Maine, 1820: Lost in a blizzard, a young woodcutter seeks refuge in an isolated cabin, never suspecting that the recluse who lives there is not what he appears to be--or that the strange-tasting brew he's offered isn't tea. Too late, the woodcutter realizes that he is doomed to wander the earth, consumed by a raging thirst that can only be sated with the unthinkable--human blood. Houston, 2001: For more than a century, he has hunted for fresh prey to feed his inhuman need. Now, his immortality threatened by a deadly blood disease raging across the globe--and pulsing in his own veins-he brilliantly reinvents himself as a world-renowned doctor, racing against time to find the cure that will save him. As death shadows the infected doctor, ER physician Matthew Carter and forensic pathologist Samantha Scott are in their own desperate race to find a vicious serial killer who leaves his victims' bodies horrifically drained of blood. A killer poised to strike again--and closer than they think.