Siriaa is dying. A poison is spreading throughout the planet and none know how to neutralize it. Finder, working in King Tamblin's castle kitchen most of her life, has never spoken. A child of questionable parentage, Finder is an orphan assigned to perform duties nobody else wants.

In or out of the Alliances, sorcerers and necromancers are considered a myth - until a single, shadowy figure brings those myths to life. In or out of the Alliances, nobody is prepared for that.... The BlackWing Pirates, a fleet of space cruisers that form a secret branch of the Alliance Security Detail, discover what a myth-come-to-life is capable of doing when this sinister aberration begins a slow and deliberate attack against the upcoming Joint Alliances Conclave.

Lissa's life as a vampire begins on the day her husband is removed from life support. Turned by rogues who wager her life, Lissa is running from her maker who is determined to kill her, hunted by the Council who has branded her a rogue and blackmailed by werewolves, who utilize her newly developed talents for their own gain.

>"Reah, this is Commander Aris." Bel moved aside, once we were inside the spacious office, and I received my first look at the outpost Commander. He stared at me for moments as I stood before him. I was so frightened I was afraid I'd burst into tears. He was a lion of a man with thick, shoulder-length, dark gold hair swept back from his forehead. He didn't stand as his rank dictated, otherwise I think he would have dwarfed Bel, whom I thought was quite tall.

We belong to the king - those of us with the black roses tattooed on our left wrist, directly over our pulse. As if every beat of our hearts reminds us that we are not our own. All the women with the fire burning within them are culled, tattooed, and taken to the warriors to provide more energy. Energy that the warriors will then use to defeat the barbarians from the ocean of sand. Women with black roses on their wrists are emptied of their power by those warriors, who care not that they die a shrunken husk.