Written in Red

Meg Corbyn is a cassandra sangue — a "blood prophet" who sees the future when her skin is cut — and has spent her whole life enslaved by a Controller who profits from her visions. Having finally escaped, she finds the only place she might be safe is the Lakeside Courtyard, a human-facing business run by the Others: shapeshifters, vampires, and other terra indigene who hold uneasy, wary power over the humans around them.

Shapeshifter Simon Wolfgard reluctantly hires Meg as the Courtyard's human liaison, unaware at first of what she's fleeing — and once he learns the truth, has to decide whether protecting her is worth the coming conflict between humans and the Others. Anne Bishop opens The Others series with a richly built urban fantasy where the "monsters" are the ones keeping the peace.