Two centuries under vampire rule, humanity pays its dues in blood. Marcus Ford, a factory worker and underground fighter, wants only to survive unnoticed in this grim new world. But survival has a price. When his vampire manager descends into feral madness, Marcus is forced into a desperate act of self-defense, killing a creature of the night. Overnight, he becomes St. Louis's most wanted fugitive, hunted by the Kwarin, the vampires' elite enforcers, and ensnared by the obsessive, ancient shifter vampire Lena, who orchestrated his downfall. Thrust into a war he never chose, Marcus discovers a hidden lineage prophesied to shatter the eternal reign of the Masters. Allied with a fledgling human resistance and a police lieutenant who sees more in him than a killer, Marcus must navigate a treacherous landscape of betrayal and shifting alliances. As vampire factions prepare for a city-wide "cleansing" with Marcus as the scapegoat, he faces a horrifying transformation that could be his doom, or humanity's last, desperate hope. He killed a vampire to live. Now, to save others, he might have to become something worse.