Bazyli Breznik used to rule the world, but now the centuries old vampire is at the bottom of the food chain. He's broke and drives a yellow cab in NYC. He sleeps in the trunk. He's an alcoholic. His only friends are drunks. He's a murderer and believes he's the most evil creature on earth. He's wrong. Baz is in hiding, like the rest of his kind. They aren't like normal humans, they were changed more than five hundred years ago by a virus into a version of human who never grows old, heals fast, and requires fresh blood for nutrition. The vampires of myth and legend aren't some kind of magical beings, they're real people whose disease is both blessing and curse. And Baz was once the badest of them all. Baz is satisfied with living a marginal life on the edge of society as punishment for all the sins he committed centuries ago. A waitress at one of the diners in his area is nearly kidnapped in front of him. He steps in only to discover that the waitress is really an undercover cop who is part of a sting operation. Baz ends up agreeing to be an informant so the cops will leave him alone. But the traffickers try to take the lady cop, Nika, again, and Baz becomes annoyed. She's good people, and he's always hated slavery. When Nika is finally taken on try number three, he's not content to look and listen anymore. He discovers that the criminals behind the ring aren't just bad people, they're the kind of bad he used to be. And they don't care who they hurt, or who finds out about them. He's got to stop them, get Nika back, and manage not to kill too many people all at the same time. He wasn't cut out to be a good guy.