Retro-view: No Rest For The Wicked

by Kresley Cole

A vampire soldier weary of life… Centuries ago, Sebastian Wroth was turned into a vampire—a nightmare in his mind—against his will. Burdened with hatred and alone for ages, he sees little reason to live. Until an exquisite, fey creature comes to kill him, inadvertently saving him instead. A Valkyrie assassin dispatched to destroy him… When Kaderin the Cold Hearted lost her two beloved sisters to a vampire attack long ago, a benevolent force deadened her sorrow—accidentally extinguishing all of her emotions. Yet whenever she encounters Sebastian, her feelings—particularly lust—emerge multiplied. For the first time, she’s unable to complete a kill. Become competitors in a legendary hunt… The prize of the month-long contest is powerful enough to change history, and Kaderin will do anything to win it for her sisters. Wanting only to win her, forever, Sebastian competes as well, taking every opportunity–as they travel to ancient tombs and through catacombs, seeking relics around the world–to use her new feelings to seduce her. But when forced to choose between the vampire she’s falling for and reuniting her family, how can Kaderin live without either?

Well, MacRieve is coming out Tuesday so, here’s another retroview of the awesome Immortals After Dark Series. No Rest For the Wicked is one of the IAD books that can polarise. Some people feel Kaderin was too cold for too long, others don’t like Sebastian. Presumably there are some people who don’t like the book at all. Me? I love it.

No Rest for the Wicked is very tonally different from the previous book and from all the other IAD books. This is something I never could figure out why (or at least a reason I thought why) until I realised it reflects Kaderin and Sebastian. Both Kaderin and Sebastian are very logical characters that are only now being confronted with their emotions. Also this book features the Hie an immortal version of the Amazing Race, making the plot very different from the other books.

I love Sebastian. He is the third born of the Wroth brothers, and after Nikolai and Murdoch he felt and was considered not as good as a potential husband. Being shy and bookish as a boy, when he hit his growth spurt he accidently trod on a lot of feet while fitting into his massive body. Nikolai and Murdoch to their credit were proud of the fact that despite his years of training and practice, Sebastian’s mind was still the strongest part of him. He was to watch his sisters and the homestead only Russian soldiers attacked and mortally wounded both him and Conrad before realising the plague had already struck. Nikolai and Murdoch turned him despite his protests and he left them when he awoke a vampire. So Sebastian is vampire who loathes being a vampire, a master swordsman who feels insecure around women and then Kaderin shows up.

Kaderin is complicated. She’s at least 3 millennia old, and has spent half or more of it emotionless. Born one of triplet-sisters, Kaderin gave a vampire mercy during war and he then killed her sisters. Grieving Kaderin was too strong to die of sorrow, but too sorrowful not to drain the Valkyrie covens. One day she woke up and no longer felt. Until she is asked to kill a vampire.

After going with her sisters to try and rescue Emmaline from Lachlain in A Hunger Like No Other, Kaderin attempts to kill Sebastian. Unlike most of her kills Sebastian is not mad from the thirst and very much longs to die. Right up until Kaderin bloods him. In imminent death Sebastian takes what he was afraid to ask for as a mortal, he and Kaderin experience mutual satisfaction and then Kaderin remembers that Sebastian is a vampire she was meant to kill and she escapes into the sun to get away from him.

As Kaderin goes to start the Hie in Riora’s temple she feels confident she can relax during her time taking out the prize for the fifth time in a row, except two things happen. 1) The prize this Hie, is the highly coveted Thrane’s Key, capable of time travel, and 2) Sebastian manages what no other vampire has, to trace to a person instead of a place. This ups the stakes considerably, Kaderin has the chance to get her sisters back, which means she has to play the game in a different way. Sebastian see Kaderin wants the prize enters himself into the Hie, meaning that Kaderin can’t kill him even if she could bring herself to do it.

Sebastian is so adorable because he is so desperately shy and convinced that he is inadequate for any woman, let alone one so beautiful and lovely as Kaderin. He is a big hulking warrior of a vampire and terrified that he may never get to touch Kaderin. It’s enough to melt anyone’s heart strings. Sebastian even tries to dump Kaderin in a bizarre attempt to win her over.

Kaderin is so confused, she has lived only for destroying vampires for centuries. Her Queen is being tortured endlessly by drowning because of vampires, her sisters were murdered by a vampire. She was supposed to kill Sebastian, and even if she doesn’t, Valkyrie don’t get happy endings with Vampires. Kaderin is also completely unprepared to deal with her emotions for anyone, as she is completely unprepared for emotions after having none for so long.

Add this to the very real threat of Bowen MacRieve competing in the Hie for his Mate and Lucindeya the Siren Kaderin’s perennial threat in the Hie competing like never before and Nix’s first ever prediction of a Valkyrie’s death the stakes are high.

Now back to that comment on tone. The Hie backdrop is very different to the backdrop of the other books which are more like quests. Kaderin and Sebastian are both highly logical and intelligent people, and No Rest For The Wicked displays the book through their POV’s. It makes sense that this book views things more clinically than other books in the IAD series.

This book is one of the IAD books that I love because I love Sebastian and connected with his insecurity and thus invested in his getting Kaderin. I love Kaderin because she is so deliciously conflicted.

IAD series retroviews: A Hunger Like No Other, The Warlord Wants Forever.

Currently Listening: Break Even – The Script