Touch the Dark is the first book in The Cassandra Palmer series, written by best-selling author Karen Chance.

But when the bloodsucking Mafioso she escaped three years ago finds Cassie again with vengeance on his mind, she's forced to turn to the vampire Senate for protection.

The undead senators won't help her for nothing, and Cassie finds herself working with one of their most powerful members, a dangerously seductive master vampire-and the price he demands may be more than Cassie is willing to pay... Cassandra Palmer is the lead character in seven novels: Touch the Dark, Claimed by Shadow, Embrace the Night, Curse the Dawn, Hunt the Moon, Tempt the Stars and Reap the Wind.

John Pritkin is a war mage—a member of the supernatural community's police force—with a specialization in demon killing.

When she was seventeen, Cassie bought an "ugly necklace" from a pawn shop and discovered that it was haunted by a ghost named Billy Joe.

His father didn't stay around long enough to impart his surname—or much of anything else—but Tomas could have taken his master's name once a life-challenged Spanish nobleman took a liking to him.

The Senate is currently vying with the Silver Circle, the world's chief magical organization, for control of the new Pythia—and the power she commands.

Francoise doesn't have a last name because she was born a poor village girl in seventeenth century France.

The Consul is featured in both the Cassie Palmer and Dorina Basarab series, something she would say is only her right as the leader of the dreaded North American Vampire Senate.