Shauna Henry

In this follow-up to Blood for Irina and Queen of Blood, the vampire Irina rises again like a ghost from her watery grave to bring bloodlust and madness to a lonely woman living in a seaside motel.

Carrie Gemmell, an office woman that initially appears to lead a dull life working at an uninspiring office job. At night, however, she has several surreal fantasies involving sex, blood, and a young woman (Cheryl Singleton) she works with at the office. "She" will occasionally wake up in strange places and is convinced that she's turning into a werewolf - something that she believes is evidenced by her teeth elongating.

Irina is dying. A predator who stalks streets at night looking for blood, she has lived over a century; tormented by memory, living in a run-down motel by the sea, Irina has reached the end. Her perceptions skewed, her body and mind revolting against themselves, she waits for an exit. Her private hell is echoed by the motel manager, driven by an obsession to protect Irina and keep her secrets safe, and a broken prostitute whose desperate plight may be worse than Irina's. It's the tale of three people living a life on the fringe, trapped in world of literal and figurative decay.

Vampire Irina is reborn as a "vampiric" plague, a force of nature whose destiny is to lay waste to a fever dream vision of the Wild West.