Paranormal
![J. R. Ward - [object Object] author](https://res.cloudinary.com/readsomnia/image/upload/authors/a_B001H6OGQA.jpg)
The Viper (3) (Black Dagger Brotherhood: Prison Camp)
A heart-wrenching tale of love and betrayal in the Black Dagger Brotherhood world from #1 New York Times bestselling author J. R. Ward.
Framed for the grisly murder of his shellan, Kane is condemned to the notorious prison camp-unaware of the dark truth behind his arranged mating. Centuries later, when he is horribly burned while attempting to save others, he prays he'll finally be reunited in the Fade with his mate…not knowing what revelations await him.
Nadya is a self-taught nurse who does what she can to ease the suffering of the prisoners. When Kane comes under her care, she cannot help but empathize with his condition for very personal reasons-and as the guards take him away one last time, she fears he is facing a terrible death.
After a daring rescue, Kane is offered a treatment that will change his very nature. Choosing life, for the time being, he goes back for the female who took such good care of him-but his duty to Nadya sets him on a collision course with his own past. When long-buried secrets are exposed, his self-destruction is inevitable…unless true love can save his soul.
Framed for the grisly murder of his shellan, Kane is condemned to the notorious prison camp-unaware of the dark truth behind his arranged mating. Centuries later, when he is horribly burned while attempting to save others, he prays he'll finally be reunited in the Fade with his mate…not knowing what revelations await him.
Nadya is a self-taught nurse who does what she can to ease the suffering of the prisoners. When Kane comes under her care, she cannot help but empathize with his condition for very personal reasons-and as the guards take him away one last time, she fears he is facing a terrible death.
After a daring rescue, Kane is offered a treatment that will change his very nature. Choosing life, for the time being, he goes back for the female who took such good care of him-but his duty to Nadya sets him on a collision course with his own past. When long-buried secrets are exposed, his self-destruction is inevitable…unless true love can save his soul.
Readers Top Reviews
S. CelestineP. Al
J.R. Ward has done it again. Keeps me hooked from beginning to end. Story line was better than I could have expected.
Whiskey & Wit Boo
Any spinoff of J.R. Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood is a place of reading that I want permanent occupancy. Prison Camp is one of the 99 problems the BDB knows it has but can't find... The Viper is Kane and Nadya's story. You'll recall from the first two Prison installments that Kane was a former prisoner who took his wired-to-blow collar off and detonated himself a guaranteed, one-way ticket unto The Fade in the hopes of a reunion with his deceased shellan and with the hopes that his sacrifice would allow his longtime inmate friend, the Jackal, a chance at freedom. We learn later that Kane's collar-to-heaven attempt failed, and Nadya, the mysteriously veiled nurse, is the one who tends to his broken body. Surprisingly, The Viper mixes vampire and wolven lore more heavily than even Lucan's story in The Wolf. As always, anything grown in J.R. Ward's gray matter and makes an ink splash landing on paper is just good reading. *Note - Kane's backstory is a SURPRISE!!! Kris Whiskey & Wit Book Reviews
Nonna2KWhiskey &
The Viper appears to be the conclusion of the Black weDagger Brotherhood Prison Camp side series. Kane made a choice when he was close to entering the Fade. It was a choice that he didn’t know the full extent of when it happened. We get to see the Jackal, Lucan, Mayhem, and Apex in this book, along with some of the Brothers. The Wolven are here, too, and although the Prison Camp series seems to end, we are left with a cliffhanger of sorts dealing with the Wolven. This story kept my attention from start to finish, but things seem to be not as detailed as with the BDB stories. I’m a fan of JR Ward and the Brothers, so anything that takes place in their vicinity will be a must read for me.
Wendy M Krautheim
I’m a huge fan of the Black Dagger Brotherhood - it’s one of my favorite series. This book was a little hard for me to get into at first. It felt like too much repetitive action at first, but once I got into Kane and Nadya’s romance, the book sucked me in. Not quite as good as the main series, but a solid read overall.
RoRoWendy M Kraut
I love this author. Tracks story lines well. Enjoyed the read
Short Excerpt Teaser
CHAPTER ONE
Present Day
Willow Hills Sanatorium (deserted)
Connelly, New York
Get the fucking car. Right now-wait! Did you disarm the collars?"
"We'll find out. If our heads blow off, that would be a no."
After this back-and-forth of disembodied male voices, there was a scramble of footfalls that retreated-and an electronic beeping that was short in duration, quiet in volume. And then, silence.
No… breathing.
From behind Kane's slammed-shut eyelids, he couldn't tell whether the ragged respiration was his own or another's, and there was little he could do to settle the debate. He lacked the strength to lift the dead weight that was cutting off his vision, but there were other issues outside of that. His wounded body, covered in third-degree burns, was an anchor that kept his cognitive abilities far, far under the hot water of his pain. Processing anything past a simple state of consciousness required concentration he did not have.
Although, if he was having even these thoughts, surely at least some of the inhaling/exhaling was his own-
Well… dammit. He was going to throw up.
About ten minutes ago, or it might have been ten hours ago-maybe ten days ago?-they'd given him something to ease his agony, the drug administered into a vein at the crook of his elbow. Almost immediately, there had been a floating sensation that had dimmed everything and created the heavy lids he was trying to raise, and now his stomach was rolling, the nausea nearly as bad as the-
The sound of metal on metal registered.
A gun being checked for ammunition.
The shifting and clicking were enough to cut through what few thoughts he had, taking him back to places in his old life he never liked to visit. However, the tide of recollections about his past refused to heed the barriers he attempted to erect. Images, like grenades, assaulted his mental landscape, their detonations creating craters-
"Kane."
Relieved by the distraction, he turned his head blindly to the male he knew so very well. Dragging open his eyes, he saw nothing. At least… he thought his lids were open? He had been recently beaten by some of the prison camp's guards, and the swelling made him feel like his face was a sack of potatoes.
"Apex," he said hoarsely.
"I'm going to pick you up."
Shaking his head, Kane tried to speak further. Movement would be very bad in this instance. Very bad indeed-
"This is our one shot. We have to take it now."
The arms that shoved their way under his body were like rods inserted through his flesh, and he moaned. Then panicked.
"Wait, stop," he choked out.
On his command, Apex froze, and Kane had a thought that no one else could do that to the other prisoner. Apex was a force of nature, an immoral scourge within the camp's confines, whether here at the new location, or in the previous subterranean one. And yet he came to heel for Kane, for reasons that had never been clear.
"We cannot leave." Kane coughed weakly, which made him feel sicker. "What… of Lucan. The Jackal-"
"They're gone."
Kane struggled to keep focus. "Where did they go-"
"We can't do this right now. The head of the guards is in the workroom and the shift change is happening. We need to get you out of her private quarters while we can-"
"What about the Executioner-"
"I already told you. He's been taken care of."
"What about Lucan, what about the Jackal-"
"I just answered that. We're going now-"
"What about Nadya?"
He didn't get a reply. And as he was forcibly picked up and carried off, he lost his ability to speak. Sure as if someone had set a charge under his skin and blown him up, his body seemed to lose all structural integrity, becoming nothing but nerve impulses that overwhelmed his brain, even with the drugs. It was all he could do to stay alive-and then he did throw up, bile stinging its way up his throat and souring his mouth. As he began to choke, he was roughly turned in Apex's arms so his mouth cleared.
Another round of beeping.
Stairs, but in his delirium he couldn't tell whether they were ascending or descending. The next thing he was aware of was fresh air. Cold, fresh air. As his lungs inflated, his stomach settled a little, and he became preoccupied with the layers of scent. Pine. Wet dirt. A faint vehicle exhaust-
Gunshots. From behind them.
"Fuck," Apex muttered.
Now, gunshots close by. And a shout as if someone was hit. Followed by another holler.
"Over here!" Mayhem called out.
Fast movement now, and bullets whizzing by, the high-pitched missiles streaking past them.
A stop-short, som...
Present Day
Willow Hills Sanatorium (deserted)
Connelly, New York
Get the fucking car. Right now-wait! Did you disarm the collars?"
"We'll find out. If our heads blow off, that would be a no."
After this back-and-forth of disembodied male voices, there was a scramble of footfalls that retreated-and an electronic beeping that was short in duration, quiet in volume. And then, silence.
No… breathing.
From behind Kane's slammed-shut eyelids, he couldn't tell whether the ragged respiration was his own or another's, and there was little he could do to settle the debate. He lacked the strength to lift the dead weight that was cutting off his vision, but there were other issues outside of that. His wounded body, covered in third-degree burns, was an anchor that kept his cognitive abilities far, far under the hot water of his pain. Processing anything past a simple state of consciousness required concentration he did not have.
Although, if he was having even these thoughts, surely at least some of the inhaling/exhaling was his own-
Well… dammit. He was going to throw up.
About ten minutes ago, or it might have been ten hours ago-maybe ten days ago?-they'd given him something to ease his agony, the drug administered into a vein at the crook of his elbow. Almost immediately, there had been a floating sensation that had dimmed everything and created the heavy lids he was trying to raise, and now his stomach was rolling, the nausea nearly as bad as the-
The sound of metal on metal registered.
A gun being checked for ammunition.
The shifting and clicking were enough to cut through what few thoughts he had, taking him back to places in his old life he never liked to visit. However, the tide of recollections about his past refused to heed the barriers he attempted to erect. Images, like grenades, assaulted his mental landscape, their detonations creating craters-
"Kane."
Relieved by the distraction, he turned his head blindly to the male he knew so very well. Dragging open his eyes, he saw nothing. At least… he thought his lids were open? He had been recently beaten by some of the prison camp's guards, and the swelling made him feel like his face was a sack of potatoes.
"Apex," he said hoarsely.
"I'm going to pick you up."
Shaking his head, Kane tried to speak further. Movement would be very bad in this instance. Very bad indeed-
"This is our one shot. We have to take it now."
The arms that shoved their way under his body were like rods inserted through his flesh, and he moaned. Then panicked.
"Wait, stop," he choked out.
On his command, Apex froze, and Kane had a thought that no one else could do that to the other prisoner. Apex was a force of nature, an immoral scourge within the camp's confines, whether here at the new location, or in the previous subterranean one. And yet he came to heel for Kane, for reasons that had never been clear.
"We cannot leave." Kane coughed weakly, which made him feel sicker. "What… of Lucan. The Jackal-"
"They're gone."
Kane struggled to keep focus. "Where did they go-"
"We can't do this right now. The head of the guards is in the workroom and the shift change is happening. We need to get you out of her private quarters while we can-"
"What about the Executioner-"
"I already told you. He's been taken care of."
"What about Lucan, what about the Jackal-"
"I just answered that. We're going now-"
"What about Nadya?"
He didn't get a reply. And as he was forcibly picked up and carried off, he lost his ability to speak. Sure as if someone had set a charge under his skin and blown him up, his body seemed to lose all structural integrity, becoming nothing but nerve impulses that overwhelmed his brain, even with the drugs. It was all he could do to stay alive-and then he did throw up, bile stinging its way up his throat and souring his mouth. As he began to choke, he was roughly turned in Apex's arms so his mouth cleared.
Another round of beeping.
Stairs, but in his delirium he couldn't tell whether they were ascending or descending. The next thing he was aware of was fresh air. Cold, fresh air. As his lungs inflated, his stomach settled a little, and he became preoccupied with the layers of scent. Pine. Wet dirt. A faint vehicle exhaust-
Gunshots. From behind them.
"Fuck," Apex muttered.
Now, gunshots close by. And a shout as if someone was hit. Followed by another holler.
"Over here!" Mayhem called out.
Fast movement now, and bullets whizzing by, the high-pitched missiles streaking past them.
A stop-short, som...
