Special Forces - Mercenaries Part I - Director's Cut (Special Forces, #2 part 1) - Aleksandr Voinov,  Marquesate,  Vashtan "Once upon a time, a mountain lion and a tiger escaped a circus..."I'm just so high right now with the ending, that I'll overlook all the heartbreak the first half of the book brought me. While Soldiers ripped my heart out with the emotional intensity, in Mercenaries I ripped my hair out from the frustration! I have to say, I wanted to use a club and bash some of the characters!*Do not read this if you haven't read Special Forces: Soldiers!*The storyIt picks up right after the ending of Soldiers (and boy am I glad this wasn't in the first book as the original version!). Vadim is kidnapped and Dan barely makes it out alive. He soon finds out that Vadim is in prison and accused of betraying his country. This part was terrible. I cried non-stop. Just seeing Dan and his depression, how he fought for Vadim's life... Very sad. Then there was Vadim in prison. My God. Just f-ing awful. And the tiger-lion story? Sadness. Total sadness. I sobbed at that one. The next part of the story was kind of weird to read because it is written differently than the rest. A very large part of it was divided. Vadim in Sweden and his training, and Dan in Iraq. Maybe it would be easier if it was frequently switched between them, but for me, those sections were just too big with only one character. Anyway, I preferred Vadim's part of the story and his training, how he slowly began to heal. Just felt so bad for him. Damn. Then came the part when Vadim came to Iraq. Oh boy. Very very bad. I felt even worse for him. Won't go anymore into details, this is too much spoiling as it is lol"If I am going crashing down, I’ll take Dan with me. His life is mine. It cannot be separated. We are like Siamese twins, sharing heart of a killer."VadimDefinitely #1 :D He's just such a complex character... Sometimes so dark, and sometimes so full of love for Dan it's almost unbelievable. In this book, he did a total transformation. And it was so difficult to read. His spirit was broken. His mind, his soul. Just terrible. He even lost his love for Dan, and that was the anchor he had in life. Dan WAS his life. So I totally understand what made him back away. No one could remain even slightly normal after that kind of torture. I was so glad he started the training! Happy to see him get better (even though it was not much, but a progress anyway). The nightmares... No. The flashbacks... No, no. The way he was treated after he came to Dan. F*cking NO! Thinking of suicide... *sob* Nooo. "...He stared into Dan’s face and thought you’ll never know. I’ll drown in my own blood, will never breathe again, but you’ll never know."And then the scene at the roof-top. Beautiful. Finally some communication between them. The ending