Witch Blood-Anya Bast

Witch Blood
Anya Bast
Berkley, Mar 2008, $7.99
ISBN: 9780425220436

Water Witch Isabelle Novak flirts outrageously with Dustkoff Warlock chief Stefan Faucheux until they are alone in his limo. Suddenly she grabs his balls and begins freezing the liquids inside his body as she seeks to kill him as his demon killed her half-sister Angela. Fire Witch coven Chief Thomas Monahan prevents Isabelle from finishing the act. He has Adam Tyrell and Jack McAllister take Stefan to Gribbon prison where magic does not work so that he can be interrogated. Though drawn to Thomas, Isabelle angrily vanishes disobeying her leader’s insistence they talk.

The next day Isabelle explains to Thomas that since she cannot find the demon that killed her sister, she went after the man whose late father brought him here. Coven archivist Micah asks Stefan why the demon has not gone home after so many years here. He explains there are four types of demons in their world with no one wanting this type of demon to come home. Stefan also says that he must kill four witches to rape their power in order to open a portal to the demon realm. Finally he gives Micah access to his demon library in exchange for his swift death.

Isabelle and Thomas kiss and begin stripping when they are interrupted by Mira who says she heard whispered the name Simon Alexander. They keep him under surveillance, but he shows no sign of power. Simon meets an earth witch Melanie and her daughter Katie when the demon arrives, but in spite of being hurt by Isabelle, he escapes. As Thomas and Isabel work together to stop the demonic killing, they fall in love.

The sequel to the bewitching WITCH FIRE is a terrific romantic fantasy in which (pun intended) the key paranormal species Witch, Warlock, or Demon seem genuine; especially fascinating is the types of demons residing on Demon World. Fans will appreciate this strong tale although a late escape feels anti-climatic. Still the romance is strong set in the superbly developed Bast universe where the unreal feels real.

Harriet Klausner