Dark Gold

Dark Gold is a paranormal romance novel by Christine Feehan, published in 2000. Its heroine, Alexandria Houton, is raising an orphaned younger brother and would give up anything for him.

The two of them encounter unspeakable evil in the swirling mists of San Francisco, and Alexandria's position is that of somebody who has run out of ways to protect a child. Her appeal is answered by Aidan Savage, an ageless Carpathian male who snatches both of them out of the danger they were in.

Aidan is described as golden and as more powerful and more mysterious than any other creature of the night, which raises the question of what he expects in exchange for the rescue.

Alexandria's priority is her brother's safety rather than her own, and that priority is what the book uses to keep her in a situation from which she would otherwise have walked away. What he asks in return is not money, and the novel is about how long a woman can keep treating a debt as the only thing that matters.