I have come to the conclusion that the copy I have is one that was an initial print without all the errors corrected because there were a few and at times, it made the reading more difficult. This is a good story about a 300+ yr old vampiress, Emba/Dyne - she goes through a few names over the years, who has destroyed several mortal families and left ruin in her wake. Tranas is one such person; his family was killed by Emba about 4 yrs prior and he has been on a mission to find her and get his revenge. The story opens with a young woman named Sky, who is going with a group of musicians to play at a fancy mansion in Hope's Covenant, a town in the North where it snows very heavily for a good part of the year. While she is at this party, Dyne and her group of minion vampires storm the party and create a load of bloodshed. Dyne is hunting for something located beneath the mansion - the crypt which is supposed to house the remains of two vampire Greater Overloads, whose hearts she plans on obtaining. With these hearts, she will be able to be out in the sunlight again, as well as having on her senses further enhanced and she can survive for longer periods without blood. In the chaos of the vampires gaining control of the mansion, Sky manages to escape with the aid of Adam, the son of the owner of the mansion, and make her way into town. Once there, she meets up Tranas and discovers that he was enlisted by the town's tavern owner to defeat a couple of vampires that have been causing a disturbance in the local populace. Tranas has an unlikely ally named Sigmon, who is a "good vampire" with morals and guilt but can also look upon holy symbols without pain due the way he was created. The trio are going to have to defeat Dyne and stop her before she can gain control of the Greater Overlords' hearts and become too powerful to be stopped. But what will they do when they discover that Dyne has a mortal child she is carrying around with her entourage of vampires. This 4-5 yr girl Hannah, is not afraid of vampires and refers to Dyne as "mommy". Is Dyne really "all bad"? ( )