Book excerpt: The world cradling humankind is yet to be understood. Much of its archaic beginnings linger within the mind upon a plane of postulates, mystery and uncertain truth, the voice of myth from times long past. In these legends are glimmers of truths dismissed as lore. This is such a story: the origin of a legend that spans from distant past to the present day, the origin of the vampire. Alluring and suspenseful, it is the dark, epic chronicle of a man changed in nature and body. Once a sentinal of a prosperous settlement, he is forced into a nocturnal existence, and instinctually compelled in ways that he fears will cost him his very humanity. He gained an unnatural longevity, and while the ages pass, the modern world develops around him. His existence is discovered by an old organization whose siege even he shall be hard pressed to survive.