Veronika, the lieutenant and sometime concubine to Ebon Xanic, has agreed to take over command of the Graveshade Blood Bowl team. Her involvement with the team is as much a pretext as the team itself, though. Both Ebon and Veronika know that the real mission of the team is to obtain entry to the towns of the humans and elves, and to spread vampirism there. Only Veronika knows that she's recruiting vampires, not for Ebon, but for herself. She's grown weary of Ebon's lack of ambition, and yearns to strike out on her own -- or even to take control of Graveshade from him...

At least that's what she thinks. Ebon is on to Veronika's game. They may exchange tearful goodbyes before every road trip, and curse the necessity of having to part, but there's a real power struggle developing, with each side believing the the other doesn't know.