In the Blood: Metahuman Files Book 4, Hailey Turner

Hooooooooly. Freak.  The word "intense" has nothing on this book.  There's so much going on here that if you're jumping in at this point expect to be lost.  With all the characters facing huge changes in their personal and professional lives there's bound to be upheaval, except with this particular cast of characters upheaval is much too tame of a word to describe the utter devastation, horror, pain, and surprise that their world is heaping on their shoulders.

I liked this book so much and yet there's a huge element of darkness that is doing its best to drown everyone that usually makes me shy away from higher ratings because I'm a sucker for sappy happiness.  This story, however, is incredibly moving in so many ways, so very hot and passionate, dark, frustrating, and impossibly heartbreaking at times that it was so hard to put down or turn away.  Riveting, utterly riveting.

With the team's long-game mission making more perilous demands than ever something has to give.  The problem is that with a precog on the enemy's side no one's sure what needs to give or even what move needs to be made because they're getting blocked and threatened at every turn.  The mission's players are being moved around on a chess-board they can't see and everything is coming to a confrontation of seemingly biblical proportions.  Not only that but pasts are converging with the present and Sean has to face it with Alexei as the enemy's tool of coercion.

Everything is in utter chaos once the first move is made and while Jamie plays his heart against his family in the name of his job, Kyle is trying to deal with those changes while still standing behind the man he loves.  Changes meaning that he may no longer be able to stand by his side.  Their future hangs in the balance no matter which way things go.  At the same time their "associates" are teaming up with a particularly nasty element from Sean's past and the threat of Splice combines with reciprocity and ends with torture.

I can honestly say that I wasn't expecting that scene to be like it was.  It was real, unfortunate, traumatic, and seriously rips your heart out with the love, guilt, and devastation.  The scene was so well done and hard to read and captivating at the same time.  When Kyle deals with the perpetrator I was both cringing and cheering in equal measure.

There was a feeling of hope amidst the desolation at the end, though, with Kyle and Jamie's promises and Sean and Alexei's healing.  With my heart on a platter at this point I just know I'm going to find a dagger stabbed in it with book 5 but I'm in it for the long haul.  This is an amazing series and I can't wait for more heartbreak, passion, destruction, love, and triumph.

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