So I picked up the anthology Dead After Dark with stories by Sherrilyn Kenyon, J.R. Ward Susan Squires and Dianna Love. I immediately jumped in and read the Ward novella. I wanted to share some thoughts and see what others had to say – if you’d read the story.

Claire Stroughton is a beautiful lawyer who would rather spend the night with a legal brief than the man of her dreams. Then a routine client meeting turns dangerous—and deeply sensual—when she is held captive by a gorgeous man with an unworldly hunger…

Claire goes to Caldwell, NY to have a client sign a will. While in Caldwell Claire ends up locked in a basement with a vampire, Michael, where she will stay the entire Labor Day weekend so that he can feed.

Ok – I’m not gonna give away the basics of the story. I want to talk more about the whole vampire thing. I don’t get on Ward’s forum any longer just because it’s so friggin overwhelming so maybe some of this has been discussed there – if any of you know, let me know.

So since this story takes place in Caldwell I assume that Michael the vampire is a civilian in the BDB world. No part of the BDB world is mentioned but given the city I assumed that to begin with. However, there are parts of his vampire life that just didn’t fit with what we know about Wards vamps so I began to doubt myself.

Examples:

Women were brought to Michael once a year for a weekend so he could feed. Once a year? And from a human? Wards vamps can feed from humans, but they suffer for it. This guy didn’t seem to be suffering.

Michael had been confined since his 12th birthday when his “evil” or “vampiric” tendencies began. Even as a 1/2 vamp Wards vamps don’t transition until around 25 years of age and even then they would need to feed from a vamp to make it through.

Fang like teeth growing at age 6.

Then there are mentions of things that would make me believe that this was supposed to be a civilian in Ward’s BDB world:
Bonding Scent
Dematerializing
A Butler that seems awfully like a Doggen but more or less evil. But then that brings me back to if he’s a Doggen wouldn’t he know that the vamp needs to feed from another vamp?

So I liked the story. It was a nice little romance and I enjoyed reading it – Ward does romance well, that’s for sure. But the questions that it brought to mind threw me for a loop and my little pea brain just doesn’t get it.

So, help me. What are your thoughts. Have you read the book?