The book begins with Jacques Dubrinsky, younger brother to Mikhail, being tortured and buried alive by members of the same fanatical group that attacked Raven and killed his sister some 25 years earlier in Dark Prince.

Shea O’Halloran is a brilliant American surgeon and researcher trying to find the cure for a rare blood disorder.

Her pursuit of a cure is personal; she also suffers from the disease, and she fears that one day it will kill her.

It is only after her mother Maggie commits suicide that she learns that she has inherited this disorder from her father.

Unfortunately he's a married man whose wife recently gave birth to a son and disappears before Maggie can tell him of her pregnancy.

The loss of Shea's father devastates Maggie, and she retreats from the world, even her own child.

She finds a cellar where a man has been tortured and buried alive with a stake driven through his body.

When they arrive, they see Shea apparently torturing Jacques; Mikhail attacks her thinking she is deranged.

Mikhail calls Gregori, their race's most powerful healer, who convinces Jacques to allow them to heal him.

This is vitally important because their people are on the verge of extinction; no female has been born in more than 500 years.

Shea realizes that he is being housed in the same place the humans buried Jacques seven years earlier.