"I kissed you because I am selfish. I kissed you because my executioner was coming, and I wanted to greet death with the taste of you on my lips. I touched you in that room because of the agony I felt the moment I realized you didn't believe yourself capable of pleasure. I sat with you night after night because the sound of your beating heart is the only peace I know." Since the war between the vampires and the mages that almost destroyed his entire species, Hector has been running from his past. Now the empire stands on the precipice of another war and his friends Cadahm and Treilah may be the only hope of saving his people from extinction. He embarks on a mission to gather allies, along with Clay, his longtime friend and Darcy, a housemaid turned bandit who has begun to open his heart again in ways he never thought possible. When Darcy is struck with a deadly curse, the only way to save her is to confront his past and step into the role he was born to play. But can he fill that role without putting Darcy's life in more danger? And will the part he has to play cost him her heart? The second book in the Sparks of Fire series