The three volumes in The Blood Opera Sequence tell the saga of the Scarabae family, a near-immortal vampiric clan who have walked the earth since ancient times, ensuring the survival of their bloodline.
Dark Dance: In a dilapidated home by the sea, Rachaela Day meets her paternal family for the first time. The wealthy Scarabae are eccentric elders, nocturnal by nature, with no interest in the outside world. Her one link to this strange brood—her father Adamus—is unlike the others. He is young, too young, to be her father. But Rachaela is a Scarabae, and if the family is to survive, she has a duty and a destiny to fulfill.
Personal Darkness: Ruth is the latest Scarabae, the spawn of a union her mother Rachaela believed unholy. Defying the family, Ruth slaughters most of them, unleashing an insatiable murderous instinct. The hunter Malach will not allow Ruth's trail of destruction to lead back to the Scarabae—and he will kill any surviving witnesses left behind in her wake.
Darkness, I: Rachaela has once again been seduced by the Scarabae to birth a daughter. Anna is mature beyond her years, possessing otherworldly beauty and intelligence. And now she has been taken by the progenitor of the Scarabae, Cain, who pursues a new future for his family, one beyond their legacy that alters Anna's very fate.
Tanith Lee (1947–2015) was born in the United Kingdom. Although she couldn't read until she was eight, she began writing at nine and never stopped, producing more than ninety novels and three hundred short stories. She also wrote for the BBC television series Blake's 7 and various BBC radio plays. After winning the 1980 British Fantasy Award for her novel Death's Master, endless awards followed. She was named a World Horror Grand Master in 2009 and honored with the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement in 2013. Lee was married to artist and writer John Kaiine.