PROLOGUE: THE KIN

Kin.

Even the word seemed to have a certain weight, a certain sense of otherness and mystery. And those attributes fit the Kin perfectly.

The Kin are aliens that came to Earth in 5027 C.E. Their huge spaceships filled Earth’s skies like worldwide thunderclouds. The flagship of their massive fleet, the Abyss, caused a shadow to fall over the entirety of the San Angeles Megalopolis. Many thought it was the end of the world when the drop ships landed. For the Kin were beautiful like avenging angels coming down from the heavens.

If the Kin had come for a fight, humanity’s days might very well have been numbered. They were bigger, stronger, faster and smarter than human beings. Their Tech was by far superior. They had only one weakness: sunlight. It burned them to ashes. So they wore almost impenetrable armored suits that protected them from the sun's dangerous rays.

But war was not on the Kin’s agenda. Instead, they made humanity an offer. They would share their advanced technology with the Earthian High Command in exchange for one simple thing: human blood.

Because it was clear that the Kin could simply take what they wanted, an alliance was quickly formed. But there were those who resisted, those who thought that this was no alliance, but instead a slow and steady enslavement with perhaps even a blacker endpoint than making human beings into their cattle. After all, what had happened to the other species that had made a similar bargain with the Kin? No one knew.

The resistance fighters gave the Kin a darker name: Vampires.

Tranis Gray was the leader of the Resistance. He believed that he could convince humanity to throw off the Kin's golden shackles before it was too late. All he needed was time.

But time was the last thing he had.