News-media segments about modern slavery are short and quickly forgotten by the average Joe or Jane. But it's out there. So are vampires. They're known, legal citizens—and they aren't the only relic from the past still alive and well. Their victims certainly don't have the opportunity to forget that slavery is still a very real problem. On a train to Florida's tourist traps, Zack Henderson, an EMT in training, meets college students Sarah Gallagher and Jamie Adams. They're just hoping for a break from the tedium of college tests and professors. They can never imagine what is in store for them when vampires show up to take over their lives. When the smoke clears, they are left wondering: Did they really survive?

Hate is a four-letter word—one that hits home for Zack Henderson only three years after being the victim of terrible violence.​ While settling into his new life, he finally manages to put the past behind him. Just as he believes he is finally safe, though, hate comes smashing through his door. When everything he cares about is torn away from him, he must find the strength to make decisions of which he had never believed himself capable. In a world with vampires, humans can still show that being dead is not a prerequisite for being a monster.

When Zack Henderson made the decision to abandon his ordinary human life, he thought he was giving up on any semblance of normality. The last five years of his life have certainly given him no reason to believe otherwise. Normal is a point of view. Zack and his family aren't very traditional, but they are most definitely a family. Now a new threat has moved into town to attempt to destroy it. For years they have put off moving on with their lives. Now it is finally time to face the bridges that once seemed so far away. They can only hope that the threat from the darkness doesn't burn them as they cross.

Death has been following Zack Henderson for ten years now. He woke up surrounded by it on a train a decade ago. He's watched it take friend and foe, strangers and family. It's weighed heavily on his mind. It was through death that his life finally began. He understands better than most how fragile life is, and he's done being prey. At some point, you have to stop running from death and embrace it.

If someone ever tells you that being a newly changed vampire is easy, they're either gifted, lying, or they're not going to live very long. You can be pretty sure that they don't have a family to balance. Zack Henderson has learned the hard way just how right his sire was when he warned him that there would be unexpected, harder challenges brought on by his new nature. Now he and Sarah are back home and finding their places in this new world into which they've been reborn. But has too much changed, and can they keep their family together in the face of events beyond their control?

The world is getting smaller every year. No one is as aware of this as a vampire. The old ones once viewed their countries as the world itself. The young ones watched the world expand as they grew up and then rapidly shrink as technology brought it closer together. A war hundreds of miles from Zack Henderson may as well be beating down his door. Tensions are rising between humans and vampires in the Americas. The safety of his family can no longer be assured. When one crisis comes to a lull, another rolls into town, bringing everyone in its wake to their knees. Zack finds himself far from home, trying to discover if a villain can also be a hero. If he cannot, is it enough to save the world even if it is too late to save himself?