an alternate cover edition can be found here After waking in a shallow grave and clawing her way to freedom, Penelope Francis hunts for the rogue who stole her life and transformed her into a vampire. Despite being corrupted into a feared preternatural, she clings to her humanity and refuses to prey on innocents, instead slaking her thirst on other miscreant vampires. In exchange for a chance at revenge, she joins forces with the charismatic master of the Lowrance brood, a choice that may spell the salvation—or destruction—of humanity as she knows it.

Pepper Lowrance, formerly known as Penelope Francis, continues her search for the miscreant vampire who stole her life and her humanity, transforming her into a vampire. With the master of the Lowrance brood at her side, she takes the first steps towards toppling her father’s empire in order to protect her new kind and spare her mother from a fate worse than only death. But when someone unleashes a horde of newly turned and hungry vampires on an unsuspecting Manhattan, Pepper pursues her role as a seeker of justice for the dead and a protector of the living. Taking to the streets as the Silent Stalker is only the beginning of the hunt for the culprits behind the deaths plaguing the city. To find the answers she needs, she must embrace what it means to be Emerick’s partner in life and beyond death while also accepting everything she has become—including being a vampire.

While Pepper plans on having an eternity to spend her happily ever after with Emerick Lowrance, getting to the wedding is proving to be a problem. Between numerous women rising from their graves into their second lives and a surge of miscreants attacking innocents on the street, she has her hands full with brood business. Rather than dwell on the factors delaying their wedding ceremony, she resumes her hunt to make her city a safe place for all. One of her prey, a serial killing rapist, provides the vital clue she needs to end Breckenan’s reign of terror. To win vengeance for herself and his other victims, she must exhume the past, uncover her father’s secrets, and embrace the true strength of her heritage. What she doesn’t know leads her into a deadly dance, and even a single misstep will doom her, her brood, and the love of her unlife.