The first book in a Gothic Fantasy trilogy... Athalee Nefairo is a soldier before anything else, a General of the First Division specialising in hunting vampires. Ruthless, auspicious, and destined...for marriage. The law of The Holy Order of the Redeemer is clear: no woman is permitted to stay in the army beyond Twenty-Five-Years old, and she must lay down her sword in favour of marriage. But when she is released from her duties earlier than she had hoped, Athalee does the only thing she can think of - she flees. Betrayed by the soldiers she had once trusted the most, the very creatures she had sworn to eradicate now become her only hope for survival. Taken in under the protection of the mysterious yet charismatic Aramastus Savonnt, Athalee quickly learns their destinies are intertwined by the need for vengeance. Her fate lies at the mercy of a church that wishes to see her cured of her vampirism, and a brotherhood of hunters who now want her dead.****