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

The entire ride home, all he could think about was that word…decision. Albert would make a decision…and he’d “handle it.” That and the scene from weeks ago in the park, when he’d still been human. When he’d had only minutes to choose between becoming a vampire or dying on the spot.


Because his opinion on that hadn’t changed. He’d never asked, but he had no doubt he wouldn’t have walked away from that conversation as a human.


He’d decided his ethical bar was okay with the knowledge that anyone who turned down their offer would die on the spot, by balancing the fact that the victim would have had only weeks or maybe months to live, and recognition that their knowledge of the vampire world could take it all down. Thousands upon thousands of vampire lives would have been a risk.


He’d learned that a lot of thought and effort went into narrowing down their prospects to minimize that possibility. They didn’t take that decision—to end a human’s life early—lightly.


Chapter 24