Later, it becomes clear that Seth has gone Rogue and cannot be saved. In a final act of redemption, Seth sacrifices himself to help the Order kill the last remaining Ancient. After a bloody altercation, both Seth and the Ancient plummet off the side of a steep cliff, where the Ancient is buried under an avalanche of ice and snow, but Seth comes to rest on an outcrop below. Although Kade attempts to save him, Seth dies of his wounds. Kade and Alex bring Seth’s body home to the family Darkhaven, where Kade reconciles with his father and attends Seth’s funeral with Alex.
First mention in series: Appears in Shades of Midnight.
~ ~ ~
Sharon Alexander (d.) Human. Dylan’s mother. A free spirit, forever falling in love with a new man and getting her heart broken. Never married again after Dylan’s stepfather (see Bobby Alexander) abandoned the family when Dylan was twelve. Sharon is in the midst of a cancer battle during the timeline of Midnight Rising, causing her to send Dylan on her trip to the Czech Republic in Sharon’s place. Sharon meanwhile continues to work at the runaway shelter in Brooklyn, New York, where she is crushing on the shelter’s chief benefactor, Gordon Fasso (see Dragos).
Sharon’s work at the shelter, and particularly her connection to a young woman who recently went missing (see Toni) provides clues for Dylan and the Order to get closer to Dragos. Eventually, Dragos finds out that Sharon’s daughter is involved with the Order and he confronts the terminally ill woman, threatening her for information. Sharon does not compromise her beloved daughter, not even after Dragos reveals himself to be a vampire. During the altercation with Dragos, Sharon defies him, deliberately tumbling off her condo balcony, where she dies in the fall. Sharon Alexander is buried in Queens, New York, her afternoon funeral attended by Dylan and the other Breedmates of the Order.
Later in the series, during the timeline of Darker After Midnight, it is discovered that Sharon Alexander had an affair while in Mykonos, Greece (see Zael), and Dylan was born the following year.
First mention in series: Appears in Midnight Rising.
~ ~ ~
Sheldon Raines (d.) Human. Minion that Elise follows into a Boston FedEx store in opening scene of Midnight Awakening. He is a violent, belligerent individual, furious when he learns a package he’s expecting on behalf of his Master (see Odolf family) has been delayed due to a snowstorm. Elise tracks the Minion to his apartment building and stabs him dead with a dagger in her mission to kill Rogues and the unknown commander they served (see Marek) in an effort to avenge her son Camden’s death.
First mention in series: Appears in Midnight Awakening.
~ ~ ~
Sheryl Human. Lobby receptionist at the Boston Police station the night Gabrielle came in looking for “Detective” Lucan Thorne. On Officer Carrigan’s request, Sheryl calls a police psychologist to come down to the lobby and deal with Gabrielle, but Gabrielle leaves before the psychologist arrives.
First mention in series: Appears in Kiss of Midnight.
~ ~ ~
Sidney Charles. Human. One of Harmony’s Native elder residents and the town’s long-running, pony-tailed mayor. After events escalate in Shades of Midnight, bringing several members of the Order to Alaska to clean up the situation, Sidney Charles and several dozen other Harmony residents and two newly arrived Alaska State Troopers are gathered at the town’s church, where they are all tranced and mind-scrubbed by Tegan, Chase and Hunter.
First mention in series: Appears in Shades of Midnight.
~ ~ ~
Simon (d.) Breed male, one of Gideon’s young identical twin brothers. Simon and his brother, Roderick, were slain in a Rogue attack more than three hundred years ago outside their Darkhaven in London. It is later discovered that the boys were murdered on the orders of one of Gideon’s enemies (see Cyril Smithson), a revenge killing following Gideon’s slaying of another Breed male—his enemy’s father—in a duel.
First mention in series: Referenced in A Touch of Midnight (novella).
~ ~ ~
Sister Grace Gilhooley (d.) Human. Nun who used to volunteer at the women’s shelter with Dylan’s mother, Sharon Alexander, twenty-plus years ago. Sister Grace has been turned Minion for Dragos, acting as guardian of a holding cell in her home on the coast near Gloucester, Massachusetts, where several Breedmates were imprisoned. When Dylan, Jenna, Alex and Renata arrive at her home, Jenna immediately recognizes the nun as a Minion. Sister Grace attempts to escape, but Jenna attacks her. The nun, being Minion, refuses to answer any questions, quickly poisoning herself to avoid betraying her Master, Dragos.
First mention in series: Appears in Taken by Midnight.
~ ~ ~
Sister Margaret Mary Howland Human. Octogenarian nun living in a retirement home in Gloucester, Massachusetts. Dylan finds the sister’s photograph in a twenty-year-old class picture type of pose in front of St. John’s Home for Young Women in Queensboro, New York, while searching for information about dead Breedmates who seemed to have ties to Dragos. Dylan and some of the Order’s other women decide to contact Sister Mary Margaret to see if the nun can help them find missing Breedmates. The nun innocently leads the women to Sister Grace Gilhooley, who secretly serves Dragos as a Minion and holds a group of Breedmates prisoner at her home.
First mention in series: Appears in Taken by Midnight.
~ ~ ~
Skeeter Arnold (d.) Human. Full name Stanley Elmer Arnold. Stoner, unemployed drug dealer and resident of Harmony, Alaska. Makes money pushing drugs and alcohol on dry Native population and teens in area, covertly supplied by Zach Tucker. Skeeter took cell phone video of the Toms family’s bodies after the killings by the Ancient and uploaded it to the Internet, where the video caught the attention of the Order. Skeeter was later turned Minion by one of Dragos’s lieutenants. On a mission to eliminate witnesses to the Ancient, Skeeter stabs and kills Big Dave Grant in the medical clinic in town. Kade then kills Skeeter in front of Alexandra Maguire and dumps the body in a steep ravine outside town.
First mention in series: Appears in Shades of Midnight.
~ ~ ~
Sorcha (d.) First Breedmate of Order member Tegan. They were mated during the period of the Order’s founding, mid-1300s. Sorcha was an innocent young woman, gypsy-dark looks and a sweet, trusting smile. She was abducted while Tegan was on a mission, and returned to him sometime later turned Minion. She had been abused, violated, a soulless shell. Tegan tried to make her better, feeding her his blood and draining hers, but she was too far gone. Tegan fell into Bloodlust trying to save her. Lucan locked Tegan away to help him recover, then he took Sorcha’s life to end her suffering. Tegan long held this act of mercy against Lucan. In Midnight Awakening, Tegan learns it was Marek who took Sorcha all those years ago and turned her into his Minion in an effort to extract information from her about Dragos and the hiding place of the Ancient.
First mention in series: Referenced in Kiss of Midnight.
~ ~ ~
Sterling “Harvard” Chase Breed male, former Enforcement Agent, current Order member. Son of August Chase, brother of Quentin. Mate of Tavia Fairchild. Sterling Chase was born and raised in Boston more than a century ago. Part of the Darkhaven elite, Chase comes from a well-connected, political family with deep ties to the Breed’s Enforcement Agency.
Bound by the Chase family motto, “Duty first.” Like the rest of his family, he holds several degrees from Harvard University, and before joining the Order during the timeline of Kiss of Crimson, most of Chase’s combat training was academic. This, along with his rigid, by-the-book attitude prompted Dante to nickname him “Harvard” the first time the warrior met him, although the two later became as close as brothers.
Chase’s uptight nature disguises an inner turmoil that has plagued him for many years. Those struggles have cost him family and friends, and have become dangerously more apparent in the time he’s been part of the Order. Chase’s fight to resist Bloodlust nearly costs him his friendship with Dante.
Chase and Tavia are parents to fraternal t
wins, a son and daughter, Aric and Carys, born soon after the close of Darker After Midnight.
Hair: golden blond
Eyes: blue
Unique ability: shadow-bender
Mate: Tavia Fairchild
Hero in: Darker After Midnight (Book 10)
First mention in series: Appears in Kiss of Crimson.
~ ~ ~
-T-
Taggart Breed male, Enforcement Agent. First introduced in the series during the timeline of Deeper Than Midnight. Taggart is a big vampire posted as guard at the door of an Agency watering hole and strip joint (known as a sip-and-strip) in Boston’s Chinatown district. Taggart and Sterling Chase have a strong mutual dislike and mistrust of each other. Taggart permits Chase and Hunter to enter the club only after realizing how lethal Hunter is. Taggart appears again during the timeline of Darker After Midnight, when Dragos walks into the Enforcement Agency hangout in Chinatown and blatantly invites the Breed males there to feed from—and kill, should they wish—the humans working the club. Taggart takes part in the carnage, but goes missing afterward and does not appear again thus far in the series.
First mention in series: Appears in Deeper Than Midnight.
~ ~ ~
Teddy Toms (d.) Human. Nineteen-year-old Native kid, resident of Harmony, Alaska. Teddy is partying with Annabeth Jablonsky, Chad Bishop, Skeeter Arnold and others the night the Ancient slaughters Teddy and his family in their rural settlement outside Harmony.
First mention in series: Appears in Shades of Midnight.
~ ~ ~
Tegan Gen One Breed, Order member, mate of Elise Chase. Tegan is approximately seven hundred years old. He sees no need to attempt to blend in with mankind, so he’s never bothered with a surname. One of the original members of the Order at its founding, Tegan has a reputation for being stone cold, merciless and detached, the loner of the group.
Centuries ago in Europe, his Breedmate, Sorcha, was kidnapped by a powerful Breed enemy of the Order. Bled to the point of no return, Sorcha was sent back to Tegan a Minion of the Breed male who drained her (see Marek). Tegan went mad with grief and rage, and would have been lost to Bloodlust if not for Lucan’s brutal, but necessary, intervention. Tegan thought he had cut himself off from all emotion until he crossed paths with Elise, a widowed Darkhaven Breedmate he had no right to desire.
Hair: tawny-gold, like a lion’s mane
Eyes: gem green
Unique ability: reads anyone’s thoughts and emotional states with a touch
Mate: Sorcha (deceased); Elise Chase
Hero in: Midnight Awakening (Book 3)
First mention in series: Appears in Kiss of Midnight.
~ ~ ~
Tess Culver Breedmate of Order member Dante. Born in rural Illinois, Teresa Dawn “Tess” Culver is twenty-six years old during the timeline of Kiss of Crimson. Tess’s true father was killed in a car accident when she was fourteen. Her mother remarried quickly to a successful local businessman. Tess’s stepfather sexually assaulted her on her seventeenth birthday, during which time he suffered a heart attack. Tess’s mother berated her daughter instead of supporting her, commanding Tess to use her special ability to “fix” him. Tess halted the man’s death, then later takes it back after discovering he has also accosted young children.
Tess flees home, staying with friends until she finished school and began a new life, eventually working as a veterinarian in her own practice. She always knew she was different, and thought moving far away from her past would keep her personal demons at bay. Late one Halloween night, however, she encountered a dark, dangerous stranger in her clinic—Dante, severely wounded in combat. When she tried to help him, he bit her in desperate need of her blood. A bond that began out of necessity soon became a deep and unbreakable love.
Dante and Tess are parents to a newborn Breed son whom they named Xander Raphael, signifying both the healer and the protector their child is destined to be.
Hair: honey brown, long curly waves
Eyes: aquamarine
Breedmate mark: between the thumb and forefinger of her right hand
Bloodscent: cinnamon and vanilla
Unique ability: heals with her touch; she can also rescind the gift of her healing with a touch
Mate: Dante
Heroine in: Kiss of Crimson (Book 2)
First mention in series: Appears in Kiss of Crimson.
~ ~ ~
Thane Breed male. Massive, built like a tank, lethal. Black hair, worn in a short queue, with a sharp widow’s peak and slashing ebony brows over hawkish green eyes. Thane is one of Reiver’s bodyguards, but it is later revealed that he is also part of an elite Enforcement Agency team out of London, sent to infiltrate Reiver’s organization with the blessing of a high-ranking Agency director in Boston, Mathias Rowan. Thane invites Malcolm MacBain to join his Enforcement Agency team at the close of A Taste of Midnight, but Mal declines in order to focus on his new Breedmate, Danika.
First mention in series: Appears in A Taste of Midnight (novella).
~ ~ ~
Tilda Breedmate who works at the Bishop family Darkhaven in Detroit.
First mention in series: Appears in Deeper Than Midnight.
~ ~ ~
Toni (d.) Breedmate ghost in Goth attire, who appears to Dylan at the hospital while Dylan is visiting her mother there. Toni appears again with other dead Breedmates at the shelter and warns Dylan that Gordon Fasso is Dragos.
First mention in series: Appears in Midnight Rising.
~ ~ ~
-U-
United States Vice President, unnamed (d.) Human. Former university professor of Bobby Clarence’s in Boston, longtime friend and mentor of the up-and-coming senator. As Vice President of the United States, this man is a high-value contact of Dragos. Dragos had intended to use the Minion senator to get close to the top government officials of the nation, but instead it’s Bobby Clarence’s death that offers the best chance of bringing the Vice President into Dragos’s hands. When a last-minute security concern thwarts the plan, Dragos speeds up his operation and unleashes the Rogues soon after the slight. With the human population in chaos, Dragos arranges another meeting with the Vice President, this time at the politician’s residence in Washington, D.C. There, Dragos turns the man into his Minion after the Vice President refuses to help Dragos lead the President into his trap. The Order soon arrives on the scene, and upon killing Dragos, all of his Minions—including the Vice President—die at the same time he breathes his last.
First mention in series: Appears in Darker After Midnight.
~ ~ ~
Uta Human. Berlin-area prostitute who is standing in a dirty alleyway when Rio is in the city in need of a feeding. She tells him she’s off duty, nervous about her pimp (see Big Man). Rio quickly feeds from the woman.
First mention in series: Appears in Midnight Rising.
~ ~ ~
-V-
Victor Bishop (d.) Breed male, Corinne's Darkhaven father; mate is named Regina. Victor Bishop is wealthy, well-connected and powerful. Had been allied with Enforcement Agency director Gerard Starkn (one of Dragos’s aliases) around seventy years ago, when Victor’s adopted daughter Corinne was taken captive by Dragos and another of his associates (see Henry Vachon). Victor was aware of the abduction, even permitted it, to spare any harm to his son, Sebastian. After Hunter brings Corinne home to Detroit following her rescue by the Order, Victor Bishop’s duplicity comes to light. He later contacts Henry Vachon to warn him and Dragos that they’ve been discovered. Regina overhears the conversation and confronts Victor. He is prepared to kill her to ensure her silence, but one of the Darkhaven’s security detail intervenes (see Mason). The guard shoves the wounded Victor Bishop out of a window, where he dies in the sunlight.
First mention in series: Appears in Deeper Than Midnight.
~ ~ ~
Victoria Breedmate, Kade's mother. Mate of Kir. Very pregnant with another set of identical twin boys when Kade returns home to the family Da
rkhaven outside Fairbanks. She has not been aware of how her ESP talent, the ability to communicate and connect psychically to predator animals, has affected her sons.
First mention in series: Appears in Shades of Midnight.
~ ~ ~
-W-
Wilhelm Roth (d.) Breed male, second generation. Corrupt Enforcement Agent, director of the Agency in Hamburg, Germany and lieutenant of Dragos. Wilhelm Roth was Claire Samuels’s first mate. Prior to Claire, Roth was mated to a Breedmate named Ilsa. He killed her to make way for taking Claire as his mate. Wilhelm Roth is killed by Andreas Reichen during a confrontation between the Order and Roth.
First mention in series: Appears without being named in Veil of Midnight; appears later in Ashes of Midnight.
~ ~ ~
-X-
Xander Raphael “Rafe” Malebranche Breed male, son of Dante and Tess. Born December 17, during the timeline of Deeper Than Midnight. His godfather was to be Sterling Chase, but conflict between Chase and Dante made the new parents look in another direction. During the timeline of Darker After Midnight, week-old Rafe is presented to the Order and to his godparents, Gideon and Savannah. Rafe enters the series again as a young adult and new member of the Order in Edge of Dawn.