Northern Italy, September 10, 1650

The boy knew his father was going to kill him.

Just like he'd killed everyone else tonight. The boy's mother, his two older sisters and baby brother, the servants.

All of them dead.

When Lucius is ten years old his father returns home one evening as a vampire and destroys his entire family. By luck Lucius is spared.

Fifteen years later Lucius has joined the elite group of vampire hunters that saved his life that night.

Now it's his turn to lead the hunt - this time on the trail of a master vampire who has survived hundreds of years and is intent on turning the world into a vampire race.

Through Paris and the wilds of Europe Lucius tracks his quarry, eventually running him to ground in the plague-infested streets of London.

But this is no ordinary vampire and the skills Lucius has used in the past have no effect on this extraordinary foe.

Will Lucius be able to survive or will he too enter the realm of the undead?

[New Zealand Author]