DARK SECRETS WHITE LIES

Clayton Masters is born into extreme wealth during India's 18th century British Raj but hates the social demands of rigid British upper class society. The premature death of his father forces him to manage their trading subsidiary under the auspices of the East India Company for six years until he senses future political unrest and sells off his commercial interests. Emotionally and physically exhausted, he retreats to the calm of his Buddhist friend's ashram to finally continue his childhood lessons of meditation and contemplation. A letter from his debauched younger brother in London begs him for help with his insurmountable debts. Dysfunctional family or not, Clayton sails from India to England to help his wastrel brother. Within months of his arrival, Clayton is kidnapped by a well know courtesan, Lillian, who intends to keep him drugged and under her control until her raging lust for him is satisfied. But Lillian is a vampire and things don't go as she planned. Years pass as Clayton is forced to deal with his vampiric lifestyle and his need for blood. Finally settling in America, the trajectory of his is changed forever during a chance encounter with Miss Mary Ellington while on business in Savannah, Georgia. He keeps his dark secrets but can't help falling deeply in love with her. Their brief love affair ends with an assassin's bullet; Clayton loses all memories of Mary, and she believes him dead albeit without a body to bury. Images of a weeping woman drenched in blood and whispering his name continue to haunt him while pulling him towards an unknown destination in the American West and a woman he has never met.