Jason is a werewolf. He's also one of Anita Blake's best friends and sometimes her lover. And right now he needs her - not to be a vampire hunter, or a federal marshal, or a necromancer, but because his father is dying. Anita can make him look like an everyday guy, helping him say good-bye to the abusive father he never loved. The fact that Jason is not 'everyday' and Anita is far from being just a pretty woman is something they figure they can keep under wraps for a couple of days in a small town. How hard can that be? Really, by now, Anita Blake should know better. And this is the weekend that Marmee Noir, ancient mother of all vampires, picks to make a move. Somehow she has cut the connection that binds Anita and vampire Master of the City Jean-Claude, leaving them vulnerable. Dangerous even as she sleeps, buried in darkness for a thousand years beneath the old country of Europe, Marmee Noir reaches out toward power - she has attacked Anita before, but never like this. Anita has what she wants - and now she's going to take it.