The Bleeding Dusk: The Gardella Vampire Chronicles: Colleen Gleason

Still reeling from the death of her aunt, Victoria is forced to take the reins of the Venators into her own hands. As Illa Gardella she alone must keep up the morale of the secret force of vampire hunters and lead them through duties, the most important of which is the hunting and total destruction of the demon Akvan. Though they thought him gone, as long as shards of his obelisk remain, his power is still alive.

With her aunt dead and Max gone, Victoria is forced to fall back for reliance upon the other Venators for guidance, and more and more, upon herself. Sebastian reappears with his grandfather Beauregard in tow, fully prepared to make life more difficult for Victoria especially since it appears that Beauregard has his own plans for Victoria. Not to mention, just because poor Victoria doesn't have enough to deal with already, her clueless mother has arrived in Rome with a gaggle of her friends in tow and when they become aware that vampires may really exist, they decide it's time to take matters into their own well-bred hands. However it seems that that the situation might take a turn in favor of the Venators when they learn of the existence of the Secret Door of Alchemy. After that it's a race between vampires and Venators, through the streets of Rome, and no one knows who they can really trust in this game.

This is the third book in the Gardella series and the best so far. I believe I blew through this in... Eight hours. Gleason keeps upping the ante with each novel, weaving the characters around her readers with each engaging conversation and narrative, every stage set of all the appropriate gothic gloom and melting beauty. Though it's hard these days to find a new plot for para-romance, Gleason is doing a good job and I have every faith that she'll continue to do so.
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Paperback: 368 pages
Publisher: Signet (February 5, 2008)
ISBN-10: 0451223268
ISBN-13: 978-0451223265