The Secret of Alina Whitlock

"I don't hear any heartbeats from you or your siblings. Are you like me?"

"Well, that depends on what you are, darlin'. I can hear your heartbeat and it sounds like a hummingbird's wings fluttering."

———

Alina Jean Whitlock is a fun-loving, average girl. That's what she wants people to believe. Her reality is much harder to believe. Alina's a six-year-old dhampir; a human—vampire hybrid. Her mother is a human and her father, touted as 'The God of War' or even more commonly, 'The Major', is a legendary vampire over a century old.

She grew up on the roads, raised by a single mother, and in search of the elusive vampire that fathered her. When a hunt goes wrong and she's nearly exposed as a result, Alina encounters the vampire she has only ever heard about in stories. Most children worry about school or just fitting in with peers, but for Alina, she will have to worry about fitting in and surviving in a world her father single-handedly painted red.