Lena doesn't believe the stories whispered in her village-stories of blood-sucking immortals who feast on them as they sleep. There is no evil looming in the nearby castle and no malevolent creature about to steal her from her bed. Vampires, Lena knows, are nothing to fear. Until she accidentally wakes one. Desperate to keep her loved ones safe, Lena enters into a deal. As the village's healer, she must provide the vampire with blood, and he, in return, will not slaughter the villagers. Yet Ansel is not the soulless monster legend paints him to be, and he is just as capable of kindness as he is cruelty. What starts as feelings of resentment soon blossom into friendship, and friendship into something far more dangerous. But Lena cannot keep Ansel a secret forever. Vampires throughout the world felt his awakening, and one in particular is determined to carry out revenge a century in the making-not only upon Ansel but upon the one who woke him.