The Midnight Breed Series Companion (10 page)

The Fear
by Trust Company

Shame
by Stabbing Westward

So Cold
by Breaking Benjamin

Crashed
by Daughtry

Story Background

Since the introduction of black-haired, silver-eyed Kade to the series in
Midnight Awakening,
I couldn’t wait to set one of the books in Alaska. Naturally, it had to be his!

I’d had it in my head for a while that Kade had left his family Darkhaven outside Fairbanks for a reason he didn’t really want anyone to know. And I’d also had it in my character notes that he was an identical twin—although whether Kade should be the “good” twin or the “bad” one, I wasn’t yet sure.

I began plotting
Shades of Midnight
from the external side of things: The Ancient’s escape from the cargo train at the end of
Ashes of Midnight
, and the subsequent slaughter of the Alaskan family, which prompts the Order to send Kade north—far north—to investigate. It was this same slaying that would bring female bush pilot, Alexandra Maguire, into the middle of the Order’s business and, soon afterward, into Kade’s bed.

The first big lesson I learned in plotting
Shades of Midnight
was that Alaska is unlike any other state in the country. I mean, I knew that, of course. But I had no idea just how vast and wild and undeveloped the place was until I started studying maps, buying reference books, and Googling for general information on living conditions, temperatures, bush piloting, law enforcement and various other details I wanted to get right in the book.

Alaska is harsh, primitive frontier in many places; in others, it’s absolute, forbidding wilderness. It was actually perfect for the kind of story I wanted to tell.

And the perfect place to have produced someone like Kade—not to mention, his twin brother, Seth.

Given their shared Breed ability to connect psychically with predator animals, the subplot of Kade’s backstory and the dark secret he’d been running from both fell into place as an integral part of
Shades of Midnight
. It would also form the wedge that would eventually come to stand between Kade and Alexandra.

It is in this book that the Ancient eventually meets his end. I planned for it upfront, knowing the way the Ancient would die, although I hadn’t decided on the specifics of who would ultimately take him over that ledge until a little farther into the actual writing of the story.

I also knew that before the Ancient died, he would leave behind a piece of himself—a biotechnology “key” that would unlock secrets about his kind and their time on Earth. The Ancient leaves this biotech chip (along with some of his DNA) embedded in the nape of a human warrior—former Alaska State Trooper, Jenna Tucker-Darrow, Alex’s best friend.

When I first sketched out the premise of the Ancient wanting to ensure part of him lived on as he faced a certain death, I had a vague notion that in addition to the chip creating a transformation in Jenna on a genetic level—turning her into something far more than human—it could also become a tool the Order could use in their efforts to defeat Dragos. That part of the equation changed once I started refining the plot for
Taken by Midnight
, Jenna and Brock’s story.

And for the readers who’ve asked whether there was a reason for the Ancient forcing Jenna to choose “life or death” before he embedded the chip inside her? Yes, there is a reason! I promise, I’ll answer that question fully before the series is over.

Shades of Midnight
released in late December, 2009. It hit the
New York Times
bestseller list higher than ever, in the #5 spot, and it stayed on the list for three weeks straight. Kade and Alex’s story also spent three weeks on the
USA Today
and
Publishers Weekly
bestseller lists. And, for the first time, I broke the top ten at Barnes & Noble, with
Shades of Midnight
debuting there at #7 out of all books on sale.

Meanwhile, in Germany, the series was doing very well too. So well, in fact, that my publisher, Egmont LYX, invited me to come for a multi-city book tour that following summer, when Kade and Alex’s story was due to arrive in bookstores over there. I’d never been on book tour. My U.S. publisher has never arranged for me to tour here in the States, so this invitation to travel overseas and meet readers in Germany was incredible. Of course, I said yes!

And so it was that in June of 2010, I found myself on a whirlwind “mini-tour” of several cities, including Dortmund, where a crowd of more than 150 warm and welcoming German Midnight Breed fans came out to have their books signed and hear passages from
Shades of Midnight
read to them by me (in English) and by the wonderful narrator of my German audiobooks.

While I was in Germany, I received more amazing news:
Shades of Midnight
(Gezeichnete des Schicksals)
debuted in the highest spot for the series so far, #3 on
Der Spiegel!

Taken by Midnight

BOOK 8

Romantic Leads

Brock

Jenna Tucker-Darrow

Plot Summary

Tasked with the protection of a beautiful human female who’s brought from Alaska to the Order’s Boston headquarters, Breed warrior Brock soon finds himself entangled in an impossible passion—one that challenges him to confront the mistakes of his past, and to risk his heart for the one woman he can hold, but can never truly possess.

Primary Story Locations

Order's compound headquarters in undisclosed location in Boston

FBI office in New York City

Dragos's secret prison for captive Breedmates from his breeding labs

Andreas Reichen and Claire’s Darkhaven in Newport, Rhode Island

Cemetery outside Harmony, Alaska

Playlist

Home
by Daughtry

Give Me a Sign
by Breaking Benjamin

Fade Into You
by Mazzy Star

All That I’m Living For
by Evanescence

Angel
by Sarah McLachlan

Story Background

Here we arrive at
Taken by Midnight
, eight books into the series. Looking back now, it’s astonishing to me how far the overarching storyline has come from its beginnings in those first three novels. I often tell people that had I known when I first pitched Lucan and Gabrielle’s story that I was embarking on an adventure that would span ten books and counting, I might not have had the guts to start.

I’m a plotter. I like to know where I’m heading before I put the first word on paper. But I’d never attempted anything this expansive. It’s been a great experience for me to grow as a writer, as a storyteller. I’m learning to trust my instincts, and in
Taken by Midnight
, those instincts were put to the test.

This book takes the series a big leap forward with the introduction of a heroine who’s a human female undergoing a genetic transformation that’s more than a little on the freaky side of science fiction. I wasn’t sure how readers would react to Jenna, frankly. But the decision to move her in this direction was one of those instinct moments. I had to do what I felt was best for the character, the current book, and for the series as a whole. And I’ve been relieved to find that by and large, Jenna is a curiosity that most everyone seems to like.

So, just what is she becoming, anyway?

That’s the question I hear all the time whenever the subject of Brock and Jenna comes up. And it was a question many of you asked in one form or another through the Q&A contest we held at my website a while ago.

I’ll tell you what Jenna isn’t becoming. She won’t be turning into one of the Breed. She’s human at her core, remember. The Breed’s genetic makeup is otherworlder (Ancient) and Breedmate (which we now know to be—I don’t think this is a big secret anymore—half Atlantean). So, while Jenna’s body now contains Ancient DNA, she is missing the other piece that would turn her into one of the Breed.

Jenna’s alien DNA gives her many of the strengths of an Ancient: self-healing, prolonged life, superhuman strength and speed, enhanced cognitive and language skills. As she later discovers, the biotech implant has additionally given her access to the Ancient’s memories. And let’s not forget, she’s also got a pretty cool
dermaglyph
growing at the back of her neck.

What Jenna doesn’t have is a fatal allergy to sunlight, like both the Breed and the Ancients do. Nor does she have fangs or a need for blood in order to sustain her, although she has been known to eye Brock’s carotid with more than a passing interest.

Jenna is human with a big serving of alien. She is unlike anyone else we’ve seen so far in the series. And she’ll be key to events still to come as the second arc of the series continues.

But let’s get back to
Taken by Midnight
.

Brock and Jenna’s romance was about second chances, and about learning to let your walls down in order to let love find you again. They both came together from places of pain—Jenna following the loss of her husband and young daughter in a car accident, and Brock still weathering the guilt of his failure to protect an innocent young Breedmate who’d been placed in his charge as her bodyguard when Brock lived in Detroit.

Theirs was a tender romance, perhaps the most tender of the entire series so far. Neither of them came into their relationship as wide-eyed innocents or reckless people easily caught up in a hot passion that might burn out just as quickly as it started.

Brock and Jenna had been knocked down before. They’d been wounded. They both carried their own burden of guilt from their pasts, telling them they weren’t good enough to be loved by someone. So, when they finally came together—when their unwilling partnership in Order business began to ignite into irresistible attraction and true, deepening affection—their bond was such that it didn’t require blood to seal it.

While Brock and Jenna’s romance smolders at a slow burn, the action in
Taken by Midnight
ratchets up the threat of Dragos and his determination to strike hard at the Order for their hand in the death of the Ancient in
Shades of Midnight
and the destruction of one of Dragos’s secret lab facilities in Alaska.

With Dragos growing bolder, the warriors and their mates begin working together in earnest to stop him. While the warriors pursue Dragos and his secret lieutenants on night patrols, the women of the Order strive to locate the Breedmates being held captive in his breeding labs. They come upon clues that lead them to a former runaway shelter worker, and, through a mix of cunning and courage, Jenna, Renata, Dylan and Alex eventually unmask the Minion in charge of holding the prisoners. With the warriors and their women working as a true team, the captive Breedmates are freed—including Corinne Bishop, the young Breedmate who’d been entrusted to Brock’s protection decades past in Detroit.