Jessamy Winters is a bit worried about moving into a new house in the middle of an academic year. But with an abusive ex-boyfriend and a treacherous best friend in the background, it seems like a good move. However, the three girls she moves in with are more complicated than they first seem - they are vampires. But vampires are not the threat they often appear in fiction: with blood impossible to store outside the body and an excellent substitute in chocolate, Megan, Becca and Tabitha apparently hold no danger for Jess. The girls fall in together easily, and Jess even begins to have romantic feelings for Raven, a friend of Megan's.
But when Raven is found dead, Jess is determined to get to the bottom of it. Are there really murderous vampires stalking the streets as well as the reasonable ones she has met? And what is the connection with the mysterious people she has discovered through her research? Jess gradually finds that the link lies closer to home than she ever suspected, and she begins to explore her physical and mental boundaries and to understand her own aptitudes.
With the help of her housemates, a grumpy scholar and an enigmatic martial arts instructor, she begins to plunge into the murky depths of the after-dark world, working towards finding out the truth behind not only the death of their friend but the disappearances that are plaguing the community.
But the past never truly goes away and Jess must face the reality that the most ruthless members of this new world are prepared to use anything, even her own history, against her - including her brutal ex-boyfriend. As she enters the tangled web of deceit and lies that have been laid around her friends, there is only one way Jess can survive... by becoming something she never before imagined.
