The Breaking

No one said fighting monsters was going to be easy …

You can't see them, but they're here: hiding in the pools of shadow outside a Chicago burger joint …wreaking havoc in Kansas City …feeding in sleazy "blood brothels" that cater to humans who itch to get bitten.

Cole was designing video games when he learned the truth - that foul creatures of the night lust for our blood …and our world. Now he's a "Skinner," a member of an ancient secret society of warriors entrusted with keeping the terror at bay. Monsters once chained to the wilderness are suddenly free and descending, razor claws ripping, on the unsuspecting city. No one knows what's coming - but Cole and his seductive partner, Paige, will be the first to dive into the meat grinder.

When a den of werewolves is uncovered underground in the subways, Cole and Paige make an even more frightening discovery - a deadly plague effecting the creatures, which threatens humanity.

A legendary Skinner has passed. Among the articles he left behind are runes, potions, and powerful weapons to aid in the ongoing war against the unspeakable creatures that prowl the shadows outside normal human consciousness. But there is something else: the remains of a terrifying beast no other Skinner has ever encountered. And it isn't dead.

Skinners, partners, lovers, Cole Warnecki and Paige Strobel are well armed with the tools the late Jonah Lancroft provided. But even his best weapons may not be enough to defeat the monstrosity they now face. A new terror has risen up to infect them both with its virulent malevolence, even as Paige confronts the secrets of her astonishing past. The purest evil walks the world again - the First Deceiver, humankind's darkest nightmare, the self-proclaimed King of the Full Bloods.

The human race is under siege—with shapeshifters, vampires, and half-blood werewolves freely prowling the streets of the world’s cities …and Full Bloods about to descend en masse from out of the dark wilderness. The police and the military are helpless, and only the Skinners can forestall the tactical nuke strikes the Army has planned as a last resort.

Skinners, partners, lovers, Paige Strobel and Cole Warnecki know Armageddon is at hand, and seek a union with the mysterious European blood hunters, the Gypsy Amriany, as a final, desperate means to preventing the monster apocalypse. But power-mad traitors from the ranks of their own kind could doom humanity’s valiant efforts to survive. And the only possible outcome at the end of the ultimate war is total extinction. But for whom …or what?