Blood & Fur

Each year, the Nightlords choose a new Emperor — a life of luxury that ends in sacrifice under the Scarlet Moon. Iztac is the piss-poor orphan chosen this year. But the Nightlords have made a mistake: Iztac is a sorcerer whose soul journeys into the underworld to plunder the spells of the dead. He has a year to find the power to drag the Nightlords from their throne — or perish for good.

Emperor Iztac is racing against time. He has discovered the Nightlords' sinister plan to use the New Fire Ceremony to raise a sulfur sun that would allow vampires to prey on the living during the day. He has weeks to sabotage the ritual, but his palace is full of spies and traitors. His estranged mother, the witch Ichtaca, offers him the secrets of the dead — for a price: triumph over the trials of the dread city of Xibalba.

Iztac's struggle against the Nightlords is at a turning point. With the failure of their ritual and the loss of one of their own, the vampires are paranoid — and none are more suspicious of Iztac than the White Snake. In the Underworld, the trials of Xibalba continue. As Iztac's power grows and his circle of allies expands, a crossroads between light and darkness awaits — and the road to ultimate power comes with a cost.