Marina Surzhevskaya’s "Instinct of Evil:
The Executor," a summary

This book is a dark urban fantasy, published in 2016. The plot revolves around a young woman named Victoria. She suffers from numerous phobias and is forced to become a prisoner of the stern owner of a mansion. She learns to survive among monsters, magic, and ancient rituals. Then she learns the terrifying truth about her death: she was resurrected as a vessel for the souls of ancient creatures. The author skillfully blends romance with brutal action scenes and explicit erotica. The heroine changes throughout the story, gaining unprecedented physical strength.

The deal and the new order

Victoria, or Vi, lives in perpetual fear, where nyctophobia forces her to hide from the dark, and haphephobia causes a dread of touch. Her beloved Rick falls terminally ill with an unknown illness, and doctors are at a loss. She recalls a conversation Rick had with his brother, the incredibly wealthy Vlad Daggerwood. Vi overcomes her panic, goes to Vlad’s luxurious mansion, and begs him to save her beloved. Daggerwood possesses supernatural strength and a terrifying disposition. He agrees to heal Rick, but with a strict condition: Vi must become his property for one year. Victoria accepts the deal, after which Vlad goes to the hospital and uses the ancient magic of the Primordial Language, bringing his brother back from the dead.

Vi moves into the mansion and begins working as Vlad’s secretary, sorting his correspondence. She is struck by the strangeness of the house, where surveillance cameras are hidden in the walls and servants move silently. Dagerwood instantly recognizes lies, reads minds, and demonstrates superhuman reaction speed. Due to severe stress, Vi accidentally manifests telekinetic powers and smashes an antique secretary. Later, Vi secretly sneaks into the east wing’s vast swimming pool. There, she encounters two naked men — Fallan and Inis. They behave like wild predators, cornering the girl and calling her a "leida" — a willing pleasure slave. Fear of being touched triggers a severe attack in Vi, but Dagerwood manages to save her, sternly ordering his subordinates to retreat.

A few days later, Vi wanders into the city without permission, stopping at Tony’s bar, where she worked as a dishwasher. Her former colleague, Yula, is acting strangely and tries to restrain Victoria. Victoria flees, noticing a two-meter-tall stalker and a man in a cloak with red eyes standing at the door. A creature named Khran-os catches up with Vi and draws a six-pointed star on her stomach. Escaping, Vi finds herself in an alternate version of the city. The houses are entwined with giant purple flowers, and in her favorite coffee shop, an unknown person eats raw meat with blood. Vlad intercepts Vi in his high-speed sports car and takes her back.

Illusions of Terra and Secrets of Enphyria

Dagerwood decides to clarify the situation and explains the structure of the universe. Humans live in a dimension called Terra. A parallel dimension exists called Enphyria — a mirror world of the ancient Linkh race, who feed on human emotions, other people’s fears, blood, and flesh. Vlad, Rick, Fallan, and Inis are Devourers, maintaining order on behalf of the League. They destroy Linkh who violate the law regarding human killing quotas. Rick long denied his true nature and hid among humans. Rick’s illness was merely a symptom of the inevitable biological transformation of his body. Dagerwood suspects that Vi herself possesses Devourer genes, which explains her sudden bursts of immense physical strength.

Vi escapes the mansion. She tries to hide from the terrifying truth with a friend from the mental hospital. His name is Alex. It turns out he’s a Linkh from the House of the Brambleweed and feeds on the accidental deaths of people. Alex takes Vi hostage, threatening her with a sharp blade. Vlad appears and easily neutralizes him. During a brief fight, the blade slits Victoria’s throat. She falls to the dirty floor, bleeding profusely, but the fatal wound instantly heals without a trace. Daggerwood removes the magical illusion of ruin, transforming Alex’s house into a luxurious, bright loft. Vlad demands answers about what happened, but Vi is terrified by her own regeneration.

The Devourer decides to use Vi as bait. He forces the girl to wear a short silk dress with a skirt just 30 centimeters long. Vlad takes her to "The Edge," a neutral, private club for Linkhs. The club’s entourage is hostile to the Executor. In the mirrored restroom, Vi falls victim to the Mirrorsmith. This lesser Linkh draws her into the amalgam and takes her place. Vi breaks through the half-meter invisible barrier with her bare hands, returns to the hall, and beats the impostor with a slipper. Daggerwood takes her away. Tensions in the club rise to a breaking point due to the presence of Prince Aless of the royal line.

On the way back, Vlad’s sports car is pursued by four armed assassins. Daggerwood accelerates the car to 500 km/h, racing along the vertical stone walls of buildings. The chase ends on the platform of a destroyed bridge, where in 6 minutes and 15 seconds, Daggerwood decapitates his enemies with his bare hands. V watches in horror as he inhales their black essence. The assassins’ remains transform into dark, winged creatures — night owls, which is the devourer’s primary instinct. Inside the car, Daggerwood kisses V possessively. Her fears vanish, giving way to uncontrollable physical attraction, but he stops short of full-fledged sex.

At night, Vi is attacked by a midnight creature in the mansion. The winged creature pulls her out the window and lifts her 50 meters above the ground. Dagerwood shoots the beast down with well-aimed crossbow shots, and Vi falls to the ground, escaping with only minor scratches on her back. Vlad examines her stomach and attempts to decipher the star sign with magical black wax. The original rune doesn’t respond. Vlad tests his boundaries by openly caressing Vi. She reciprocates, but stops him in time, unwilling to submit completely to his control.

Fallan and Inis investigate the assassin incident, realizing the true motives behind it. Prince Aless deliberately provoked Vlad at the club. Someone from the inner circle stole a poison capable of killing a devourer. In the filthy docks, Dagerwood is attacked by a pack of lesser ogluts. Vlad kills them alone, but is injected with the stolen poison by an invisible higher link. The friends bring the paralyzed man to the mansion, where Dagerwood’s body temperature reaches critical levels. Vi unknowingly chants an ancient spell in a forgotten language, drawing the molten poison from the man’s body with his own hands.

The Truth About Death and Reborn

Awakened, Daggerwood interrogates Victoria harshly. She claims she remembers nothing before waking up in the clinic exactly two years ago. Vlad puts her in a car and drives her to the people she considers her parents. The meeting shocks everyone present. The mother and father share the terrible news of the death of their real daughter on May 17th in a car accident, along with her boyfriend. They personally buried the body. Victoria refuses to believe the elderly couple’s words. Vlad uncovers the truth through archives, which describe an abnormal thunderstorm with a total eclipse on the same day. The Linkhi deliberately concealed this event from their reports.

Rick meets the heroes at the mansion. He has fully transformed into a powerful Devourer and confesses everything. He was the one driving the car during the fatal accident. Hran-os secretly performed a dark necromantic ritual, using Victoria’s dead body as an empty vessel for a fusion spell. An ancient linkh implanted within her the essences of six murdered princesses from the royal line of Legar. Rick attempted to slow the memory recovery process by feeding Vi special pills. The Devourer within Rick began to instinctively react to the girl’s true dark nature, causing him to become severely physically ill.

Rick furiously attacks Vlad, trying to protect Victoria from the Executor’s wrath. Daggerwood quickly defeats his younger brother and entangles Rick in a magical copper net. The Devourer looks at Vi with a cold, empty gaze, preparing to kill her as a linkh. Panicked, the girl flees into the destroyed living room. Powerful currents of alien memories overwhelm her. She sees the past lives and violent deaths of ancient princesses. Along with her memories, their immense physical strength returns. Vi engages in brutal hand-to-hand combat with Daggerwood. She smashes antique furniture, throws heavy chairs, and deftly dodges the Executor’s knife strikes.

The fight completely destroys the living room. Shards of the aquarium litter the floor. Vi realizes one thing: she can’t defeat the experienced Executor in a direct fight to the death. She uses her feminine allure and gives in. Their feud escalates into an all-consuming, animalistic passion. Vlad loses his mind with lust and has wild sex with her right on the broken furniture. The exhausted man relaxes, and Victoria hits him over the head with a bronze stand with all her might. She takes the keys to the high-speed sports car and speeds out the wrought-iron gates of the mansion.

A huge crowd of red-robed Linkhs blocks the road. Among them is the necromancer Hran-os. The ancient creatures kneel before the stopped car. They greet Victoria. The monsters respectfully call her the Reborn. The girl realizes the cruel truth. An ancient dark power has finally awakened within her. She steps out to meet the monsters. Vi embraces her new, terrifying identity as a full-fledged Linkh.