Times are hard for new vampire Merit. Since shapeshifters announced their presence to the world, humans have been rallying against supernaturals, and inside Cadogan House, things between Merit and her Master, Ethan Sullivan, are...tense. Worst of all, a violent vampire attack has left three women missing, and the mayor of Chicago has a simple demand for Merit and Ethan: Get your House in order. Or else.

Merit needs to get to the bottom of the crime, but, unable to tell who's on her side, she calls in a dangerous favor from a member of an underground vamp group that may have intel on the attack. Merit soon finds herself in the dark heart of Chicago's supernatural society--a world ready to fulfill the protesting humans' worst fears, and a place where she'll learn that being a vampire means getting a little blood on your hands....