This is a review of the compendium Dark Bites by Sherrilyn Kenyon. It contains  12 short stories set in the world of the Dark-Hunters. It shows us some side stories behind those in main novels, and shows us the stories of secondary characters that we don’t see in the mainstream books. It is quite a long review, but the book is 675 pages long!

House of the Rising Son.

A story with characters from Acheron and Styxx. House of the Rising Son is the story of Aricles and Bathymaas. It tells of how they met and how they come to part years later which takes us into the age of Bet’anya wherein she meets Styxx and becomes Bethany with half a heart so that one day when she meets Aricles reincarnated as Styxx she can be whole again. Along the way Bathymaas, who has no emotions, comes to understand those such as love, despair and embarrassment.

Phantom Lover.

The story of Erin and skoti V’Aidan. Erins incredibly creative but repressed mind draws Skoti towards her in her dreams, they torment her for years. One day V’Aidan comes to her and saves her from Kristi’Ana. She falls in love with him and spends all her time asleep so that she might spend time with V’Aidan as he cannot visit her in the human world. It comes to the point where V’Aidan and Erin must make a difficult choice about whether they stay together or not, revelations occur for both.

Winterborn.

Winterborn features Acheron Parthenopaeus and his little demon daughter Simi helping some Katagari and Arcadian Panthers. Dante Pontis, owner of the club Dante’s Inferno, is attending DragonCon at the behest of Acheron, with the idea of procuring some talent to perform at his club. Dante attends with his brother Romeo and cousins Leo and Mike, the latter two are still quite young and therefore argue with the others and each other all the time. While there the scent of a virgin panther in heat finds them. Dante just can’t help himself. Pandora Koutis is from a Panther pack in the future who gives a winter-born maiden of age to a current world pack of katagari panthers to childbear due to differences between the two factions. Dante and Acheron fix the problem between the two packs much to the delight of Pandora.

A Dark-Hunter Christmas.

James Gallagher, known as Gallagher during his DH days,  was a gangster in 1920’s America as an Irish immigrant. He fell in love with Portuguese Rosalie, who unfortunately died whilst giving birth to his daughter. Seventy years later he saves a young girl in an alley from a group of Daimons and takes her to a hospital. While there he sees Acheron and Simi entertaining the children’s ward. A nurse tells Gallagher that the children are affected by the visits, their health improves, and that cancer patients go into remission, it just goes to show the powers that Acheron has. After a revelation at the hospital (I don’t want to spoil it for you!) Gallagher goes to Sanctuary, to stay for the christmas holiday. He ventures out on Christmas Eve and Simi approaches him in the snow. Simi gives him a fish mitt, later Colt pulls out a pineapple mitt saying “You got one of the good fish”, when asked if she gives them to everyone he replies “Nope. Only family”. I loved this one, it was short but poignant.

Until Death we do part.

Set in Romania/Transylvania this story starts in 1476 and then moves to current day. Velkan Danesti and Esperetta Danesti were married in 1476 but Esperetta left Velkan when she found out that he killed her father. In 2006 we see Esperetta in America with her friend Francesca who tells her her husband Velkan is opening a Dracula museum, and release his body to scientists to have it verified. Esperetta is horrified as this is her fathers remains. (Yes she is the daughter of Dracula!!) she decides to return immediately to Transylvania. It turns out that Francesca is the daughter of Velkans housekeeper, sent to watch over Esperetta secretly. After arriving Esperetta is abducted by the Order of the Dragon. To save her would kill Francesca who is a were because of the electricity, however it will not kill Velkan as he is a DH after being impaled by Dracula. This act of bravery impresses Esperetta quite a bit, but how much you will have to read to find out. This is one of my favourites in this book.

A Hard Day’s Night Searcher.

Jeff is the Squire of Raphael Santiago, he writes a story using norse gods, that curse humans. The story has a remarkable resemblance to the history of the Dark Hunters, and this is quite concerning to Raphael. It also concerns Ephani, the Amazon, female DH and her squire Celena, who is from Trinidad. To save Jeff from being taken to the council Raphael tell Celena that if she will stay with him and not break any rules for a week he will hand Jeff over, if she breaks any Jeff is left alone. Celena has had a traumatic life her father died less than a year ago, plus the DH her family served as a child died, and her first DH service role died minutes before she got there by sunlight. So Celena is a little bit anal about routes, protective measures and disaster plans. They end up have super hot sex and being together, but I won’t tell you how it got that far so you have something to read.

Shadow of the Moon.

This one really annoyed me so sorry if this review isn’t great. Fury Kattalakis visit Sanctuary to deliver a note from his brother Fang to the were-bear Aimee Peltier. While there he is asked to help, a Lion has been attacked and is stuck in his animal form due to the weapon used. Angelia and Fury’s brother Dare Kattalakis turn up at Sanctuary. Angelia and Fury go back over 400 years, but after a falling out they now hate each other. They were responsible for the attack on the Lion because they travelled from the future with the weapon. Angelia is taken to Fang and Bride’s home by Fury. An Omegrion meeting is called by Savitar to find those guilty of attacking the Lion. Fury volunteers as the perpetrator to save Angelia as they have just found out they are mates (yes another great sex scene from Sherrilyn). Read to find out what happens at the Omegrion meeting 🙂

Fear the Darkness.

This one is set in 2007 just after Hurricane Katrina with Nick Gautier coming back to New Orleans after being brought back as a DH by Artemis. Nick is bitter and lonely, he slept with Simi and for that Ash hates him. Nick blames Ash for the damage done to New Orleans, and for his mothers death. As a result Nick has partnered with Stryker and his sister Satara. Satara revealed to Nick that Acheron is not a DH like everyone believes him to be, but is the son of Apollymi the Destroyer and therefore a God. Satara bring Kratos, a Dream-Hunter to meet with Nick, he claims to be able to bring his mother Cherise back from the Underworld, but only if Nick brings Kyrian and Amanda’s daughter Marissa to them. This is where this short finishes

Where Angels fear to tread

Zeke Jacobson, born Ezekiel Malachi Jacobson works in the claims department of Taylor Transportation. A dead end job that he hates. A lawyer arrives at his door to tell him that his grand-uncle has died and named him the sole beneficiary of his will. Zeke and his sister Mary go to the house to have a look around. After Zeke starts to hear voices, and his radio does in his terms “a Twilight Zone” and changes songs like “Bumblebee” the Transformer. Upon arriving home he is visited by a man named Gabriel, he claims that is the heir to his grand-uncle Michaels medallion. He accepted it from his sister and as a result he will be the new Seraph, to keep the balance between good and evil.

Love Bytes.

I really enjoyed this one, the main characters are Samantha Parker and Adrian Cole. Adrian has a rare form of colour-blindness that means he cannot see any colours, he pays his sister to help him out and wash and sort his clothes for him. He arrives at the office and greets Sam who tells him Heather as stiffed him on this clothes again. Adrian is the go to techy in the company and everyone calls him all the time (a bit like Ash tbh). In a crazy moment he asks Sam if she will go out with him later and help him pick some new clothes, ones that actually go with each other. She agrees and they go out for the makeover session. She even gets him to shave his goatee, saying that no woman ever likes a goatee. The next day everyone stares at him, because he looks so different and good! After protecting Heather from her asshole boyfriend Sam kisses him, later he invites her to attend the christmas party together. They go, but Sam sees Tiffany, the office bitch kissing Adrian and so leaves out into the inclement weather. Her car breaks down and Adrian who has gone to find her finds the car but not Sam. He rides in as her knight in shining armour to save her, literally.

Santa wears Spurs.

This story is about Catherine O’Callahan who was abandoned by her husband Michael O’Callahan, current going by the alias O’Connell. He arrives at her boarding house shot, on Christmas Eve. His brother Pete bragged about stealing money from some orphans, he knew he needed to return it, and upon arrival he realises that it is his Catherine’s boarding house. Michael abandoned her five years earlier, because his brother threatened her life. She has had 5 years to get over him and her anger towards him, this surprises Michael. As does the existence of his daughter Diana, Catherine discovered her pregnancy after he left her.
Diana is upset on Christmas morning to discover that Santa has not brought her christmas wish – her father. Catherine says she will talk to Santa, and Diana should go out to play in the snow. Upon the Marshall returning to the boarding house (he rents a room and keeps the riff raff away) O’Connell introduces himself as Tyler Burdette, which aggravates Catherine. Then Pete walks in with Diana in tow. This is when O’Connell discovers that Diana is his child, as such he decides to go with Pete to keep them safe. Pete shoots him in the yard, and the Marshall realises who they are. Pete then denies that O’Connell is his brother or that they even know each other. I love that this one has a happy ending!

Redemption: Bonus Scene from The Guardian.

The marriage of Seth and Lydia. Maahes, Ma’at, Set all turn up to see the wedding.