What a great novella and prequel into the new Guild Hunter series.  This is my first time reading anything from Nalini Singh and I really enjoyed this story.  The world that Nalini has built is both innovative and exciting.  Hunters (humans) are employed by the Guild who are essentially angels, to hunt down vampires that go against their contract w/ the angels.  Vampires are "almost-immortals" and are sired and indentured by the angels.  Angels are not the angels from the fairy tales of sugar and spice, these angels are cruel and twisted and thrive on the pain of others.  In this novella we follow a hunter named Ashwini who is hired by the powerful angel Nazarach.  Her assignment is to travel down to Atlanta and hunt down a vampire who has been kidnapped by a rival.  To succeed in her mission Ashwini persuades a vampire (Janvier), who has escaped being terminated by her on more than one occasion, to accompany her.  Ashwini and Janvier have great chemistry and seem to make a great team.  There is a lot of sexually charged tension between them.  There is quite a bit of action and suspense packed into this novella.  I look forward to the first book in the series Angel's Blood, due out 3/3/09.