The third volume in award-winning, NYT bestselling author Colleen Gleason's international bestselling Gardella Vampire Hunter Series.
"Gleason is really on a roll!" --Publishers Weekly
"Gleason keeps upping the ante with each novel, weaving the characters around her readers with each engaging conversation and narrative, every stage set of all the appropriate gothic gloom and melting beauty." --Book Fetish
"Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets Jane Austen." --The Book Standard
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Now the undead of Rome race to unravel an ancient mystery--and only one woman can stop them...
As Rome prepares for its Carnivale, the new leader of the city's vampire hunters, Lady Victoria Gardella Grantworth de Lacy--must prove herself as never before. For, in order to gain access to the secrets of a legendary alchemist, Rome's vampires have allied themselves with creatures as evil and bloodthirsty as they are.
Reluctantly, Victoria must turn to the enigmatic Sebastian Vioget for help--just as Max Pesaro arrives to help his fellow slayers, no matter what the price. Desire puts Victoria at the mercy of Sebastian, while loyalty binds her to Max...but can she trust either man?
Especially when a seductive vampire begins luring her into the shadows...
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This is a five-book series about Victoria Gardella, Vampire Hunter. The series should be read in order to avoid spoilers. The series order is:
The Rest Falls Away
Rises the Night
The Bleeding Dusk
When Twilight Burns
As Shadows Fade
All five books are now available.
Genre: FICTION / Romance / GeneralThe lair of the Queen of the Vampires was tucked away in the snowy mountain range of Munţii Fǎgǎraş.
The only reason Max Pesaro had been able to find the hideaway was because of the two bite marks on his neck. Permanent ones left by Lilith herself.
They burned and tingled as he approached the entrance to the interior chamber. The throbbing never fully went away, but there were times when it ebbed enough that he could forget he was permanently linked to the vampire queen.
The back of his neck felt as though a brick of ice rested on it, but it wasn’t because of the winter that blustered outside of the stone-cut chambers in the mountain. The chill that burned his neck had nothing to do with the howling winds and blinding snow that came much too early and stayed too long in these Romanian mountains, and everything to do with the fact that there were vampires nearby. As he was a Venator, it was his way of sensing the presence of the undead.
Coming here was foolish and brazen. Max was never foolish, although he had his brazen moments. But after what he’d been through in the last months, he was willing to accept the consequences of this visit. Even if it resulted in his death, he chanced it—because it could also result in his freedom.
The only reason he’d made it so far into the bowels of Lilith’s refuge was the fact that he bore her Markings. Her branding of him was an obscene protection from the undead that guarded her compound.
Max passed yet another of Lilith’s Guardian vampires, ones that had eyes that burned pale ruby and fangs that released a strong poison at will. She opened the heavy wooden door to Lilith’s private chamber and stepped back to allow him in.
