Prologue and Chapter 1 Summary

Prologue. It is the War of the Scars—where the vampires are fighting against the vampaneze. The narrator of the novel, Darran Shan and his two companions, Lartan Crepsley and Vancha March have been sent by Desmond Tiny to hunt down the Lord of the Vampaneze. During the hunt, other Vampires are not allowed to help the three Vampaneze hunters, so the only other people they pick up along the way are a witch by the name of Lady Evanna and a little person named Harkat Mulds.

When the group stops in the city where Crepsley was born, they add Shan's ex-girlfriend, Debbie Hemlock, and Shan's former best friend, Steve Leopold. What the group doesn't know is that Leopold is a traitor and is working with the Vampaneze to lead the group into danger. Leopold is working in...