"Seeing the great darkness within the elven prince's heart, the High God cursed his descendants with a thirst for blood..."The first vampires, driven from their home, find themselves locked in a struggle for survival. The King of the Elves sends an army to destroy them, and the only escape is north. Their last hope may lie in the walled frontier town of Dundari, or beyond in the White Wastes: a land of ice and snow completely empty of life... or so everyone thinks.Told through five viewpoints, from sociopaths and opportunists to the lone altruist whose benevolence may prove his undoing, this novella chronicles the origin of the vampires - elves weighed down by a dark curse - and the story of the ultimate dysfunctional family.