With Pandora, Anne Rice began a magnificent new series of Vampire novels. Now, in the second of her New Tales of the Vampires, she tells the mesmerizing story of a Vampire in the Italian Age of Gold. Vittorio, educated in the Florence of Cosimo de' Medici, trained in knighthood at his father's mountaintop castle, inhabits a world of courtly splendor & country splendor & country pleasures-a world suddenly shattered when his entire family is destroyed in a bizarre & horrible act of violence committed by an unholy power. But Vittorio himself is spared by the Vampire Ursula, the most beautiful of his supernatural enemies. As he sets out in pursuit of vengeance, entering the nightmarish court of the Ruby Grail, increasingly more enchanted (& confused) by his love for the mysterious Ursula, he finds himself confronted by demonic adversaries, by war & political intrigue. Against a backdrop of the wonders-both sacred & profane-& the beauty & ferocity of Renaissance Italy, Anne Rice creates a passionate & tragic legend of doomed young love & lost innocence. A 15th century Florentine knight sets out to avenge the massacre of his family by vampires. Vittorio di Riniari owes his life to Ursula, a beautiful vampire who had him spared so she could ravish him. He is keen on her too, but family honor comes first. By the author of Pandora. In the second volume in her New Tales of the Vampires series, Anne Rice tells the mesmerizing story of Vittorio, a vampire in the Italian Age of Gold. After his entire family is destroyed in a bizarre and horrible act of violence committed by an unholy power, Vittorio sets out in pursuit of vengeance, entering the nightmarish court of the Ruby Grail.