When sixteen-year-old Mina is forced to take a class to help her decide whether or not to become a vampire like her parents, she also faces a choice between her life-long best friend and the boy she has a crush on versus new friends and possible boyfriends in her mandatory "vampire lessons."

In 1889 London, vampire-hunter Evaline Stoker and investigator Mina Holmes once again join forces at the request of the Princess of Wales--this time their mission is to escort and protect a princess who is part of a trade mission from Betrovia, a country which has had a rocky relationship with England, starting with a four hundred-year-old dispute over a valuable Byzantine chessboard.

Unhappy about his baby sister's illness and the chaos of moving into a dilapidated old house, Michael retreats to the garage and finds a mysterious stranger who is something like a bird and something like an angel.

"It's 1918, and war is raging across Europe. When Lady Mina Tretheway receives a telegram at boarding school, she doesn't want to read it--telegrams never bring good news. The message is written in a cryptic code, and Mina is soon pulled out of school and into a secret wartime mission with a dashing American spy" --

Mina, a child of the dark, marries a prince and before they can be happy they must endure deadly trials.