The smart thing to do would have been to send Samson to Jett, so the Master of the City had a heads-up on what we'd found out before we tipped our hand to the Iunctio. The smarter thing to do would have been to have avoided the Plaza Hotel altogether, and get Samson to ask Lucinda the questions I needed answers to. The smartest thing to do of all would have been to have gone home, climbed into bed and shown my mate just how much I loved him. Let's just say, I'm not always smart.

With the Master of the City still seeking a kindred-joining, you'd think Georgia Deverell, half-vampire/half-vampire hunter, would have her work cut out for her. But there's more for the Nothus to be concerned about.

The Iunctio has moved to Auckland and set up shop in a luxury hotel. That's not the worst of it, though. The kill-on-sight order for Gigi's kind is still in effect, making bumping into a Councillor's vampire a risky undertaking.

Add in the fact that the new Champion is acting strange, unjoined Nosferatins are turning up in the city in droves, Norms are misbehaving, and someone is killing vampires after torturing them to their final death.

And Georgia's life has just become very dangerous and very messy indeed.

But the Dark Shadow remembers, and the Black Dog is on the rise. Power is what it will take to survive all of this, but power is what Georgia and her mate have in spades.

Although, as luck would have it, there is one person with more power out there, and they have every intention of using it to make the supernaturals pay.

As Georgia would say ... life sucks but vampires suck harder.