New York - Present Day

By helping the vampires, Lupreda Landon Rourke disobeyed an unwritten werewolf law, and the Alpha banished him from the pack. Now, three months later, the Omega council is asking for his help. Three zerkers (Lupreda caught mid-shift so they are half-wolf, half-human permanently) have disappeared and the Omega are hoping that Landon, who is a private investigator, can help find them. Which he does, but Landon finds something else too.

Newly promoted Detective Kaitlyn McKinney responds to a disturbance call in the park and finds something truly disturbing. Something is burning, but Kaitlyn can’t really tell what it is. Able to see the auras of the dead, Kaitlyn knows that whatever creature is burning died a violent death, but she’s also confused. It must be an animal of some sort, but it was staked to the ground as if it were human, and the creature was seven feet tall. There are also iridescent, fluorescent handprints surrounding the body. When Landon arrives on the scene, she impulsively describes what she’s seen -- leaving out the aura part of it – and has the feeling that he knows more than he is telling her. Once the rain douses the fire, and destroys any evidence, the case is basically closed.

Kaitlyn is also investigating a possible connection between the Mafia and the Garotters (vampire hunters), and one of her leads is a warehouse where she finds the same fluorescent handprints she saw at the park. When Kaitlyn is attacked by vampires, Landon saves her, and she learns that there are a lot more things that go bump in the night than she’d ever imagined.

For those unfamiliar with the series, Scions was the name of the project during which scientists created vampires. In order to protect the humans from the vampires, the scientists also created Lupreda as food for the vampires to hunt. When the project was shut down, vampires started preying on humans, and were then hunted themselves. For twenty-five years, humans believed that vampires had been eliminated, and they had never known about the existence of the Lupreda. In SCIONS: RESURRECTION, it became clear that vampires are still around and on their way to fulfilling a prophecy of peace. SCIONS: INSURRECTION is the story of the Lupreda, and while this aspect of the story is better understood if you read the books in order, INSURRECTION is completely Kaitlyn and Landon’s story.

From the first time they work together, Kaitlyn feels a connection to Landon that goes beyond the attraction she feels for him. While she had never actually met him before the night in the park, Landon has known Kaitlyn since she was a child, and is keeping a devastating secret from her. Their investigation has as many twists and turns as their relationship, because between his Lupreda heritage and the secret he is hiding, Landon knows that this woman will never be able to accept him. Both are very strong characters, but they also have their vulnerabilities. The romance between them, though it happens over a short course of time, also occurs gradually making it easy to believe.

An intense and fascinating tale, SCIONS: INSURRECTION is a thoroughly enjoyable story, and I can’t wait to read the final installment of the series.

Jennifer Bishop