There is no sanctuary in the night . . . Feared even by her own kind for her mastery of fire, the nightwalker Mira is summoned by the coven to take her rightful place as Elder. But with this honor comes grave responsibility — a commitment to the annihilation of the unleashed naturi. For now the foul creatures walk the earth — and neither vampire nor human will survive their horrific onslaught. A tide of blood is sweeping relentlessly across the European continent, as Mira is dispatched to Budapest for the most devastating test yet of her astonishing powers — and falls into a well-laid trap. With the dark secrets that haunt her growing darker by the hour, she must confront the terrible truth of her past and protect her fragile sanity in the face of unanticipated treachery — a betrayal by her trusted ally, her beloved enemy, the vampire slayer Danaus