When Aubrey returns home after many years away, he is welcomed back with the extravagant gift of a Pet he never wanted and secrets he never dreamed existed...Many years ago, the race of creatures once known as 'vampires' agreed to surrender their freedom, rather than face eventual annihilation. They exist now as Pets to the lords and ladies of high society, forced to serve forever the human whose blood they first drink. Detesting the practice, Aubrey has always avoided taking a Pet for himself. But upon his return home from school, he is gifted with a Pet by his father. His Pet, however, is like none he's ever known, and only the start of an old and complicated tangle of secrets.