When Gabriel manages to find a vampire, he discovers that not all of the legends are true. Unlike the creatures of myth, Ruth (and others like her) must drink the blood of other vampires to survive rather than sustaining the vampires human blood acts as a drug, destroying an addicted vampire's self-control, their personality and ultimately even their basic survival instincts.
Gabriel asks Ruth to turn him and Ruth is happy to do so for reasons of her own; her previous apprentice, Michael, has become addicted to human blood and following the death of his human girlfriend the true extent of his addiction is revealed. Ruth realises that she must turn Gabriel so that she does not starve. At the same time, she must decide what to do with Michael, who has degenerated into a dangerously inhuman creature.