For Ulric, a pagan warrior who was turned into a vampire by a Christian crusader in the 14th century, immortality has come at the price of a deep and abiding loneliness. He cannot seek companionship from one of his own kind, because vampires—like many other predators—cannot tolerate one another's presence. The only person who shares his memories of home is his half-sister Adulfa, but she has spent the centuries sharpening her hatred of Ulric, for it was he who forced her to become a blood-drinker. It matters not to Adulfa that Ulric was also under duress when this tragedy occurred.

Now Ulric has found his soulmate, a woman who loves him despite her own turmoil about the things that he must do to survive. Their passion for one another is tragically heightened by the fact that she cannot live forever. And she refuses to accept life everlasting, because becoming a vampire herself will force her to leave Ulric's side to establish her own hunting ground, where she would reign supreme, but alone.

If anything makes Adulfa angrier than the prospect of Ulric being happy, if only for a few short years, it is his effrontery in raising a piece of prey to the status of his peer. Lost in a frenzied attempt to satisfy their desire for one another, Ulric and his lover, Lilith, do not realize that they are being stalked by a sadistic and amoral Valkyrie who has had centuries to plot her revenge. In Adulfa's eyes, Lilith may be nothing more than food, but her submissive charms are not lost upon Ulric's sister. Like a great cat, once she pounces, she plans to toy with her captive, if only because this will speed Ulric to his beloved's rescue.

When brother and sister clash over the possession of Lilith, none of them will emerge unscathed. There are far worse fates than death.

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Author photograph by Mark I. Chester