When Portia Cabot was seventeen years old, she rescued the cursed life of the handsome vampire Julian Kane, who left her permanently marked and went in search of his soul. The enthralling young girl he left behind has transformed into a captivating woman with a woman's heart and desires when he returns five years later. Portia finds out right away that Julian's alluring and forbidding kiss still has the power to make her yearn for the night and his touch. She does not, however, recognize the vampire in London's Julian. He has been reduced to drunken debauchery by his futile search for his stolen mortality. Additionally, Portia worries that the man she has always adored might perhaps be a monster after a recent string of homicides. Although Julian is aware that he must drive Portia away, his passion and appetite for her grow stronger with each touch. He had resisted the need to use his dark talents for years, not thinking that Portia's love would give him the most perilous gift of all—a reason to continue living.