Since Tess's friend Kevin left the human world to become a phoenix, Tess has felt increasingly lonely and isolated. Soon it will be Tess's fifteenth birthday, the age at which she must finally decide what form she will take for the rest of her life; if she chooses, she too, can become a phoenix and join Kevin in his seemingly perfect existence. But everything changes when Kevin is captured by a local zoo. Tess is introduced to a world unknown to her before, a world ruled by vampires, darkness, and menacing forces that threaten to change her own life forever.