Dark Flame
(Flame-Born 1)
by Kat Silver
Publisher: Self-Published
Cover Artist: Bookfly
Release Date: February 6, 2021
Genre/s: M/M paranormal/urban fantasy
Trope/s: Enemies to Lovers
Themes: Finding home and self. Self-discovery. Self-acceptance. Learning to trust.
Heat Rating: 4 flames
Length: 82 000 words/310 pages
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Hunted by a vampire prince. Caged by his rescuer. Can Michael escape the dark destiny written in his blood, or will his own heart be his undoing?
“I know who you are because you belong to me. You were born to be mine.” ~ Alexei Vasiliev, the vampire prince.
Haunted by the death of his parents, Michael Blakeley wants answers. The twenty-six-year-old martial artist seeks their killer, but he also wants to know why electronics short out at his touch, and why his libido is a raging fire.
When a group of soldiers calling themselves Guardians rescue him from a back alley ambush and claim to have the answers he needs, he agrees to go with them. Especially when they tell him the attackers were vampires. But nothing in this supernatural underworld is as it seems, and when the silver-eyed commander cages him instead, Michael's answers slip further away.
Can Michael find safety from the vampires who claim him? Can he escape the dark destiny he discovers is written into his blood? And will he break the chains of the commander who keeps him captive? The one man he has no desire to leave?
Dark Flame is the first pulse-pounding book in the Flame Born LGBT urban fantasy series. If you like enemies to lovers, shifters, sexy vampire princes, and scorching heat, you'll love this smoldering tale of bloodlust and magic.
Warning: Dark Flame is a gay erotic love story. It contains explicit language and sexual scenes between men, and is meant for adult readers only. There is content some readers may find distressing. See inside for potential triggers.
I kneel and hang my head and wait. I have to. I want to. There’s an elation in my chest, as though I’m about to meet a secret beloved I’m only now remembering. My attention draws upward, compelled to the stunning creature. I couldn’t look away if my life depended on it, but I avoid meeting his dark gaze.
With unearthly grace, the vampire saunters toward me, his eyes riveted to my face. The closer he comes, the more the battle slips into the background. It could be only the two of us here in the steelworks. Weapons fly around him—bolts and swords whistle through the air, heading for his chest, but stop midflight before they can meet their target and clatter to the concrete. He doesn’t spare them a glance.
The nearer he stalks, the harder my heart pounds. My breath comes in shallow puffs. Cold sweat soaks my T-shirt. My nails puncture the soft flesh of my palms. I feel defenseless.
The prince stands in front of me, close enough to touch, a towering demigod, his immense wings creating a shadowed cavern.
I force my eyes down, fixing them on a patch of crimson blood painted across the concrete. I resist a baffling urge to lean and rest my head against his hip.
Strong, elegant fingers cup my chin to lift my face. I tense, my stomach twisting with panic. I’m certain that once I meet those black eyes, it’s over. His fingers burn hot against my chin. The touch tingles my skin like champagne. I melt into his hand and look up, finding two pools of darkest night. My resistance vanishes.
Master. The word hangs in my mind.
I will never let it leave my lips.
Oh, this is good. I mean really, REALLY good. Even in the paranormal/urban fantasy genre where there is a lot of leeway to create unique stories, many stories still recycle familiar scenarios, tropes, and the classic mythologies for supernatural creatures. Dark Flame? Definitely qualifies as unique. Yes, there are vampires, shifters, witches…but there is also The Flame, and with the introduction of this facet into this new series the author has created something that not just piqued my interest, but reached out of the pages and snatched my attention for what was pretty much a single sitting reading of this book.
And boy, I can’t wait for more!
Michael is a great character, just the right amount of cockiness and sass along with the requisite murky and troubled background to keep you wondering exactly WHAT he is. This certainly is a voyage of discovery for him, and with Alexei and Flanagan’s complete opposite intentions for him and his own dramatic and wild unleashing of his own power, Michael is kept in a constant state of alert—not to mention arousal, because let’s just give him a touch more to stress him, right?
Flanagan is…well, just all around awesome. Michael doesn’t trust him; after all, would you trust someone who keeps locking you up? But there is more to Flanagan than meets the eye. A lot more in fact, and his past is even more distressing and complicated than Michael’s life in some aspects. But it is very evident that there’s something about the two of them when they are together, and the intriguing chemistry between them—expanded exponentially by The Flame—makes their pairing that much more fascinating.
There always seemed to be something going on, you can rest assured your attention will always be kept occupied. Action abounds both with the Guardians and with the vampires, let alone the changes occurring within Michael as he becomes something more than what he thought he was. My attention was certainly riveted.
Dark Flame was absolutely a 5-star read for me, and if you’re a fan of M/M paranormal/urban fantasy then you’re definitely going to want to add this one to your library. Then you can sit and wait with me for book two…which I will be on edge for until it’s release. Dark Flame is meant for readers 18+ for adult language and sexual content. Special note—there’s a follow-up shorter length freebie story that you’ll want to read once you’ve finished this (Two Nights and a Day) that will give you some interesting insight, I highly recommend you check that out!
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