'Do you do this sort of thing a lot?'



'Fly across the world to defend someone from murder accusations with my own life hanging in the balance?' I shook my head. 'It's less common than you might think.'



It's been several years since John Smith became San Diego's supernatural mediator, and he's as surprised to still be alive as anyone. A lot of the credit goes to Anastasia, the vampire whose relationship status with John can be safely filed under 'It's complicated.'



So, when Ana is imprisoned for the murder of Tomasso, King of the Italian Court, John drops everything to go to her defense. If he can find the real killer—and unravel a centuries-old mystery in the process—his trip to Rome might have a storybook ending. If he comes up empty, he'll lose more than just the woman he loves.



John has survived a lot of things—divorces, conspiracies, even angry demigods—but politics can be deadly even before regicide is thrown into the mix. This case is looking more and more like an Italian screwjob.