Alliance in Blood (Partnership in Blood, #1) in A Chat with Ariel

May 14, 2009 Elisa Rolle added it

In an urban romance setting, a Paris in which wizards and vampires are simple citizens with more or less power, the wizards need allies.

Renegade wizards who are searching to rule the world using the dark magic are becoming more and more bolder. Marcel, the general of the army of the good wizard seeks alliance with Jean, the master of Parisian vampires. Both men agree to a meeting between a wizard and a vampire in Pere Lachaise cemetery. Alain, a wizard who lost his wife and son to the hands of t In an urban romance setting, a Paris in which wizards and vampires are simple citizens with more or less power, the wizards need allies.

Renegade wizards who are searching to rule the world using the dark magic are becoming more and more bolder. Marcel, the general of the army of the good wizard seeks alliance with Jean, the master of Parisian vampires. Both men agree to a meeting between a wizard and a vampire in Pere Lachaise cemetery. Alain, a wizard who lost his wife and son to the hands of the dark wizards, volunteers; on the other side the chosen is Orlando, a more than two hundreds years vampire who was turned when he was 23 years old, and so now he has the face of a blond angel, but scars which are so deeply that still marks his behavior. The alliance should implies only that the vampires will help the wizards in their fight, but when Orlando samples Alain's blood, to test his sincerity, the bond between them runs deeply than a simple military agreement.

Even if Orlando is older in age than Alain, he is not emotionally grown. Orlando was raped and enslaved by his sire, and now, even if free by his captivity, he is shy and restrained, with his body and with his feelings. Alain, with his gentle touch and ability to comprehend and soothe, is the right man to ensure Orlando's trust. Alain accepts to deepen their relationship beyond a simple fighting bond, Orlando and Alain become a real life couple; in an alliance that is new and fragile, a so deep relationship is more an obstacle than anything else, since the other vampires and wizards have trouble to understand that it's not necessary to have a sexual bond to tighten a vampire/wizard pair.

Orlando is very "young"; his relationship with Alain is more like that between a master and a pupil than between two equal adults. It doesn't matter that Orlando has lived so long, he has spent two hundreds years hiding and avoiding human contacts. Alain instead has loved and lost his love; more than his wife, he regrets the lost of his son, and, in a way, he has also fatherly feeling for Orlando: he falls so fast for Orlando since the vampire arises in him also protective feelings other than sexual desires.

The story is a bit dark and gothic, but in some points it is almost funny: the scene in the Gare de Lyon, when wizards and vampires meet to find the other match in the pair, reminds me one of those teens party, where boys and girls stand one on the other side of the room not having the courage to mingle, chat and dance.

Another thing that left me pretty impressed in the story, was how vampires are treated in this urban alternative reality: they are shunned and avoided as undesirables, but not as dangerous... a bit like gay in a conservative environment?

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