There once was a time when Feehan’s vampire series was a sensuous, dark pleasure for me. The Carpathian vampires who lost sight of their souls only to have a new lease on life thanks to their new found mates were quite enjoyable reads. But I have noticed that the series has really taken a very dark turn over the last few books. Despite that, I was willing to give the series one last try with this latest installment.

Dark Predator focuses on one of the de la Cruz brothers who lives far from the rest of the vampires in the Brazilian rain forest. Zacarias is on the edge. He is so close to turning vampire that he decides the only honorable thing to do is to meet the dawn and kill himself. Unfortunately for everyone involved, he is saved at the last minute by Marguarita, a servant on his family’s estate who has been brutalized in the past by vampires. In protecting Zacarias from harm she has had her voice box ripped from her throat and is no longer able to talk. But she is able to drag a 280 pound vampire who wants to die into the shade and save his life. Although this is a little unbelievable, I am willing to give the woman the benefit of the doubt. She has lived on a farm all her life and she works with animals, so I guess she has had time to build up her muscles. She really shouldn’t have bothered.

When Zacarias finally comes to his senses and realizes what Marguarita has done, he is furious. He wanted to die to protect his family from having to kill him when he turns into an evil vampire monster. Instead, she forced him to live and to become that monster. What ensues is a drawn out punishment for Marguarita. Laced with physical and verbal abuse and bordering on rape, Zacarias proceeds to make Marguarita learn the lesson of obedience (his words, not mine). Of course, not only does Marguarita take this, but she is still willing to be this man’s lifelong mate.

The story still interweaves the additional stories of the Carpathian fight against the vampires who are trying to eliminate them, but not as much as most of the others. This book is unique in the series as the couple has very limited interaction with the greater Carpathian society, but the current fight against the Russian Malinov crew of vampires is a little hard to follow without that background knowledge. Zacarias is a hero in the Carpathian world and his fight against the vampires eventually endangers Marguarita’s life as the enemy nearly beats her to death. This, of course, conveniently sets up the rest of the story and brings the plot away from the “relationship” building that dominated the book for the most part.

It is important to note that Marguarita’s lack of a voice plays a role in this story. For one thing the dialogue is very limited even though they communicate telepathically. This is not necessarily a result of her disability. I’ve read books where one of the main characters is without a voice (J.R. Ward’s books come to mind), but I never felt like the lack of a voice defined the character. In this case Marguarita is defined by her impairment. It lends an unfortunate amount of credence to the idea of her having no voice within the relationship. As Zacarias gives her no say and no free will, her lack of a voice becomes too much of a symbol.

It is very unfortunate that the series has taken the turn that it has with this one. Unfortunately, this is why I began moving away from this series. In this case, the engaging characters from previous novels aren’t even in this installment enough to make it a worthwhile addition to the series. Although I may still pick up a new Dark novel from time to time to see how the greater Carpathian society is doing and progressing, I doubt I would read another in the series looking for the romance of the main characters. The romances just aren’t what they used to be.