Shadow Hand

In this YA dark fantasy from a Bram Stoker Award-winning author, a teen vampire learns she has destructive power, coveted by those who see her as a weapon. In the urban fantasy Vamps series, Nancy A. Collins reimagined vampire myth with a story of teenage blood drinking siblings fighting each other and their own family legacies in a secret society of living vampires in New York City. Shadow Hand continues the saga in this revised edition by the multi-award-winning visionary author. Vampire half-siblings Cally Monture and Lilith Todd have shaken the cavernous halls of Bathory Academy with their intense and violent rivalry. Despite their magical and shapeshifting abilities and knowing that their youthful appearances are eternal, they are still teenagers, susceptible to the growing pains and identity crises that afflict humanity. The Grand Ball of the vampire community grants both Cally and Lilith moments to shine as debutantes. An evening of dancing, revelry, and admiration from suitors raises the girls' spirits even as the vampire elders engage in fractious debates about pure versus mixed blood heritage. Then the Van Helsing vampire hunters attack, indiscriminate about slaughtering them all, until Cally summons her Shadow Hand, a deadly magical force that dissolves the head of the Van Helsing family with a single touch. It is a power Cally cannot control, much less wants. But she is the vampires' best defense against their enemies, a hero to all she saved except for Lilith, who still sees her as an inferior half-breed intruding upon her world. Meanwhile Cally's ex-boyfriend, Peter Van Helsing, grieves his father's death, knowing he must avenge himself against the girl he once loved . . . Previously published as After Dark