183 Book(s) Related to vampire tunnels missouri

Rachel Wood wakes after having just taken the leap of faith with Benji with the Blue Tablet to find he is mortally injured. Rachel embarks on a journey to save her love—a journey which will take her deep into the heart of the gravest danger. Is she willing to give up her life to save her one and only true love? How much is she willing to sacrifice?

Rachel Wood finally learns the secret that her new boyfriend, Benji, has been hiding: he is a vampire. She discovers his world in the mysterious Lyndvia Castle on the Hudson River. But just as their romance is blossoming, Benji’s twin brother shows up with a message that might mean the end for them all. Rachel will have to decide how much she wants to sacrifice to be with the love of her life.

In FALLEN (Book #7 of the Vampire Legends), Rachel Wood wakes to find she has fallen down a hole, into a fantasy world from which she tries to escape. She searches desperately for Benji, but destiny seems intent on keeping them apart.Rachel, saved from the underworld by her Grandmother, finally learns the secrets of who she is—and how powerful she is.Benji fights for his life, his love for Rachel never fading, he eager to be reunited with her. But he is up against forces more powerful than ever, and he may not be able to break free.Darker forces than ever are at play, determined to end the world, and it will be a race against time as they all converge on the portal in the midst of the ocean, all of them fighting for possession of the ancient relic that alone can save the world.More than anything, Rachel is determined to save her love. But as a dramatic twist comes at the end, she realizes, this time, all may be lost forever….FALLEN is book #7 of the Bestselling Vampire Legends series (following SWORN, TAKEN, BITTEN, CHOSEN, AWAKENED and RISEN).

All Louisa Williams has wanted her entire life was to have her first kill. Every night she dreamed of it and as the clock ticked by and the existence of the vampires her family hunted slowly faded, Louisa knew she would never get that chance of killing one again.
But not until she got into a new high school did she realize that her dreams of killing a vampire weren't entirely gone. In fact, it was staring right at her face as a reality.
She had killed a vampire. She staked a vampire three nights in a new town. Her first kill!

But little did Louisa know that this first kill would become her nightmare, and her road to the dread of humanity.

Trapped by the vampire prince and drawn away from her identity to him, Louisa fights to choose a path.
And with another apocalypse coming, her chance of saving humanity lies in destroying Vlad Sabastian, her first kill, and the ruthless vampire prince that trapped her heart in his cold hands.

A war ended centuries ago, but it was never finished.

When Kaisha Savoie is sold at auction, survival is her only goal...until a man with silver eyes steps from the shadows and claims her without explanation.

Redakai Laraque has spent centuries controlling the past, but Kaisha was never meant to be found.

Her power is ancient, unstable, and tied to something buried deep within blood and memory, and the moment it begins to react to him, the truth becomes impossible to ignore.

It's not a coincidence...it's an awakening, and the closer they get to the truth, the more dangerous the connection becomes. Because some power was never meant to return. And some love was never meant to happen.

• Vampire Romance • Ancient Power • Bloodline Secret • Protective Male Lead • Hunted Heroine • Supernatural War • Dangerous Desire

Ryn has spent her whole life believing she is the lesser twin. No magic, no power, nothing special. So when a Vampire King shows up the night before her sister's wedding demanding payment, she does what she's always done. She steps up.

"Take me instead." she says.

He tells her she's worthless, signs her into a blood contract and drags her into a world she doesn't belong in.

When he feeds from her for the first time, everything changes.

Her blood is the most powerful thing he's ever tasted. She has six months to live from a curse she didn't know existed and the king who called her worthless can't survive without her.

But he's not the only one who wants her.

A demon who has been killing her bloodline for four centuries just made the mistake of meeting her face to face. He came to finish the job.

Now she's trapped between two men who would burn the world down to keep her, a court full of enemies who want her dead, and a deadline that's counting down whether she's ready or not.

Six months to live. One king to love. One demon who won't let go. And a truth about her bloodline that no one; not even the king is prepared for."

They called him a "flickering candle" in a world of eternal ice.

Asher was born an anomaly among the vampire aristocracy, a high-born noble with a beating human heart. In a society that worships the cold and the dead, his warmth was a mark of shame. Betrayed by his kin and stripped of his rank, he was cast into the "Blood Pits" to be drained and forgotten.

But the aristocrats made a fatal mistake. They didn't realize that while their ancient blood is stagnant and cold, Asher’s heart is a Living Forge. Every beat of his heart refines his blood into a concentrated, golden energy that hasn't been seen since the age of the First Progenitors.

Asher isn’t just fighting for survival, though. He is driven by the memory of Charlotte, the daughter of the High Sovereign and the most beautiful woman in the Night Realm. To the world, she is a Frozen Goddess, untouchable and cold. To Asher, she is the only person who ever looked at him with something other than disgust.

Now, as Charlotte is used as a pawn in a political marriage to the man who ruined him, Asher’s blood begins to boil. He will tear his way out of the pits, evolve through the ranks of the undead, and burn down the old world to claim his place at her side.

The Failure is coming back for his throne. He will prove that the strongest steel isn't found in the grave, it’s forged in the pulse of the Iron Blood.

My name is Arabella. I sold 20 years of my life to become a vampire’s attendant after my father’s death in order to help my family. I should have been scared of blood and fangs, but instead, I long for my master's touches.

What I didn't know was that my desire for him would bring me nothing but destruction.


“You taste delicious.” He licks his lips, pulling me closer to him.
The warmth of his skin against mine, and the soothing rhythm of his beating heart calms me a bit. I relax my shoulders and lie there with my head on his chest.
“Ara, I'm your master and it’s my responsibility to keep you safe, but I failed today.”
His words sound sincere, and I really wish I could believe him.
But all vampires are monsters.
He just happens to be the monster I wish I could trust.

My Vampire Master: A Contract of Blood and Lust is created by Angeline Hartwood, an eGlobal Creative Publishing signed author.

I thought the worst betrayal was finding my fiancé in bed with my best friend.

I was wrong.

The worst betrayal was being drugged, bagged, and sold to the highest bidder in a supernatural slave auction.

Now I am standing on a stage in Toronto, surrounded by monsters I did not know existed, while two of the most powerful beings in the supernatural world are tearing the room apart... fighting over me.

Cassian Vale—the ancient Vampire Lord with blood-red eyes and a frozen heart. He looks at me like he knows me, like he has been searching for me across centuries.

Kael Carson —the ruthless Lycan King with golden eyes that promise both protection and destruction. He claims I belong to him, that fate itself has bound us together.

They hate each other. They have been at war for longer than I have been alive.

But they both want me.

But what they both do not know about is my powers and to what extent it could make or break either of them.

When you find out, he was the man you were arranged to be with, he was the villain you've always heard about and ran from. And worst of all, you realise you've been deceived since you set your eyes on him.

Elysian, an heiress flees her powerful vampire clan from an arranged marriage, vanishing into a human city to pose as an ordinary student.

But beneath her flawless façade lurks a predator who punishes bullies and sinners without mercy. Students vanish and rumors spread and whispers of death follow her every step.

Her secret? She’s a vampire. And the one person who might expose or destroy her is the school’s mysterious hit teacher… who she was so obsessed with and who just happens to be her fated mate.

Her dirtiest secret? she kills anyone who goes near her mate.

A witch prophesied at my birth—I carried special blood, I could bear the strongest children.

Two Alphas I'd loved for ten years—the Wolf King's sons—swore they'd protect me forever.

Then she showed up. Maggie. My cousin. All wide-eyed innocence, claiming she had the same gift.

Suddenly, I was the jealous one. Every trap was mine, meant to hurt her. Every wound on me was fake. She cradled the silver fox I'd killed, tears falling right on cue.

They handed me the moonflower wine. Bryan said, "Don't ruin the mood."

When they accused me of treason, Ronald said, "Exile."

They dragged me past the borders themselves. Poison fire in my veins, bones breaking under moonlight.

I hit the ground. The last thing I saw was Maggie's smirk...

I never knew my blood could kill a king—until I met one. Sebastian, the ruthless and immortal King, rules with precision. For centuries, he's ruled with ruthless precision, his heart as cold as the stone throne beneath him. One moment, I'm nothing. The next, I'm his obsession. His touch burns like ice fire. His stare follows me through shadows. And when he feeds from me—God help me—it feels like drowning in darkness and craving more. He tells me my blood is unlike any he's tasted, that my scent drives him to the edge of madness.


He reached for the back of my head and pulled me up just enough to reach my neck. When his fangs slid into me, the pain was instant, electric. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think. My hands found his shoulders, clawing for something to hold. My legs kicked. Tears streamed down my cheeks.

He moaned against my throat as he drank, and the sound was devastating.

He is a vampire. She is a witch.
He has lived for thousands of years.
She is only thirty.
But her blood is both a cure for vampirism and a deadly poison.


‎A doctor cursed to die at thirty-two enters a contract with a 1,300 year-old vampire to break the curse and rewrite her fate. She discovers she isn't who she thinks she was. She's the most powerful witch, a Dagon, and she's the weapon that could kill him.

In a timeless dance of reincarnations, Annabelle Keys has traversed six centuries, her memory holding the threads of history except for her most recent existence. Fate's unpredictable hand leads her to a fateful encounter with Morgan Vales, an enigmatic being who has wandered the earth for over six centuries. Morgan, cursed with immortality and sustained by human blood as a mythical creature, crosses paths with Annabelle, whose every past life she vividly recalls—except for the most recent one. Can Annabelle unlock the secrets veiled within her forgotten life, and will Morgan find solace or salvation in the enigmatic soul of the woman who seems immune to time's grasp?

He rejected me in front of everyone.
Called me pathetic. An unworthy human.

I thought the pain of being rejected by my Alpha mate would kill me,
until a vampire’s bite did something worse.

Now I see things that don’t make sense, memories that aren’t mine.
A stranger with silver eyes calls me Enid, like he’s known me forever.
And when he touches me… my body remembers him, even if I don’t.

Elijah, my cruel mate, won’t leave me alone.
Edward, the vampire who saved me, won’t let me go.

Two monsters.
One broken bond.
And me, caught between the love that destroyed me and the darkness that wants me back.

But if the memories in my blood are true…
I’ve already died once for this love.

Since ancient times, Vampire hunters has existed to give humans a chance to survive in the face of the blood-drinking monsters. Cheryl used to be the strongest female hunter in the hunter camp. However, during a mission, Cheryl was tragically killed but she lost the memories of the day being killed and surprisingly woke up again in a strange snowy land. Cheryl wanted to find out the truth about her death, so she returned to the hunter camp again, but her little brother who she had cared for for twenty years shoot her with her weapon upon seeing her. Cheryl had to flee temporarily, but on the way to escape she was hypnotized by the powerful vampire Prince and brought back to his manor. When Cheryl woke up again, she just realized that she had been reborn into the body of a woman named Chris, who was not only the lowest of the low vampires, but also the Prince's fiancée...Cheryl wanted to figure out the truth about her death, but could she escape when she's trapped in the monster’s manor?

Duke Damon Nigrescent and his younger sister Daria Nigrescent of the Nigrescent famil, the only aristocratic family that had more powers than all the Monarchs. Not much was known about them and I didn’t want to dig any further either but , there was something pulling me towards this castle. The moment I stepped foot inside I had a feeling that I wouldn’t be able to get out of there anymore. The Nigrescent family was known for having blue eye and white hair , a physical appearance like that of a creature out of a fantasy book . Duke Damon was incredibly handsome . All my classmates’ eyes were fixated on him, while mine were on Lion, my secret crush without actually realising that the Duke’s attention was on me. He was an annoying stalker that scared the crap out of me when we first met . When it was time to leave , I couldn’t go. Lion was about to confess to me. The moment I had been waiting so much for had finally arrived but before I could make it there , I accidentally ended in the middle of a ritual and unbenounce to everyone, I became Duke Damon’s bride. From that day everything changed completely as all the secrets that had been buried came to life. My ordinary happy life was part of the past , now , I was faced with all kind of dangers , duties , love , heartbreak and….vampires. At first I loathed the idea of being his bride but with each passing day I find myself longing for him, attracted to his muscled strong body and handsome face that made my heart flutter making me confused about my real feelings. We were united because of his curse, but can I let go of this passion in exchange for the freedom I so desperately desire ?

A ruthless vampire king, a hidden hybrid, and a centuries-old secret ignite a forbidden love amidst a brewing war.

Chained and rejected by my pack, I thought I was just an ordinary werewolf. But the Vampire King's rescue reveals my true nature and a shocking past. Now, as shifters and vampires clash, I must choose between my heritage and my destiny.

Will I surrender to the King's dark desires, or forge my own path? In this world of ancient power struggles, one thing is certain: my blood will decide the fate of all.

Top designer Emma Carter catches her boyfriend cheating with her best friend.
In the fallout, she marries the legendary business tycoon Liam Hayes, a man rumoured to avoid women entirely.
As he loosens his tie and walks toward her, her pulse stutters.

Where is his vow of abstinence? *
All I see is a hungry beast that’s just been awakened. *

I am originally of royal vampire bloodline.
But because of one sentence from my adoptive father, I hid in the human world for decades.
The Church called me a "filthy heretic" because vampire blood flowed in my veins.
Yet they burned a blind girl to death, her crime being that she "couldn't see."
They burned an old blacksmith to death, his crime being that he wanted to learn medicine.
They burned a young mother to death, her crime being that she refused to be violated by the captain of the holy knights.
Bathed in holy light, I realized for the first time—
The demons... are in the light.

“You seem to have forgotten that you’re not marrying a commoner, Alina. You’re marrying the prince of all vampires, so look alive and get me some coffee.”
Alina Deluca lives a normal life up in the Californian north. At least that’s what she makes the world believe. Locked within her hypnotizing emerald eyes are horrors she could never speak of, even if it killed her.
Erick Stayton, the vampire prince, is her nightmare. To her, he was no more than a cold, savage predator that lusted for her blood and took away everything she had during that one traumatizing night four years ago. Problem is, she is bound to be his bride.
Mustering every strength to set things right in her awry life, she gets embroiled in an ages-old feud and a struggle for power of mind-boggling proportions. Strangely enough, she finds herself connecting with Erick in ways she never knew she could. Suddenly, everything is not what it seems.
Is Erick the heartless monster Alina makes him out to be? Will a vampire law made eons ago be the undoing of the whole vampire race? Will heated passion bloom in these bloodiest of times?

She was never supposed to desire them.
They were never supposed to touch her.
But the moon never asks for permission.

On the day Lyra steps into a roadside bar hidden in the middle of nowhere, destiny awakens.
Her scent drives wild the wolves who swore they would never get close to humans again.
Their touch awakens a hunger within her that cannot be ignored.

Kaelen, Draven, and Eryx are predators.
Savage. Protective. Lethal.

Wolves bound by an ancient prophecy, cursed to a life of solitude.
Lyra is human…
Yet her body responds as if it has always belonged to that pack.
Between dreams that burn the skin, desires that pierce the soul, and a bond that defies every magical law, she discovers she was not chosen by chance.

She is the key.
The female.
The one capable of awakening the frenzy… and breaking destinies.
A sensual, intense, and wild fantasy.

Reverse harem. Wolves. Magic. Unrestrained desire.
Because when the moon calls, no one walks away unscathed.

When the supernatural world tore through the veil of human reality, it took everything from Raven Moreno — her father's fortune, her mother's freedom, and any illusion of safety. Now twenty-three, she waits tables and in The Pit, an underground fight club in the poisoned outskirts of New Haven, scraping together enough money to keep her dying sister alive.

One night she's kidnapped and nearly auctioned to vampires before Klayton — the infamous Rogue Alpha — tears the operation apart. She escapes. Her sister doesn't make it home unscathed. With medical bills swallowing every coin she earns, Raven makes a decision that changes everything: when Klayton stumbles into The Pit mid-rut, dosed by his own father with a forbidden toxin, she's the only one who doesn't run.

She chains him. She rides out his rut. He leaves a fortune on the table and disappears by dawn instead of helping her find his mother as promised.

What follows is messier than either of them planned. Her body begins changing — heat cycles, impossible strength, a hunger that only he can satisfy. Then Vincent, the Vampire King, enters her orbit and nothing is simple anymore. Cold where Klayton is feral, controlled where Klayton is chaotic, Vincent is equally dangerous and equally obsessed.

Caught between two men who want to own her and two fathers who want to destroy everything she loves, Raven is running out of time. Her missing mother. Her sister's failing health. A pregnancy that makes her the most hunted woman in three factions.

War is spilling out of the ley lines and she's right in the middle of it all.
She didn't ask to be the axis the new world turns on.

But she's done running from it.

“I forgot you,” Lyra whispered.

Kaelen smirks dangerously. “Then I’ll make you remember… every kiss, every touch, every promise.”

Lyra is the Dragon Princess strong, proud, and bound by duty. But when the cold, dangerously charming Vampire Prince returns, her world burns again.

He’s the past she can’t recall.
She’s the fire he can’t forget.

Because this time, the danger isn’t just in her heart… it’s coming for her life.

When Lena Vale's father dies, he leaves behind nothing but debt — and not the kind any solicitor can settle.
Bound by an ancient blood contract she never signed, Lena is given seven days to present herself at Ashveil Manor, deep in the shadow realm of Veth, and give one year of her life in service to Lord Dorian Ashveil — the most feared vampire in a world she didn't know existed. She arrives under protest. The estate, apparently, listens.
Dorian is nothing like what she expected. He is cold, yes — centuries old, commanding, and devastatingly careful with everything he allows himself to feel. But he is also unexpectedly honest. And he stands when she enters a room, every single time, as if she is worth the gesture.
Lena tells herself it means nothing.
She is wrong.
As the months pass inside Veth's eternal dusk, the line between captive and chosen begins to blur. But darker forces are closing in — a rival clan with a weapon that runs on Lena's blood, a secret her father sold that could destroy everything, and a choice that no contract can make for her.
She came to Veth to pay a debt.
She may stay for something far more dangerous.
Crimson Vow is a slow-burn vampire romantic fantasy for readers who like their heroines fierce, their heroes worth the wait, and their love stories earned one impossible moment at a time.

My brother chose my enemy, and the man I loved joined forces with her to sell me into a club.
Pregnancy, miscarriage, imprisonment, beatings—every cry for help I made was dismissed as "just an act."
It wasn't until I was truly dead that they lost their minds, dropping to their knees at my grave and sobbing that they were sorry.
But by then, I could no longer hear them.

“You seem to have forgotten that you’re not marrying a commoner, Alina. You’re marrying the prince of all vampires, so look alive and get me some coffee.”
Alina Deluca lives a normal life up in the Californian north. At least that’s what she makes the world believe. Locked within her hypnotizing emerald eyes are horrors she could never speak of, even if it killed her.
Erick Stayton, the vampire prince, is her nightmare. To her, he was no more than a cold, savage predator that lusted for her blood and took away everything she had during that one traumatizing night four years ago. Problem is, she is bound to be his bride.
Mustering every strength to set things right in her awry life, she gets embroiled in an ages-old feud and a struggle for power of mind-boggling proportions. Strangely enough, she finds herself connecting with Erick in ways she never knew she could. Suddenly, everything is not what it seems.
Is Erick the heartless monster Alina makes him out to be? Will a vampire law made eons ago be the undoing of the whole vampire race? Will heated passion bloom in these bloodiest of times?

For twelve centuries, the exiled vampire king waited for the prophecy foretold to restore his fallen power. But never expected the girl destined to save him to be the reincarnation of the wife he lost.

Anastasia has spent 18 years of her life beneath her grandmother's watchful eye, hidden from a world she never knew wanted her dead. Sheltered. Obedient. Ordinary – or so she believed.

And the illness slowly stealing her life is not just a disease. It is an awakening.

The man she has quietly loved from afar – the impossibly perfect, untouchable Mr. William – is not who she thought he was either.

He is older than memory. A king without a kingdom. A vampire betrayed by his own brother, stripped of his power, and exiled from the ancient realm of Umbralord centuries ago.

And Anastasia is the one prophecy foretold would restore what was

She knows what she is to him:

A prophecy. A key. A sacrifice.

Anastasia knows there is no escaping destiny . So she makes him an offer.

For six months. He was to date her. Love her. Not out of duty or pity, but as if she truly belonged to him.

What neither of them knows is that the heavens have always been cruel. She was the nemesis placed into his perfect life from the beginning.

Because Anastasia is the reincarnation of the mate William lost twelve centuries ago – the same woman whose death ignited a war that nearly destroyed an entire kingdom.

And this time, fate is not letting go.

Bellatrix:
“Having him as my second chance mate felt like stepping out of a lifetime of storms into a quiet place of light. Everything I lost, everything I survived, led me to the only salvation I ever needed.”

Vladislav:
“She belongs to me, not as a possession but as the pulse that steadies my existence. I will annihilate anyone who dares to darken her joy. She is my hunger, my devotion, my love. No other soul will ever stand where she stands.”

Bellatrix Nyx Lykaios was never the pack’s golden girl. A Beta female with a warrior’s spirit, she lived in the shadow of her perfect twin, Clara, and the Alpha she secretly loved. But on her nineteenth birthday, everything shattered: Ronan Nightshade, her mate, the Alpha she had adored, rejected her in front of the entire pack. Humiliated, betrayed by her family, and left to bear the weight of her twin’s treachery, Bellatrix ran, only to survive a life of pain, exile, and unimaginable trials.

Four years later, she returns, stronger, fiercer, and touched by the Moon Goddess herself. But the real power comes from an unexpected source, a centuries-old vampire, pale, deadly, and destined to claim her as his own. Together, they ignite a bond that will shatter the past, punish the deceitful, and rewrite the rules of the pack.

In a world where betrayal cuts deeper than fangs, will Bellatrix find justice, love, and the destiny she was born to claim?

“Don’t ever let him touch you again.” His fingers tightened on my jaw, forcing me to meet his burning gold eyes. “As long as you wear her face, you are mine.”


Resurrected in the body of the woman he once loved, Elara—a nineteen-year-old human—becomes a living mystery Vincent Ashmere cannot ignore.

Nine hundred years old and feared by all, Vincent is trapped between an obsession with the past stolen from him and the dangerous pull he feels toward the girl now wearing his lover’s face.

He knows he should hate the soul inside that body. He knows he should destroy the imposter.

Instead, he begins to crave her.

But when the woman he once loved returns in her true body, Elara is forced back into her own, and Vincent must choose between the love he lost… and the girl he was never meant to want.

Ravenshade: Blood Moon is more than just a story about vampires and wolves — it’s a dive into a dark, mysterious world where secrets whisper through the fog.
The town of Ravenshade lives under a constant veil of mist, where humans walk unaware of the shadows that watch them.

Selene Darkblood was born to lead an ancient vampire clan, but fate takes an unexpected turn when she meets Rael — a lone wolf haunted by his past and burdened with powers he barely understands.
Between them, something forbidden ignites: powerful, dangerous, and impossible to resist.

As their worlds collide, alliances are tested and the fragile peace between vampires and wolves begins to crumble. Under the crimson glow of the Blood Moon, the line between desire and destruction fades.

This is a story about choices, loyalty, and the courage to love when the world says you shouldn’t.
Welcome to Ravenshade — where blood, love, and destiny intertwine.

“Mine,” I heard him say, as his eyes turned a bright shade of red. Maybe I should've shouted for help. Or hit one of his men, who was holding me in place.

Instead, my heart stirred at the sound of his voice.

“I always get what I want.” He continued. “And I'm taking you with me.” He stared directly into my eyes, and my breath turned raspy. He looked scary, yet I wasn't afraid of him.

I turned back towards the dark alley. If I didn't go with him, I'd be caught by those killers sent by my father.

But this man didn't look human. I took a deep breath, and made my decision quickly.

“Yes, I'm yours.”


On her wedding day, Mirabella Aurel eloped, only to be captured by a strange man.

Danger. That was what came to mind, once she locked gazes with Zeke Elliott. Plunged into a world of darkness, power, and abnormality, Mirabella discovers that she might have just jumped from frying pan to fire.

In the midst of all, she finds herself falling for a vampire whom she never thought existed. And he might be the only one who can protect her, and help her enact revenge on her…father.

"You were meant to be my death. Instead, you've become my damnation."
Aria Thornwell has spent three years as a healer in her town, attempting to forget the night her former fiancé publically humiliated her by selecting her affluent stepsister instead—taking Aria's family fortune with him. Now, she lives quietly, utilizing her skill to aid the underprivileged while her stepfamily flaunts their stolen fortune.

But on the winter solstice, everything changes. She's chosen as the ceremonial bride for the vampires' holy Winter Feast—a "honor" that guarantees death at daybreak following the Christmas Eve rite. Dragged to the Crimson Vale with five other human tributes, Aria is prepared to meet her fate with dignity.

Until she meets him.

Lord Sebastian Thorne, the ancient vampire who has presided over the Winter Feast for eight centuries, is meant to drain her at dawn following the binding ritual. It's tradition. It's law. It's survival—the ceremonial blood maintains the vampire realm for another year.

But as Sebastian's lips brush her throat in the ceremonial hall, something unbelievable happens. Her blood doesn't simply sustain him—it wakes something in him that's been dead for generations. And in a move that shocks the whole vampire court, he refuses to complete the rite.
"This one is mine," he proclaims, his old strength sweeping the hall. "Anyone who touches her answers to me."

Trapped in the Obsidian Palace as Sebastian's "protected bride," Aria discovers three frightening truths: Sebastian isn't protecting her out of mercy—he's dying from an ancient curse, and her blood is the only thing keeping him alive past Christmas; the vampire court will do anything to kill her and reinstate the ritual; and her "ordinary" healer's gift is actually a rare and dangerous power that vampire nobility has been hunting for generations.