A Cal Leandros Novel

'There are monsters among us. There always have been and there always will be. I've know that since I can remember, just like I've always known that I was one . . . Well, half of one anyway.'

Cal Leandros is 19. He eats junk food, he doesn't clean up after himself and fights with his half brother Niko. It's a fairly normal life, but for the fact that Cal and Niko are constantly on the run. Cal's father has been after him for the last four years. And given that he's a monster whose dark lineage is the stuff of nightmares they really don't want him and his entire otherworldly race catching up with them. But Cal is about to learn why they want him, why they've always wanted him - he is the key to unleashing their hell on earth.

Meanwhile the bright lights of the Big Apple shine on, oblivious to the fact that the fate of the human world will be decided in the fight of Cal and Niko's lives . . .

What comes after you've stopped the end of the world?

Cal and his half-brother Niko's lives are settling back to normal after stopping their bloodthirsty relatives from bringing about the apocalypse. They've found a new apartment and even gainful employment by starting an investigative agency in partnership with a glamorous Upper East Side vampire. Of course, their clientele tends to be a little . . . unusual, but their money spends just the same.

Their latest job is undercover work for the Kin - New York's werewolf mafia - to sniff out proof of a set-up by a rival. The location is Moonshine, a gambling club for the otherworldly, and Cal figures it will be an easy in-and-out sort of job. But as Niko likes to point out, nothing is more dangerous than overconfidence and when a brawl gets out of hand, it looks like he's right. Are Cal and Niko being set up themselves? And by people whose bite is so much worse than their bark . . .

'My brother had spent a lifetime - mine, at least - telling me that I was normal, that I wasn't a monster. With his help, I'd finally realized that as long as I could remain who I was, I could survive what I was. It was only bad genes . . .'

Half-human Cal Leandros and his brother, Niko, aren't exactly prospering with their preternatural detective agency. Who could have guessed that business would dry up in New York City, where vampires, trolls, and other creepy crawlies are all over the place?

But now there's a new arrival in the Big Apple. A malevolent evil with ancient powers, dead set on making history with an orgy of blood and murder, is on a human killing spree. And for Cal and Niko, this is one pay cheque they're going to have to earn . . . if they survive to collect it.

But this evil might be too much for even Cal and Niko to handle, and to take it on, Cal will have to call forth the powerful talents he inherited from his unhuman father's side of the family . . .

Cal and his half-brother Niko's investigative agency has been managing to stay afloat, but just barely - so when the vampire Seamus comes looking for help to find out more about the mysterious group that's been tailing him, Cal and Niko are happy to oblige. But they're just starting to make progress when Seamus turns up dead.

Meanwhile, the inhuman side of Cal's family is not at all pleased with him - killing most of their race and thwarting their recent plan for world domination might have something to do with it. They've vowed revenge, and nothing will stop them extracting their pound of flesh from Cal, starting with his friends.

As Cal and Niko struggle to discover who killed Seamus, they must also contend with the vampire Promise's beautiful daughter - and all the trouble she brings in her wake - and stay one step ahead of Cal's bloodthirsty relatives . . .

'Family was a hateful bitch, it was. I had the hot poker scars of that burned into my flesh, but, scars or not, sometimes family was all you had worth playing with. Maybe he would see that. Maybe he would want to play too. I played rough . . . I played to win.'

If anyone knows that having family isn't always a good thing, it's half-human/half-living nightmare Cal Leandros. But for once, it's not his relatives causing the trouble. That headache belongs to his half-brother, Niko. His ne'er-do-well father is in town. He needs a favour, and if Niko refuses, it just might doom the entire city.

Yet an even more dangerous reunion is in the works. The entire lying, stealing, hormonally charged Puck race (including the brothers' lethally charismatic friend Robin Goodfellow) is in town for their millennial meeting - and to hold a lottery that no Puck wants to win.

As Cal tries to keep both Niko and Robin from paying the ultimate price for their kin, a horrific reminder from Cal's own past arrives to remind him that blood is thicker than water . . . and that's why it's so much more frightening to spill.

I stopped and let them circle me, first because it was intriguing and, second, because, honestly, what could they do? Only knives, but all armed, and that made them even more interesting. Interesting. Fun.

Play-time...

Taking on bloodthirsty supernatural monsters is how Caliban and Niko Leandros make a living. But years ago - before they became a force to be reckoned with - the brothers were almost victims of a very human serial killer.

Almost.

Unfortunately for them, that particular depraved killer was working as apprentice to a creature far more malevolent - the legendary Spring-heeled Jack. He's just hit town. He hasn't forgotten what the Leandros brothers did to his murderous protégé. He hasn't forgotten what they owe him

And now they are going to pay . . . and pay . . . and pay . . .