Daniel was part ogre and part human, way back in the sixth century. Now he's a nearly seven-foot-tall genius vampire who consults for NASA. Since he lives an hour and a half from his coterie, he maintains his own flock, and he purchases slaves through the Concilio, rather than dealing with the hassle of enticing shapeshifters to voluntarily provide his sustenance. He has needs few would volunteer to slake.

Mariah is a sexy gazelle shifter, tall and lithe. She grew up in flyover country, and despite the Concilio's rules against shapeshifters playing organized sports with humans, she played high-school basketball in her small town without getting caught. However, a college scout turned her in, and now she's owned by the Concilio, trained as a pleasure slave.

Daniel hitches a ride to Italy with a friend to attend an auction, and he returns home with a statuesque gazelle who was aiming for an applied physics degree on a basketball scholarship. She's intelligent enough she doesn't annoy him simply by opening her mouth, and sturdy enough to withstand the things he plans to do to her.

It isn't the ogre part of Daniel's personality that's needed toning down over the centuries, but his inner Viking. Razing and pillaging, indeed.