For thousands of years, the secret Order of Opus et Praesidium has hunted and destroyed the blood-drinkers called "nightwalkers..". But now humans are in the crosshairs as well. Anibal Ferreira Silva was one of the Order's most able hunters until his love for the beautiful nightwalker Eleanor turned him renegade. After he rescued his beloved from madness, captivity, and death, they were forced to part, for Eleanor's wounds ran deep and she shunned the world. Now an unexpected reunion in London has rekindled a fire that could never truly die, but the lovers face a peril far graver than ever before-for a new High Elder has corrupted the Order's mission to eliminate non-mortuus rendered unpredictable and dangerous by sickness and madness. Suddenly Anibal and Eleanor, their close friends and allies-human and nightwalker alike-have become targets of relentless assassins with no respect for the sanctity of love, marriage, and loyalty. Yet no Order treachery can deter Anibal and Eleanor from the path they have chosen, as they embark on a perilous hunt that will lead them from great capitols of Europe to a hidden place on the far side of the world. What they seek is an ancient relic of non-mortuus lore that will bind their souls for all eternity. And if they can survive what all who came before them could not, they will become something more miraculous than any human or nightwalker on Earth ever dared to imagine."