Goodreads says: The guilt that Defender Dakota Kacey feels about her brother’s death is all-consuming, making her determined to find and kill the demon who murdered him. But the leader of the Defenders is worried about what Dakota is capable of, and calls in Liam Lann to keep an eye on her. Dakota knows what kind of power a Theronai like Liam possesses, and agrees to bind herself to him if he’ll help her exact vengeance. But a bond to a Theronai is not a decision to make lightly, and as the search for the killer intensifies, Dakota will have to learn to trust Liam completely, or risk losing everything.In this short story we meet Defender Dakota and Sentinel Liam. This story pretty much had the same formula that Shannon K. Butcher has applied to all of the Sentinel books. Theronai warrior is dying and happens to stumble upon his Theronai savior disguised as some human woman that doesn't realize that she isn't human at all but a Theronai. Theronai warrior hooks up with said woman, convinces her to wear his Luceria necklace, they discover her special power, she's called something like Sapphire Lady or Jade Lady or White Lady (based on the color of her solidified Luceria), they fight some baddies, fall in love, and Theronai warrior is no longer dying...All in a few days time. I'm not knocking it because it happens to be working for me. :-) I think the only thing that is starting to nag me at this point is that all of the Theronai women being found are pretty messed up. Somewhere along the way they have had to endure abuse of some sort or they have had lives without their parents. Something has jacked them up. I'd like to see a strong jacked-free heroine in one of these books. At any rate, I liked this story. It flowed nicely, the relationship developed in a way that their love in the end was believable and OMG! there was one INTENSE scene that was...INTENSE! I can't wait to read the next installment in the Sentinel Wars which recently came out. I have to say that the author kind of got me thinking for a bit that Dakota was really human with traces of Theronai ancestry and could still save the warrior. It would have been nice if she could have found some way to work that angle. We'll see what the future holds. ( )