The peasants called him the Count of Albion and relied on him to keep them safe from the political storms raging around them. But the villagers feared him as much as they revered him. They knew he fought for Italy's freedom, but they couldn't understand why the mysterious nobleman preferred the night hours and the shadows. Sequestered in the isolated villa called the Three Fountains, the count hid his secrets well — until the arrival of a beautiful Englishwoman, Miss Cordelia Hope.
Cordelia soon understood that the Count kept to the shadows both to hide his secret mission and to shroud his tormented soul. Irresistibly drawn to him, she sensed his pain and craved his touch. They each felt the other's passion in ways she had never before dreamed possible — and Cordelia was naive enough to believe that love could conquer all obstacles. The Count knew better. And yet he couldn't resist the woman who claimed that he was her destiny: a vampire whose love she would die to possess.