He had given up on love.After he's banished from Mount Olympus through no fault of his own, Dionysus roams the earth in search of a purpose. He eventually creates his own magical vineyard on the island of Naxos, where he falls in love with Ariadne, who breaks his heart. He distracts himself with wine and dancing and accidentally creates a group of companions that require human blood to survive. He becomes the lord of the vampires. His hopes of using this new purpose as a means for respect among the other gods is dashed when the vampires destroy Athens and become the scourge of the human race. Dionysus neglects the vampires and spends his time drowning his sorrows with wine and dancing until . . .Fast forward to modern times, when he meets a beautiful anthropologist who shares her strange theory with the great writer Euripides was a vampire. As he helps her to build a case, he is pleasantly surprised by the chemistry between them. Does he dare open himself up to love again?

Some call them "tramps." In Greek, they are called vrykolakas, or "vryks," which sometimes gets translated to "freaks." They are the vampires of Athens, created centuries ago by the Maenads. They live in caves beneath the acropolis, without economic resources and according to rules imposed on them by the Olympians. They are forbidden from turning humans into vampires, which happens when all of the blood is drained; however, they are allowed to drink from a willing mortal. Some mortals are willing because a vampire bite will infect the body for six hours, and, during that time, the mortal has the powers of flight, invisibility, strength, speed, x-ray vision, and mind control. Such great power can become irresistible, though dangerous and addicting to mortals. As seventeen-year-old Gertie, studying abroad from New York, uncovers the unfathomable secrets of this ancient city, she unwittingly becomes a catalyst in an uprising led by Dionysus, the god of wine and lord of the vampires.

Gertie has become friends, and has possibly fallen in love, with both a demigod and a vampire, who happen to be at war. Although she sympathizes with the vampire uprising and has even become a vampire herself, she distrusts the leaders, especially when they plan to kill humans to cull out the demigods before ambushing them. As the three unlikely friends discover that neither side is perfectly good or evil or right or wrong, they work together to try to bring about the best outcome; but, when their parents and the gods undermine their efforts and hang them out to dry, the three teens realize they're on their own and no one will save them.

When seventeen-year-old Gertie leaves New York to study abroad in Athens, she learns that vampires and demigods are real and unwittingly becomes a catalyst to an uprising led by Dionysus, lord of the vampires. In this final installment, Gertie, Jeno, and Hector struggle to bring a peaceful resolution to the war in Athens, but any success they make comes at great cost. How many more people must die for freedom and justice? The teens quickly learn that nothing is fair in love and war. Sometimes even love requires a terrible price.