*SPOILER ALERT!!* If you have not finished book 1, you may want to stop here. This will reveal some major plot elements
Prologue
Five somber figures stand before a large metal door, solid and forboding except for a one-foot square of reinforced glass set in the upper half of the door - a holding cell. The inside of window is stained with spattered blood
The room outside the cell is only dimly lit by flickering light bulbs covered in rusty wire cages. A dank, moldy smell fills the air and all is quiet except for the noises from inside the cell: thumping, banging, scratching, shrieking, and non-sensical gibbering. The five standing before the door gaze solemnly at each other, each waiting for someone else to speak. Finally Yamir, a dark-haired powerfully built man dressed in perfectly tailored black suit speaks, "Tell me again how you found him."
Three of the others glance at each other: a slender youthful-looking man with mis-matched eyes of dark brown and fiery amber, a beautiful woman with a tumble of chestnut curls dressed in a black corset and matching knee-length pleated skirt, and an athletic tall woman wearing a long black coat and tight-fitting black clothes, her shining blonde hair pulled back in a right pony-tail. The man, known as Tangerine Sky, speaks up first, "We were patrolling along the river when we saw a fight happening - looked like a hordie and vamp squaring off so we went to check it out. Before we could get there, the vamp got dusted." He shrugs and looks a bit sheepish before continuing, "Couldn't find out who it was." He jumps suddenly as a loud bang thunders through the room and a clawed hand smears a set of trails on the bloody glass.
The brunette Angelina speaks next, seemingly unfazed by the outburst from the cell, "We moved in to either capture or destroy the victor when it looked up and charged at us. We could tell by the way it moved, it was a vampire, but one of the infected. Then, we saw who it was."
"Rendel, the blonde woman says. "Kholtosh's sire. No one's seen him in weeks and then he shows up Horde-touched. How could we let that happen?!" Her voice, touched with a southern accent rises to an angry shout.
Yamir holds up a hand and says quietly, "No one 'let' this happen. Trina, Sky, Angelina, you all did well getting him back here in one piece." He looks to the door for a moment and shakes his head slightly. "Rendel retreated from most of his friends and what little contact anyone had with him was brief and all business. He was spotted taking out Hordelings all over the city, but he made no effort to speak with anyone of his clan - of which all five of us are a part of. I don't know why he threw himself into this war so hard, but he seemed driven and focused, so we let him take his own path..."
"Has anyone told Dalia yet?" says a soft, intense voice from the last person in the room. With his slicked back hair and black sunglasses, he and Trina look to have stepped straight out of the Matrix.
Yamir answers, "Yes Nova. And the council is keeping her close by and fully under control. She went completely hysterical when the news went out."
Trina blurts out, "Well of course! She loves him!"
"Love does make us do foolish things..." Angelina says, shaking her head sadly.
"Wait, are we still talking about Rendel or about the other stupid thing that went down at the Bloodbath? OW!" Sky cries out as Trina cuffs him on the side of the head.
"Don't you go talking bad about Kholtosh!" she says, her voice rising. "That man saved his lady's life and he's shown more guts and honor than just about anyone I've ever met!" Then she whirls back to face Yamir and asks, "So what are we going to do about that?"
Yamir shakes his head and a look of sadness slides across his gleaming blue eyes, "there is nothing that can be done. Kholtosh went willingly into Sarina's service. What's done is done - he's now her slave until the terms of their agreement are finalized."
Nova growls angrily, "So she can do the same thing to him that she did to my friend... to our friend! Damnit Yamir! We can't let her do it! We didn't help Nigel! And now the only vampire that he ever sired is in that room" he yells, pointing at the cell door. "And the only vampire that Rendel ever sired is under the thumb of that evil witch! We've got to do SOMETHING!"
Angelina steps forward and lays a hand on Nova's arm and says in a quiet soothing tone, "Khol can come through this. Believe me... I understand what you're going through, but I also know what HE's experiencing and he can handle it."
