The Wind and the Darkness — Tori Minard

A dreaded assassin The young woman he saved The empire that wants them dead The Dark Empire, the largest and most powerful vampire society in the world, despises rogue vampires-those who've transformed themselves through magical rituals rather than submitting to the rule of Daranda, the vampire empress. All rogues must die. Kayla Chandler-formerly Britney Peach, a victim of unspeakable child abuse-has carved a new life for herself, a life that threatens to fall apart when she buys a strange, hand-lettered book called The Words Of The Vampire. The book seems to have a life, and a mind, of its own and under its influence Kayla performs the rituals that will transform her into a vampire. When Daranda orders her favorite assassin, Obsidian, to murder Kayla Chandler, he's reluctant to kill a woman. But when he discovers Kayla is Britney, the same young girl he rescued from being beaten to death ten years earlier, he realizes he must do more than refuse to kill her-he must escape with her, making both of them a target for assassination. Their only hope is to find two legendary vampires who live in defiance of the Dark Empire-Niko and Laila, said to be thousands of years old and the only vampires Daranda can't touch. The problem is they might be more legend than reality.