After a year hiding out in the Bronx, Joe Pitt is given an assignment he can't refuse.
One Clan needs Joe to inform on another, but he's playing them both while keeping his eye on the main prize: his girl Evie is on the Island somewhere and he'll do anything to get her back. And in this case, 'anything' means coming face to face with the horrendous secret that lies beneath the Vampyre world. It's a quest that will drive him to the heart of the two most perplexing mysteries of the Vampyre community: how were the Clans originally formed, and where do the powerful ones get all that blood?
The search for the answer takes Joe to a dark corner of Queens, puts him face to face with a mythic and savage Clan, and leaves him in possession of a vision he'll never scrape off his retinas - as well as a bargaining chip that redefines his place in the Vampyre universe.
As the concluding volume of this highly acclaimed series opens, Joe has spent a year splashing around in the city's sewer system, protecting the perimeters of the ground on which his love, Evie, now lives.
Above ground, Manhattan's Vampyre clans have at last abandoned any claims on civility and have finally sprung fully for each others' throats. But as Vampyre civil war rages, Joe is tracked down by an old acquaintance and pulled back to the surface. At last, the many questions that have driven him will be put to rest - and the many friends and foes who have defined his world will either be put in the ground or will claw their way to survival.
The carefully maintained peace is forgotten. When the stakes are this high, there can be no neutrality - only winners and losers. But when the blood stops flowing, what side will Joe Pitt be on?
They live among us, slaves to the very condition that empowers them. They are the Vampyre, and their sole chance at survival lies in banding into Clans. Only Joe Pitt has gone his own way. The upside is freedom. The downside is there's nobody on his side when trouble comes around. Joe gets rough receptions from all the countless Clans shifting about on the island of Manhattan, but his current trouble is with the Coalition - the Clan that controls the city river to river, from 14th Street to 110th Street. To make things right, Joe takes on his most perilous case: The daughter of a prominent New York family is missing, and her Vampyre fascination makes Joe the ideal man for this high-stakes job.
With his ferocious style, Charlie Huston offers a thrilling new twist to one of our oldest myths.
New York's favourite rogue detective, Joe Pitt, is about to find himself caught in a nasty power struggle between competing Vampyre clans.
Down to his last few bags of blood and behind on rent, Joe takes on a decidedly dirty job: finding the source of a powerful drug that's hit the street, one strong enough to affect Vampyres and make its users do unpredictable things, things that could bring unwelcome exposure to New York's Vampyre community.
Unfortunately, that entails crossing the mid-Manhattan turf of the Coalition into the equally fearsome territory of the Hood in Harlem. One thing about Vampyres: they have plenty of time on their bloodstained hands to engage in complex, violent feuds. Worse, Joe might be some powerful player's idea of a sacrificial pawn ...
