Rescue (Darklight book 2) by Sean Ian O'Meidhir and Connal Braginsky

[Ulysses]

Rescue (Darklight, book 2)
By Sean Ian O'Meidhir & Connal Braginsky
Ninestars Press, 2023
Five stars

The unexpected charm of this series is that the three protagonists (“heroes”) are both highly skilled and in over their heads. Cameron is a mage with unimaginable telepathic powers; Syn is a cybergenius who makes her living hacking into unhackable networks for a fee; Nathen is a longtime online friend of Syn’s, and also Cameron’s boyfriend. Oh, and an autistic vampire.

The core plot of book two in this series is that Kat, a friend of Syn and Cameron’s, is kidnaped. Using Nathen’s skills (and some hired help), they set out to rescue their friend, and to figure out why the abduction happened in the first place.

We learn rather a lot of dark stuff about Cameron’s past, which sheds some light on the peculiarities of the present—including, why a major American corporation is creating vampires (without permission) because of their high-tech skills? High-tech begins to mix with the occult, and there are murmurs of fae involvement—although nobody but Cam has actually ever seen a fae.

It's all pretty confusing (especially the computer geek conversations), and that’s the point of it. Our three young protagonists are sort of like a gay magical Hardy Boys trio (Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys?), up against things they can’t quite grasp. Even weirder, Nathen’s mysterious corporate boss, known only as HR, may or may not be on their side.

We only get glimpses of a sentient corporate database known as SpArk, and an evil sadist named Todd Jacks, who is supposed to be dead but apparently isn’t. All of this seems to be a set up for book three, which I’ll start as soon as I post this review.

What nobody seems to quite grasp is that Nathen Hale and Cameron Corazon have a blood-related bond that has created something unique, the potential of which is as yet untested (except accidentally). I rather suspect that our young lovers are a secret weapon that only they can control, and in the third book of this series that will come to the fore.

Not a book to inspire trust in corporations, the Darklight series will inspire one’s belief in the power of love.