Review: the Fantastic saga continues in a most Fabulous way!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 04 29, 2014
The second book of the ‘Demons of Elysium’ is a great addition to a terrific series, especially for those who like a little length to their adventure tales. ‘The King of Thieves’ is a delightful, episodic, enterprising love story with genuine emotional edge.  Sexy airspirit demon extraordinaire, Belphagor, returns with his boy, the lovely firespirit demon, Vasily. The two demons are swept into a blackmail scheme involving abuse of young demon children and their subsequent rescue attempt sets off a series of adventures fraught with multiple twists, turns, and misunderstandings.The story begins a few months after the end of the events of the last book. The two rough love demons have set up house together but have not quite worked out their trust issues. Vasily feels Belphagor is taking him for granted and Belphagor knows something is wrong because his “boy” agrees to everything he asks. Vasily fails to utter the safeword he’s been given, and it’s not like Belphagor hasn’t been ratcheting up the punishing sex games the two play at. Neither will, nor can, communicate the exact nature of their problem, so a blowup occurs and the two sever their master-boy relationship.While trying to figure out his part in their troubles, Belphagor is blackmailed into a scheme that requires he use glamour on Vasily, to give him the appearance of a young virginal demon. For Vasily’s part in the plan is to enter the Fletchery, a brothel that offers virginal child demons to anyone who can pay the price.  The demon who has roped Belphagor into this unsavory scheme, Armen, seeks to blackmail the wealthy patrons of the establishment, high-ranking angels.  Belphagor intends to get the information Armen seeks, take his boy, and be rid of the nasty business.  But things go awry and he finds himself rescuing more than Vasily. He may have to save all of the abused Fallen and lose Vasily in the process.Wounded that Belphagor has asked this of him and worried that perhaps the boy he has become as a result of the glamour speaks to Belphagor’s true tastes, Vasily finds himself ensconced at the Fletchery. By rights he could have used his safeword to avoid this horrible turn of events, but he cannot bring himself to use it nor to express to Belphagor why he cannot. Once in the brothel, he is shocked to find that the angels, particularly one named Kezef, are abusing the children by more than simple debauchery. Pretty much anything goes, beatings, debasement, and humiliation are abject. The firespirit befriends Silk, the child who has been with the Fletchery the longest, and learns that Silk is both wiser and older than he looks. Silk takes a shine to Vasily and Vasily welcomes the kindness. When Kezef takes a strap to Vasily, Silk stops Kezef and all hell breaks loose. In the ensuing commotion Belphagor rescues Vasily, but Silk is left behind and then disappears.The hunt is on for Silk and the scattered children. Belphagor, Vasily, and those who join them are always a step behind the perpetrators of the disappearances. Their search has them falling to the land of Man, where they learn that a sex ring for the trade of demons has been long open and has enriched the pockets of many higher-ups in Elysium. The rescue of one children’s brothel, becomes a rescue to save all Fallen demons whose freedom to offer their bodies for their livelihood is being much abused by those who see them as lesser beings.I really got a kick out of this story and there is a lot more to this tale than I have sketched. Beautifully woven with excellent visual settings of the Fletchery, the land of Man, and Elysium, the story’s heart revolves around the individual emotional growth of Belphagor and Vasily and in turn the maturing of their love and their relationship.Familiar characters from the first book, most notably Lev and Dmitri, but also the angel Phaleg and Anzhela, return and are further fleshed out in this story. A host of new characters appear.  Silk is a smashingly, sly demon who never met a facet he didn’t want, and I‘d love to read more about Khai, a ready, willing, and able young demon rent boy.  I must give the author a plus one for the lovely vision of the demon children in flight and also for characterization of the deliciously hateful Kezef.Those looking for some steam and scorch won’t be disappointed,; there are lots of titillating sex scenes with enough variation that no one will be in the dark about what goes on in between the sheets, on the floor, in the dungeon or on the stairs of Heaven, Hell or Elysium.  Much looking forward to book three, where I hope Silk, Phaleg, and Khai will, um…entertain me.Thank you, Jane Kindred, for this tremendous tale that reveals physical pain can bring pleasure, while emotional pain cuts like a knife, but through love, trust, and understanding all things can heal. “Hot, Heartfelt, Fun”