To raise money for her grandmother's surgery, Ella takes a job as a castle maid with a million-a-year salary, unaware that it's a trap set by Gareth, the castle's steward, to find pure human blood for the newly awakened Lucian. Lucian intends to feed on Ella's blood to stabilize his blood core, but over time her resilience and kindness move him, and he slowly falls in love with her. Ella, too, moves from terror—after stumbling onto Lucian's identity as a vampire—to genuine feeling for him. Then come wave after wave of enemies: lesser vampires, werewolves, and rival clans. Again and again, Lucian's blood core goes berserk and he cuts down these powerful foes to protect her. He then breaks clan law to be with her, and when the Elders of the Vampire Council move to punish the forbidden romance, the two of them stand against the Council for love, redeeming each other on the edge of life and death, and finally end up together.
