Albert Manlii has walked this earth for more than two thousand years, but survival on his own was never easy. Now he leads a faction of highly organized vampires who carefully guard the secret of their existence. Unlike the old days, potential recruits are carefully selected and presented with an offer.<br><br>Phillip Brewer has weeks to live -- if he lets his disease run its course. He doesn’t want to die, but given a choice, will his desire to live outweigh his concerns about the vampires’ ethics?<br><br>When the new recruit’s missteps are cause for concern, can Albert control the fallout, or will Phillip’s life once again be torn apart?

The Recruit

“Nah.” Neil shuddered, thinking again of some grubby cold-hearted creeper preying on a child. “Not really.”


“I know, right?” Apparently, Natalie was as good at reading people as Albert was. She’d seen it all before. Probably dozens of times. “Even after fifty-eight years, it still gets to me.”


“Y’all like to go to Roman-themed museum exhibits?” Neil asked as they wandered through an outer space display at the Natural History Museum.


Albert shuddered and glanced around to make sure nobody was within listening distance. “I’ll go with you to one if you want, but I wouldn’t do it for myself.”


“I guess you don’t need to, huh?”


“It’s just that…” Albert grimaced and sighed. “I have deeper regrets of things I had to do in life as a Roman soldier than anything I’ve done in all the years since.”


Chapter 20