Dawn Eindhoven, a high-powered executive at Hemosythec, is taking a shortcut through the slums of lower level London when a vampire kidnaps her.  To her shock, the vampire turns out to be Helios, the first vampire created.  He’s determined to force Dawn to help him and his group of vampires steal a new chemical her company has created, a cure for the enzyme vampires need to survive even though it also slowly poisons them.  Dawn is shocked and horrified by her attraction to the vampire, since vampires are nothing more than slaves and fraternization between the species is forbidden.  Will Dawn agree to help Helios?  And more importantly, will these two very different people stay together once they succumb to their attraction?

DamNATION features a different take on the vampire.  In this dark, dystopian, futuristic tale, vampires were created to be slaves for humans, doing jobs human bodies couldn’t handle.  The humans control the vampires by creating them to be dependent on an enzyme which both sustains them and causes them to die by the time they turn forty.  The sole exception to this terrible cycle is the First, Helios.  After enduring decades of torture and abuse at the hands of his human captors, Helios escaped.  Many years later, he created the resistance.  Helios is definitely a tortured hero.  He’s both strong and vulnerable, with a thirst for revenge tempered only by his feelings for Dawn.  Dawn begins the story as a cold, ambitious, and callous woman, but she slowly becomes more empathetic as she spends time with Helios.  DamNATION is action-packed, with hot sex scenes and lots of emotional growth for the characters.  Nathalie Gray’s new vampire mythology is fascinating, and her characters are compelling.  My only complaint with this one (and it’s a bit of a biggie) is the violence.  I don’t mind violence shown in flashbacks to provide motivation for a character, or when it’s directed at the bad guys, but there is considerable collateral damage in this one.  Helios does some truly horrifying things when motivated by grief and revenge, and while I could sympathize with his plight, his actions bothered me.  Still, for a devoted reader of vampire stories like myself, a new take on the genre was welcome.  If you like dark vampire tales and don’t mind some violence, pick up DamNATION.