Blackthorn: An Audit

Valerius Drakenfeld has survived nearly six centuries, several wars, one catastrophic betrayal, and the indignity of working in vampire customer service. He may not survive an audit. When a certified raven delivers notice from the Bureau of Eternal Compliance, Valerius and the peculiar household he has assembled at Blackthorn are given twenty-one days to prepare for official review. Every undead resident, territorial claim, financial arrangement, and supernatural irregularity must be properly documented. Almost none of it is. Zach, the household's youngest vampire, may not legally exist. Ambrose remembers nine hundred years of history but rarely the century presently required. The House has opinions, grudges, and a regrettable tendency to weaponize the shrubbery. And somewhere inside the Bureau, someone has been waiting a very long time for Valerius's records to fail. Their only hope is Amelia Harker: a mortal paralegal armed with a pencil, an exacting respect for procedure, and the dangerous belief that every account can be reconciled. But as missing records surface and old betrayals acquire new signatures, Amelia discovers that this is no ordinary audit. Someone intends to erase Blackthorn—and everyone who belongs to it—from existence. The vampires have secrets. The Bureau has procedures. Amelia has a checklist. God help the Bureau.