For All Eternity
Written more in the vein of Anne Rice's well-known vampire  series than the traditional vampire romance (if such a thing  exists), this second book in Linda Lael Miller's vampire quartet  takes place in a setting inhabited by angels, warlocks, vampires,  and mortals, all very literally at each others' throats.Powerful vampire Maeve Tremayne revels in her immortality. Free to  travel at will through time and place, she is restricted only by  the rising of the sun. Just and honest, she takes nourishment only  from the cruelest members of mortal society, those who are  "truly evil, not just misguided," except when she eases  the journey of the dying by offering them a final moment of  ecstasy and release from pain. During one of these missions of  mercy to the dying soldiers in a Civil War field hospital, she  meets Dr. Calder Holbrook. Calder has heard the tales of a  beautiful angel who roams the battlefield and takes the dying to  their rest, but he believed she was only a morphine-fueled dream  of men in pain until he sees her for himself. Maeve tries to put  the mortal doctor out of her mind. Her brother loved a mortal and  gave up his immortality for her, condemning himself to an eventual  human death; she refuses to follow his example. Her attraction to  Calder is too strong, however, and she finds herself drawn back to  his time--and eventually into his arms. Unfortunately,  complications arise that threaten the growing relationship between  Maeve and Calder. Maeve finds herself the reluctant champion of  her kind when she is called upon to track down and destroy the mad  vampire queen, Lisette, whose depravity threatens to bring down  the wrath of the warrior angels on all immortals--vampires and  warlocks alike. Maeve must strike an alliance with the enemy  warlocks for their mutual protection and garner their help for her  battle with Lisette. Her love for Calder makes her vulnerable,  however, and in her fear that Lisette might strike at her through  him, she makes him a virtual prisoner. Calder, who has demons of  his own past to battle, chafes at Maeve's protectiveness, which  threatens to drive a wedge between them.Linda Lael Miller'sFor All Eternitysucceeds as an  intriguing story on two levels, both as a sensual, otherworldly  romance and as an intense and dramatic battle of wits between two  powerful and vastly different creatures of the night.