Maledom Vampire. Dmitri has wandered the world for forty years, seducing women to feed his secrat's need for blood. His venom gives women pleasure in exchange for what he requires. Like all thesals, Dmitri is plagued by his secrat's tortured dreams of tall black gates and beautiful women with dark hair and eyes so light they are almost white. Dmitri's secrat urges him into the vast, uncharted forest of the north. Risking starvation on animal blood, Dmitri travels for weeks, finally arriving through an underground passage to a mysterious island surrounded by a lake. There, he meets and seduces Aria – beautiful, nocturnal, and very like the women from his secrat's dreams. Her people are the Mank, who were driven out of their city generations ago by the Cotsul, who still keep them prisoners. Dmitri resolves to help them, but he can't defend the village during daylight hours. It's forty-three days before the Veshtan Guard can arrive, and Aria is locked inside the village gates. Those gates must hold, but unknown to Dmitri, the Cotsul have a secret way in.