They are born in the darkness, and they own it like no one else. Anna Johnson stays clear of vampires. She knows what they are capable of. As a witch of the air she is working for the Circle as a researcher, closing her eyes to that which lies in her past. Until one phone call changes everything.

... for a moment I thought that everything was back to normal, that I was okay. But then it came crashing down on me. Blood was valuable. Blood was life. The loss of blood had a price. A high one.

A jolt. A small hitch in the rhythmic beating of my heart. Dèjà vu didn't even begin to describe it. ... My heart stopped, my breath jostled forward, shock rippling through my system. It happened again. For a few precious seconds my mind froze up and, together with my body, went into a complete lockdown. It was the same each time I saw him.

Colors danced behind my eyes, until the world fell into a haze of dark mist. Black fissures of power within arm's reach. Mine. Magic slammed into me, endless and vast like a tidal wave coming in and crushing over my head. I took it, absorbed it, glutted myself on it because it felt good. No consequences. No pain.

Well, you could stare at a white wall until you were blue in the face, it would never be more than a white wall. The same was true for the master vampire. A vampire was a vampire was a vampire. Period. (Anna Johnson)

"NO!" I pull at his hand, trying to restrain it from hitting the glass. He can't break it! "Please, don't!" I cry out, only to be thrown across the room, my body colliding with the wall. My only way home, my only chance to see the world I love and know. And just like that, his fist collides with the mirror, the glass shattering to the ground as I scream. Tears begin to fall as I scream at him, watching as he approaches me like a predator, his hands bloody, his eyes turning black. I'm trapped here, forever. And he couldn't be more happy.