to. After all, it’s so much easier to say you care than to prove it.” (Frost 23)

            He responds to such obvious exploitation callously but ends up agreeing to help her anyway. It’s selfish for Denise to ask for Spade’s help while maintaining he can’t tell Cat and Bones knowing that both would kill Spade if anything happened to Denise. Conversely, it’s troubling that Spade agrees to the arrangement because it shows that he’s okay with keeping deadly secrets from his closest friends, which only makes me suspicious of what he might be keeping from Denise.

In any case, Spade assists her in her search for Nathanial, but his treatment of Denise leaves much to be desired. He internally wars with his attraction to her. Supposedly, he’s been “drawn” to Denise ever since he first saw her, but he walled those feelings off when he realized 1. she was human, 2. she was Cat’s best friend, and 3. she was married. One of those things should carry more weight than the others in my opinion. Now that Denise is widowed and vulnerable, Spade has a difficult time being around her without acting on his attraction, which he's still denying because she’s human. (But now her being Cat’s best friend doesn’t concern him as much?) This results in his standoffish behavior towards Denise and condescension to her, which she takes to be the result of him being put upon by her and a touch of racism towards humans.

Spade and Denise have one big thing in common: they both lost loved ones in horrific ways. Denise lost her husband, Randy, in a vampire-created zombie attack. Spade lost his human fiancé, Giselda, in a roadside rape and murder. Denise’s reaction to her loss is vampire-induced PTSD. Spade’s reaction to his loss is to avoid dating humans because of their frailty. Their relationship starts off against these odds, but they end up giving in to their attraction to each other.

Denise gets over her fear of vampires without explanation in the story, but Spade is still hung up over the fact that Denise is human. He’s convinced he’ll turn her into a vampire to rid her of her weakness to the point that he tells other vampires this fact without discussing it with Denise. (Why is it so common for women to feel like they must change for their significant other?) When Denise overhears Spade telling someone about his plans, she misunderstands him, thinking he thinks she’s unworthy of a relationship with him because she’s human. The two of them do end up talking about it, and Denise ends up agreeing to drink Spade’s blood forever, essentially lengthening her life perpetually.

Denise has PTSD stemming from seeing Randy’s mangled corpse after their zombie battle. She’s been downplaying its severity, but it would just so happen that vampires seem to be a trigger for the episodes. Spade immediately recognizes these occurrences for what they are, which kudos to him for understanding a mental health crisis. It’s revealed that Denise was pregnant at the time that Randy died, and she miscarried in the aftermath. Her immense grief and PTSD mean it makes even less sense why Denise would initially want to hunt for Nathanial alone.

Denise’s demon-enhanced blood turns out to be a vampire drug colloquially known as Red Dragon. Before biting Denise, Spade hadn’t realized from where Red Dragon originated. Knowing the rarity of it, Spade realizes that Nathanial must be a source for the drug, which should increase their chances of finding him. Spade goes undercover pretending to want to sell Denise’s blood and “package deals.”

“Selling shagging and biting at the same time,” Spade replied bluntly. “That’s why he was so pleased that you were a beautiful woman. The opportunity of an unfiltered taste of Red Dragon combined with sex would go for top dollar—and be very addictive, he wagered.” (Frost 98)

He discovers that Nathanial is being held by a vampire named Web. During his pursuit of the drug, Spade contacts Ian (Bones’s sire) and commits him to secrecy because they’re still trying to keep this from Cat and Bones. Ian tells Bones anyway, and Bones shows up at Spade’s doorstep furious. The two straighten things out, and with Bones’s and the crew’s help, Spade captures Nathanial. Denise decides she doesn’t want to give Nathanial to Raum because she knows he’ll end up punishing her ancestor for eternity, so she schemes to kill Raum, which can only be achieved with a special knife.

“Only weapons made from their own bones can kill a corporeal demon.” (Frost 157)

            Demon bones are rare to find as other demons will destroy any bones to prevent knives from being made from them. (See what I mean about the demon lore?) The vampire who was imprisoning Nathanial had such a knife as insurance in case Raum came looking for Nathanial. Nobody knew it existed when they evacuated Nathanial, so now they must get the knife back from Web. They set up a meeting with Web where he barters for Denise in exchange for the knife, and they scheme on double crossing Web using Cat’s new vampire powers—she mentions to Denise casually that she’s a full vampire now, which is a great indication of their close friendship. Since Cat only drinks vampire blood and briefly absorbs the powers of the vampire she drank from, they have Cat drink from Mencheres to gain his telekinesis powers. They’re successful in obtaining the knife.

            Denise gets Nathanial alone, and they decide to confront Raum because two are better than one. Nathanial gets his marks removed by Raum when he arrives. Denise uses her demon mark powers to shapeshift into one of the zombies who attacked Randy to fight Raum to the death. This seems like it could be great catharsis for her PTSD. A hunt goes out looking for the two missing humans, and Spade shows up in time to watch Denise stab Raum with the demon bone knife. In the end, Denise is left permanently demon marked, which makes her nearly immortal, so the two never have to discuss Denise becoming a vampire or a ghoul again.

 

Works Cited:

Frost, Jeaniene. First Drop of Crimson. HarperCollins, 2010, Hoopla Digital, www.hoopladigital.com/title/13231766.

Viglasky, Robert. “Benedict Cumberbatch in Sherlock.” IMDB, 2010. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1212722/mediaviewer/rm1042666496/