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Even when there were no more options for the body, the heart’s wishes find a way out, and as with all warmth, love rises. Besides, the will to fly was in the nature of the soul, so its home had to be up above. And gifts did come from the sky, like spring rain and summer breezes and fall sun and winter snow.

-Mary Luce on love and death

Lover Eternal is the second novel of The Black Dagger Brotherhood series by J.R. Ward. It is preceded by Dark Lover and followed by Lover Awakened. It was first published March 7, 2006.

The story of The Black Dagger Brotherhood is continued with the Brother Rhage as he falls in love with a human, which is forbidden to vampires.

Synopsis[]

In the shadows of the night in Caldwell, New York, there’s a deadly war raging between vampires and their slayers. And there exists a secret band of brothers like no other - six vampire warriors, defenders of their race.

Possessed by a deadly beast, Rhage is the most dangerous of the Black Dagger Brotherhood...

Within the brotherhood, Rhage is the vampire with the strongest appetites. He’s the best fighter, the quickest to act on his impulses, and the most voracious lover—for inside him burns a ferocious curse cast by the Scribe Virgin. Possessed by this dark side, Rhage fears the times when his inner dragon is unleashed, making him a danger to everyone around him.

Mary Luce, a survivor of many hardships, is unwittingly thrown into the vampire world and reliant on Rhage’s protection. With a life-threatening curse of her own, Mary is not looking for love. Her faith in miracles was lost years ago. But when Rhage’s intense animal attraction turns into something more emotional, he knows that he must make Mary his alone. And while their enemies close in, Mary fights desperately to gain life eternal with the one she loves…

Main Characters[]

Other Characters[]

Black Dagger Brotherhood Members[]

Others - Speaking Roles[]

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Plot[]

In 1898, Rhage joins the Brotherhood, but he was young and arrogant and made many poor decisions. He killed an owl, sacred to The Scribe Virgin, and begins to realize there are consequences to his actions. She curses him for the death of the bird with The Beast.

John Matthew, a mute orphan, calls the Suicide Prevention Hotline and listens to Mary Luce talk to him. While soaking her feet in a backyard pool, she sees John and invites him to join her. He's so small, obviously poor and hungry, that she doesn't feel threatened. He'd followed her home and confessed that he lived across from the hotline office and worried about her getting home safely since it was in a bad neighbourhood. So he started following her home to make sure she was safe.

Mary's neighbour and friend, Bella, came over to visit and pegged John as a vampire. While talking with Mary acting as interpreter, Bella asks about a bracelet John wears. He tells her that he made it after seeing the characters over and over in his dreams. Since it was in the language used by vampires, Bella recognized it as a warrior's name: Tehrror.

Bella calls the Brotherhood and at their direction, she brings John and Mary to the Brotherhood compound, telling them that it's a martial arts dojo because John has an interest in it. During John's meeting with the Brotherhood in the training centre, Rhage stumbled towards the gym to try and work off what was essentially a hangover after recently changing into the Beast. Virtually blind, he ran into Mary and, intrigued by her scent, came on too strongly for her comfort.

The Brotherhood erased her memory, but Rhage is determined to see her again. He asks Bella to set them up on a blind date and tells her to give Mary the name of Hal E. Wood. Since neither of them was familiar with human dating customs, Bella suggested T.G.I. Friday's. Other women in the restaurant, including the waitress, tried to catch his attention, but he only had eyes for Mary, who assumed he was merely humouring her. He was stunned by the fact that she wouldn't think someone like him would find her attractive.

He comes to look for her in her home one day and start to spend more time together. They fall for each other. One not being able to be without the other. Rhage finds out that Mary has terminal leukemia and so Mary starts to push him away. Scared to hurt him. After having sex with random women, Rhage realizes nothing can make him not want to be with Mary and they get back together.

Rhage brought Mary to the mansion to protect her from the Lessening Society, who ended up with her purse and therefore her name and address. The Brotherhood discovers he went against orders and not only did he not wipe her memory, but he also brought a human to the mansion. Scared by the Brothers and their anger, she tried to leave, but the front door was blocked by Zsadist, who frightened her further. Beth, carrying Boo, interrupted and scolded them for scaring Mary. She ordered the Brothers back into the billiards room where they'd been playing pool.

Wrath went to the Scribe Virgin over Rhage's transgressions, and she agrees to a Writhe ceremony as penance, which is essentially ritual torture at the hands of the Brotherhood. For the ceremony, Tohrment selects a three-tailed whip tipped with what looks like barbed pinecones. The only limit is that the Brothers cannot kill him, and they whip him bloody, then bandage him up. Zsadist tried to refuse to participate, but the Scribe Virgin pulled him aside for a private word and he took part. They tried to sneak Rhage into the Pit to recuperate, but Mary found them and yelled at them for hurting him.

Rhage has been scared to sleep with Mary because the Beast within him starts to lose control and he is scared that it will harm her. At one point he has sex with a random woman to calm his Beast, which sets back his relationship with Mary.

Rhage goes to Vishous for advice on how to tie him up to prevent the Beast from taking control. Without missing a beat, V suggests chains like the kind you'd use to tow a car. Butch and V chain him thoroughly to his bed and then wait out in the corridor as an extra precaution. Mary though is not scared and shows the Beast kindness, and finds that the Beast listens to her, that her calm voice soothed it and allowed Rhage to return from Beast form once all threats were eliminated. They are able to sleep together, Rhage able to relax knowing that is the beast comes through it won't harm her.

As Mary gets worse, Rhage is desperate to do something about it so visits the Scribe Virgin. She makes a deal with Rhage for Mary’s health and long life in exchange for Rhage never being in her life again and taking on the Beast perpetually. The Scribe Virgin then adjusted the pact once she discovered that Mary was barren after chemotherapy. Since balance required a life for a life, infertility meant they could be together.

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