Betsy Taylor, Vampire Queen, already has plenty on her plate. For one thing, next week is her birthday-the big 3-1 in human years, and one in undead years. (Yes, she bit the dust on her birthday last year.) On top of that, she still has wedding plans to finalize-and it's not helping that the prospective groom is avoiding anything to do with it. And then there's her decision to stop drinking blood-something she has yet to share with Eric Sinclair, her fianc-who also happens to be the vampire king...

So the last thing she wants to deal with is uninvited guests, even if they happen to be the powerful European vampires who have finally come to pay their respects the week before her birthday. Some of them don't want Betsy as their Queen, and will do anything to get rid of her. As if turning thirty last year (not to mention dying) hadn't been traumatic enough. And trying to give up blood is making her really cranky...