Dark Lover (Black Dagger Brotherhood, #1)

by J.R. Ward

With Darius’s death, he was reminded that though his warriors were hitting the society’s legions of slayers hard, there were so few of the brothers going against an inexhaustible, self-generating pool of lessers. Because God knew there were plenty of humans with an interest and aptitude for murder. The numbers were simply not in the race’s favor. He couldn’t escape the fact that vampires didn’t live forever and that brothers could be killed and that the balance could be thrown off in an instant. In favor of the race’s enemies. Hell, the shift had happened already. Ever since the Omega had created the Lessening Society aeons ago, vampire numbers had shrunk until now there were only a few enclaves of population left. Their kind was flirting with extinction. Even though the brothers were deadly fine at what they did. If Wrath had been a different kind of king, one like his father, who wanted to be the adored, revered paterfamilias to the species, maybe the future would have seemed more promising. But the son wasn’t as the father had been. Wrath was a fighter, not a leader, better on his feet with a dagger in his hand than sitting around being adored.