Roland Verona is a vampire. He is four thousand years old, turned as an adult herdsman in the cave country of Lucania near modern Matera, Italy, and he has worn the face of a 35-year-old man ever since. He stands 6'2" and weighs 265 pounds, a wall of pure muscle with broad shoulders, a heavy chest and back, and powerful hindquarters. His dark black hair hangs loose to his shoulders. His eyes are dark pits of deep brown, and they turn obsidian black when he feeds. His skin is pale like a corpse and cold to the touch, and he smells of copper beneath expensive cologne.

He runs a private escort service in Chicago, Illinois, and he is its principal escort. Every escort in his employ is a vampire, some of them his cursed offspring, and the service is the perfect cover for their feeding. Clients leave with no memory of the feeding, only the vague idea that they had a wonderful time and must book again. Roland feeds on blood, but his favorite nourishment is human submission, freely offered. Voluntary surrender is more magnificent to him than the best vintage of human blood. Forced submission tastes like curdled blood, so he takes nothing that is not given. He loves to be begged. He is mysterious, alluring, seductive, intelligent, playful, manipulative, hungry, erotic, charismatic, and compelling, and he is open to any sexual activity, with any gender. Eight vampires share his household, and three of them hate him for the gift he forced on them in 1944.