Watcher in the Darkness, Book 3: Imprisoned

This should bring you up to speed

You don't need to read the first two books in the series to be able to follow what is going on in this one. The TLDR is that this story takes place in a modern setting, but vampires/werewolves/witches/etc. have always existed alongside humans. Toby is a half vampire. He's spent the last six months in jail. That's it. You can skip ahead to the first chapter.

If you're like me and you like to know as much as possible going in, the rest of this "prologue"should get you caught up.

My Watcher in the Darkness series can be found along with the rest of my work on Kindle. The first two books can be found by copy/pasting the following links into your browser:

1. Book 1: Cold Blood and Black Tar: https://kdp.amazon.com/amazon-dp-action/us/bookshelf.marketplacelink/B00Q7TUFP8

2. Book 2: Fractured Soul: https://kdp.amazon.com/amazon-dp-action/us/bookshelf.marketplacelink/B00QXSSQAY

If you don't like spoilers, again, skip ahead to the first chapter. For everyone that hasn't had a chance to read the first two books—and perhaps have no future plans to do so—here is a recap of what's happened so far. I've also created a vocabulary section, though I have the highest confidence that my readers will be able to infer definitions through context. You guys are awesome. After all, you're here.

Book 1: Cold Blood and Black Tar- In this world, humans and vampires have lived alongside each other since the beginning of recorded history, but have distinctly separate cultures. Our protagonist, Toby (full name, Tobias), is a half-vampire. Being not truly one or the other, Toby has never really fit in anywhere. Homeless, jobless, penniless, and single, Toby doesn't have very many demands on his time. He starts a blog for little other reason than to give himself an excuse to hang out in the public library during the day. He uses it to express his thoughts and to answer questions about himself. Because vampire hybrids are very rare, his blog gains popularity pretty fast.

Toby has many of the same biological weaknesses as the average vampire, though to a far lesser extent. His skin is sensitive to sunlight, as well as running water, but neither will kill him. He can't enter a place without first being invited, and magical wards against vampires work against him just fine. He feeds on blood, though he can choke down uncooked human food if he has no other choice. The biggest setback he suffers is that his fangs are not retractable and his saliva does not numb his victims. His bite is extremely painful. To survive, he buys cold blood and hunts in the grey areas between vampire territories.

Through his blog, much of Toby's backstory is revealed. His mother delivered him in the attic of her family home, and that is where he remained for the first five years of his life. All attempts to wean him off of blood were unsuccessful, and so his mother became his primary food source. Her father—Toby's grandfather—was physically and mentally abusive, and he attempted to kill Toby several times when he was small. One night, Toby's mother snapped. She bound her mother, father, and younger sister to dining room chairs then allowed her son to feed on them to his heart's content. Days later, when they were finally dead, she took Toby outside to tell him that he was on his own, and to be on the lookout for the Watchers. Toby ran away, but turned back to see that his mother's house was a ball of fire.

Toby's father, Baron Sebastian von Brandt, is a Pure vampire, but is also very young. Toby's father has almost nothing to do with him. His grandmother, Hlin, forces Sebastian to involve himself upon occasion, but she is largely absent as well. Toby has never had any sort of interaction with this grandfather, the Archduke.

Ordinarily, Toby doesn't have much to occupy himself, but these are not ordinary times. A large number of ghouls have begun to appear on the beach and boardwalk. Toby recruits Karen the necromancer to help him investigate. It's a school night and she has to study, but she begrudgingly agrees to go along to help level the playing field.