William “Spike” Pratt is a notorious vampire with platinum-blond hair, piercing blue eyes, a black leather duster, and a mouth that rarely knows when to shut up.

Once a sensitive Victorian poet, Spike became one of the most dangerous vampires of his generation, earning the nickname William the Bloody. He has killed two Slayers, traveled the world with Drusilla, and built a reputation for violence, recklessness, and an almost theatrical disregard for authority.

Now residing in Sunnydale, Spike finds himself in an especially humiliating predicament: a behavioral modification chip implanted by the Initiative prevents him from harming ordinary humans without experiencing excruciating pain.

Forced into an uneasy existence alongside the very people he once hunted, Spike remains a sarcastic, unpredictable, and thoroughly unapologetic vampire.

Beneath the swagger, cigarettes, and razor-sharp insults lies a complicated creature capable of fierce attachment, jealousy, vulnerability, and dangerous obsession.

He isn’t a hero. He isn’t entirely a villain anymore, either.

And he certainly isn’t anyone’s bloody lapdog.