What's the Name of That Book??? discussion

Dead Man Stalking (Blood and Bone, #1)
This topic is about Dead Man Stalking
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SOLVED: Adult Fiction > SOLVED. Urban fantasy m/m romance vampires versus werewolves and missing children in a near future setting where the world at large knows about the supernatural. Spoilers ahead. [s]

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message 1: by Chelsea (new)

Chelsea Clifton | 2 comments The story begins with the main character, Took, investigating a cold case on behalf of the "supposed" perpetrator's parents. Took, and a local deputy, walk into a trap and the deputy is fatally injured. Took gives as much 1st aid to the man as he can and calls for back-up before chasing after the suspect they had been following. Took finds a vampire's den. It is a place where vampires have illegally taken humans to feed on/turn them. There is another trap at the house, causing it to burst into flame. Took is injured protecting another deputy.
This fiasco causes the government agency in-charge of investigating vampire-related crimes to send out an agent. The man they send is a vampire and Took's former team lead. Took had been the only human member of this team prior to being kidnapped and turned. The team is able to rescue him over a year after his kidnapping, but shortly after his rescue, Took is overcome by a fear that his Team Lead was somehow responsible for the kidnapping itself. This fear drives him away from the team and he is on an extended leave when the book starts.
The reason Took is investigating the cold case is because he has spent every dime he has on sleeping in a different motel every night. He does this because of a fear that he will be taken again. Took is also unable to drink human blood due to the torture he underwent. He lives instead on pills containing dehydrated blood. These keep him functioning, but he heals much slower than a regular vampire because of it. Also, Took is not the main character's given name. It is the name he chose after being turned. "Took" is the term used in the book for people who have been kidnapped by vampires and have disappeared.
Up until this point, the Team Lead had been giving Took his space, even though he wanted to be close to him. There was a strong attraction between them that Took never pursued and the Team Lead never pushed. At this point, the Team Lead decides enough is enough and starts looking after Took, whether he wants the help or not.
This all leads to Took temporarily working with his old team again, including his replacement. She is a human whose mother is the vampire in charge of the agency. She is also the one who originally "solved' the missing children case Took is investigating. Took has mixed feelings about working with the Team Lead again. He still has an intense attraction to him, and a bone-deep fear that he was betrayed. The really strange part is that a part of Took also trusts the Team Lead.
The investigation leads Took and the Team Lead to the house of one of the victims where they are attacked by people posing has hunters. The house is set on fire with them inside it. Together they manage to fight off the attackers and survive. When the fire-department comes, they convince the fire chief not to spray their hose on the house because of tampering. The water has been replaced with a solution to accelerate the fire. Afterwards, Took and the Team Lead find the body of a girl hiding in a metal box hidden in the floor of the house. They take the girl back to the Team Lead's house and Took's cat (who has vampire qualities) attempts to revive the girl by breathing blood-soaked air into her mouth. They figure out that the girl is a dhampir and begin to suspect that all of the missing children (from very religious human families) were dhampirs.
Took then arranges a plane trip to the jail in (I think) Death Valley to see the convicted perpetrator. The Team Lead manages to make the plane at the last minute and goes with him. The Team Lead sees his vampire elder alone and then he and Took speak with the perpetrator. They find out that the boy is a sorcerer and has not spoken since the trial because he is keeping the whereabouts of the remaining missing children a secret. It turns out that he was actually protecting the dhampir children from a religious cult of hunters, who have been kidnapping them from Europe to raise them to hunt vampires.
Took and the Team Lead also have sex for the first time during this visit. The warden leaves them alone in his office and the Team Lead feeds Took. Took is able to take the blood because it tastes differently than human blood. They then have sex on a cot in the office.
Took slips away from the Team Lead again to have a meeting with the current Alpha of the werewolves. (Vampires and werewolves are at war in the world.) Took arranged this meeting because of a tattoo identifying the hunters at the house he and the Team Lead were attacked at, as werewolf prospects. This is also when the reader finds out that Took is the Alpha's son. The Alpha states he had nothing to do with the attack or the missing children, but hints that there is another group orchestrating events. At the end of the discussion, the Alpha attempts to kill Took, since he is a vampire. Took has timed things so that the Team Lead will have followed him to the meet and arrive in time to save him. The fight ends in a draw when the Team Lead has the Alpha's second pinned and the Alpha has Took.
They fly back, with the sorcerer, and agree to make contact with the sorcerer's mother, since she is more likely to cooperate. As it turns out, she betrays them to the religious cult in an attempt to save her son. (The reason she and her husband had originally hired Took, is because their son's execution date of nearing.) After being taken, they still manage to defeat the cult and rescue the children.
The story wraps up with 2 major points. First, it was Took's then boyfriend who planted the idea in his head that the Team Lead was responsible for his kidnapping. He knew there were feelings between the two of them and felt he was just a second choice. The boyfriend used his own position in the agency to get to Took while he was recovering in the hospital and whisper in his hear while he was semi-conscious. Second, Took shows his Team Lead a picture of him and his father, telling him the truth of their relationship. The Team Lead tells Took that he had already figured it out at the fight with the werewolves, because the Alpha had restrained himself from killing Took until he had a viable reason for letting him go.

This is the first book in a series, and I read it within the last 1 - 2 years.


message 2: by Ayshe (new)

Ayshe | 4721 comments Dead Man Stalking looks likely?


message 3: by Chelsea (new)

Chelsea Clifton | 2 comments This is it! Thank you so much!


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