Prologue
Do you believe in vampires?
I didn’t. Not really. Not until they awakened me as one. I always knew that I was different. I never fit in with others my age. I’m what you would call a Stregoni Benefici. They say us to be on the side of goodness and a mortal enemy of all evil vampires. The Lugat are nonliving vampires as well. They are pretty much harmless. So harmless in fact that the Varacolaci queen, Velika Talsania, had kept them enslaved for many years.
They rank the Varacolaci among the most powerful of all the undead. And unlike the Stregoni, they take pleasure in killing instead of immortality. Unable to protect themselves, the Lugat rely on protection solely from the Stregoni Benefici, who have finally freed them from slavery twenty-five years ago, and we became their protectors because we guard them to ensure their survival for future kin. Now we train to make certain that their future is secure. At the present day, they coexist peacefully with humans at the Annunziata Vampire Academy. A recent threat is coming for us all, and Hell’s Guardians are the only one who can save us from them.
