I got completely won over when a reference was made to the Buffy The Vampire Slayer movie and this came out in February of 1997...one month before the phenomenal TV show.
I wasn't sure if I would enjoy The Chosen as much as the first four books yet as it went on...it got very good when you add a sort of uncomfortable element to the romance.
A normal revenge against vampires story...we have read or seen them before. This one starts in such a horrific fashion and is just as heartbreaking but necessary to make our main character just a little hard to crack.
Rashel Jordan is five years old and on that fateful birthday, she lost everything. Her little brother Timmy disappeared and she found him being fed on and killed by a vampire. When her mother heard her screams, she met her own death at the vampire's hand by a broken neck.
Rashel was sent to live with her older aunt, Corrine, but in the dark of the night...the vampire came again. This time, he set fire to the house and only Rashel escaped to become an orphan. For twelve years, she has gone from foster home to foster home with nightmares of the vampire's face and his voice.
Rashel is too filled with the desire of revenge to be afraid and her homes are just places to live but a few of her foster parents prove successful on her journey. Martial artists...and vampire hunters to teach her all the ways to defend herself. Rashel keeps herself at arms length...she can't love and lose anyone else again.
Now seventeen, Rashel is known to those of the Night World as "The Cat" for the claw marks with a cat's paw she leaves on the staked, mummified husks of her victims. Now living in Boston, Rashel receives tips from fellow hunters, The Lancers, that four girls have disappeared.
Rashel has few friends if you want to call them that but they are all the same age as her and they know about vampires...they want the same thing. Death to all the vampires that have left some of them orphans and frankly, they need Rashel's help.
One night, Rashel protects two of them by knocking out a very strong vampire from behind. They plan to torture him slowly to get information but Rashel sends them away to get more hunters to scout for any other vampires helping their captive.
Alone, face covered by a scarf with only her green eyes showing in her ninja attire, Rashel is ready to deal a fatal blow with her wooden sword. The vampire is looking up at her and they exchange words and information in what is to be an honorable scene of mutual respect...warriors and hunters both of them.
Rashel learns that the vampire is named John Quinn. This is the same Quinn who has a brief appearance in Daughters of Darkness, an honorary member of the powerful Redfern family. He has a hatred for humans but also a complicated relationship with the vampire who turned him, Hunter Redfern.
"I hate you, vampire dad, and yet I am loyal to you"...that kind of complex for the past four hundred years.
Rashel knows that Quinn is deadly and Hunter's heir since members of the Redfern clan have been falling in love with humans as of late yet she can't strike out at him. Quinn knows this woman is The Cat but he can't help but share with her his tragic past and be intrigued by her emerald eyes.
They spar and touch hands and yep...sparks that are unwanted and confusing happen again.
The others come back to the scene of Quinn escaping and Rashel...letting him go. Her credibility is now tarnished to being a vampire sympathizer and Rashel is all but abandoned to be on her own once again yet Rashel is use to it.
The only thing that troubles her now is having her resolve down against a vampire after killing so many. Rashel doesn't have long to simmer in self-loathing when she spots a young woman jumping out of the back of a truck coming from a warehouse where Rashel has tracked down a nest of vampires.
She is able to rescue the teenage girl and they get away. Rashel finds out that her name is Daphne Childs and she was taken by vampires along with almost two dozen other girls. Rashel has heard of vampires taking humans and selling them off as slaves or food and she believes she has found the biggest ring abducting girls from a club in Boston.
Daphne tells Rashel it is a club where teenagers go because these are the emo kids, the goth kids, the kids who feel alone and wish to embrace the darkness. Daphne has a big family full of stepsiblings and feels invisible so she has been wearing black and writing poetry to attract a kindred soul.
Rashel isn't too impressed or thrilled to learn that Quinn was the one to answer Daphne's misguided prayers. Daphne, despite being a blonde ditz, is actually sort of a subversion in that she agrees to go back to the club with Rashel and get captured again. Rashel argues with this but it is pointed out by Daphne that Rashel is not use to flirting with guys...only pummeling vampires.
In order to be chosen so that she can go and take care of all the vampires in charge of this human trafficking ring, Rashel relents and the girls go back to the club. Rashel knows that she has to earn the trust of the vampires by acting the ditzy damsel but she also knows that if Quinn so much as touches her, the ruse will not work because of the attraction before...and her cover will be blown.
Too bad that Quinn has been shaken by the previous experience and even his fellow vampires can tell that he is slipping and not acting like himself. One of them just happens to be Lily, the daughter of Hunter Redfern and the powerful patriarch of the Night World vampires.
Falling in love with a human is a crime punishable by death and Quinn, unfortunately, is the next chosen victim of a fate and a desire he can't fight...
Some very heavy stuff and the reveals are gloriously twisted. It all leads up to a heart-stopping climax with an ending that isn't exactly clear-cut yet satisfying enough to make The Chosen a solid entry in the Night World series worth reading.