Los Angeles. Once, it was the City of Angels. Now, it's Crimson City, whose inhabitants know nothing of Heaven. The tentative peace between the species —- werewolf, vampire, human —- teeters on the brink of collapse. Sides are being chosen. Yet the peril is greater than any imagine. There is a power here that longs for release, an ancient darkness held captive too long. Below, beneath, beyond, it seethes. And there are those who would see it freed. Mika herself seeks freedom. She's come to Crimson City looking for the key. But that key's keeper is a killer, an outsider, a mercenary with a poisoned past. To her kind, he has meant only death. No matter that Conor McCabe's pale green eyes hold a hint of lust, the glint of a bond never to be broken; the path ahead lies in shadow. In a city like this, death can come by fire or fang, by claw or kiss. And the moment of truth must come ... THROUGH A CRIMSON VEIL