Dark Heroes

Dark Heroes!
By
N. J. Walters

Dark heroes. Wounded heroes. Hard men, with murky pasts, who live by a code of honor, which shapes their lives. These are the anti-heroes, the reluctant male lead. And we can’t seem to get enough of them.

What is it about these bad boys that we love? They’re strong, physically and mentally. That doesn’t mean they haven’t had their share of torment and hardships. Just the opposite in fact. These men almost always have something dark in their pasts, something that has shaped them, making them into the loners they are.

But, they also have a code by which they live. Often times, it differs from that of normal, polite society. A dark hero is not an easy man to understand and live with. He’s driven by demons of his own, his actions sometime seeming be that of a villain. But there is always a reason behind it.

That’s where the heroine usually comes in. She’s a strong woman. She has to be in order to deal with the hero. She’s not as physically strong as he is, but mentally and intellectually, she’s more than his match. And sometimes she can kick butt too!

There is something about gentling a hard man that is irresistible. You know you can never tame him, but sometimes he will show his softer side to a very special woman. This is a combination—hardness with an underlying shadow of softness—that makes all of us head back to the bookstore in search of more novels about dark heroes.

Vampires, demons, werewolves, burnt-out cops, wounded soldiers, jaded businessmen—the dark hero can be any one of these men. Whether he wears leather or a designer suit, it’s what makes up the man on the inside that is most important.

As a writer, I can’t resist the wounded hero. Lucas Squires, from Craving Candy, is a man who ended up in prison for almost beating his father to death for abusing his mother. Lucas’s father finally kills his mother while Lucas is in prison. Years later, Lucas has made a life for himself but his past still haunts him.

Then there is wounded cop, Patrick O’Rourke, from The Return of Patrick O’Rourke. When his partner is killed and he is shot in the line of duty, Patrick returns home, looking for meaning in his life. He’s jaded and cynical, but he can’t quite stamp out the hero lurking beneath his dark façade. And when a woman from his past is in trouble, he can’t stop himself from coming to her rescue.

Then there are the Dalakis brothers from my vampire series. These are dark, brooding vampires, who definitely have their own code by which they live. They protect what is theirs and nothing is dearer to them than the women they love. They won’t hesitate to destroy anyone or anything that threatens their family. In Endless Chase, my latest Ellora’s Cave novel, that becomes a problem when the threat may come from inside their family itself.

Warriors, vampires, businessmen, and paranormal creatures—I’ve found dark heroes lurking amongst all of them. And that’s a very good thing. Because what would we do without them?

Some of my favorites dark heroes come from J. R. Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood, Sherrilyn Kenyon’s Dark Hunters and Christine Feehan’s vampires, to name a few.

Who are some of your favorite dark heroes?


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