All of Jon Hyde-White's hopes and dreams were shattered when he and the woman he loves became infected with vampirism. Once, he dreamed of being a holy man, now the church considers him unholy, despite the fact that unlike the conventional vampire, he can freely enter consecrated ground. Because for both him and for Cassandra, his lady love, life is unbearable, they decide to follow a wise man's offer of hope, that in Moldavia there might be a cure. Neither is a full vampire, merely infected, so perhaps there is a chance. Yet, when they reach foreign soil, all the couple finds is that they are caught between evil vampires and vampire hunters. Their sole ally is a centuries old gypsy vampire who does know of a way to change them so that evil is not predominant. They just have to survive and stay out of the hands of their maker long enough to try the method.

Though this is a first book in a trilogy, the opening pages felt as if you were entering the story some time after the beginning. That aside, Ms. Thompson has reinvented vampirism in a most imaginative way. The idea that there are differnet levels of the infection, as it is called here, is intriguing, as is the notion that a rite could allow vampires who are not totally gone over to evil to adapt to society better.

Synopsis
Start of a stunning new series!

THEIR DARK CURSE Jon Hyde-White was changed. Neither his horse nor his dog trusted him any longer, and with good cause; the transformation was almost complete. Soon he would cease to be an earl's second son and become a ravening monster. Already lust grew, begging him to drink, to devour, to swallow in great gulps hot blood from every opalescent neck--and the blood of his fiancée, Cassandra Thorpe, would be sweetest of all. Was that not why they were chosen? Was that not why the blasphemous creature Sebastian burst upon them from the London shadows? But Sebastian's evil task remained incomplete, and neither Jon not Cassandra was beyond hope. Still she smelled of meadowsweet and lilies, and he still believed in Heaven. One chance remained--in faraway Moldovia, in a secret brotherhood, in an ancient ritual and the power of love and the...BLOOD MOON