title: 23 Hours: A Vengeful Vampire Tale
author:  David Wellington 
description: When vampire hunter Laura Caxton is locked up in a maximum-security prison, the cop-turned-con finds herself surrounded by murderers and death-row inmates with nothing to lose ...and time to kill. Laura's always been able to protect herself, but soon she learns that an even greater danger lurks in the prison. Justinia Malvern, the world's oldest vampire, has taken up residence and her power grows as she feeds her way through the inmate population. She knows how to pull Caxton's strings, and issues an ultimatum that Laura can't refuse. Now Laura has just 23 hours to fight her way through a gauntlet of vampires, cons and killers ...23 hours to make one last, desperate attempt at protecting the world from Justinia's evil.
zlib_text: # Prologue
  
  
  
  
  
  LESTAT here. You know who I am? Then skip the next few paragraphs. For those
  whom I have not met before, I want this to be love at first sight.
  
  
  
  
  
  Behold: your hero for the duration, a perfect imitation of a blond, blue-eyed,
  six-foot Anglo-Saxon male. A vampire, and one of the strongest you'll ever
  encounter. My fangs are too small to be noticed unless I want them to be; but
  they're very sharp, and I cannot go for more than a few hours without wanting
  human blood.
  
  
  
  
  
  Of course, I don't need it that often. And just how often I do need it, I
  don't know, because I've never put it to the test.
  
  
  
  
  
  I'm monstrously strong. I can take to the air. I can hear people talking on
  the other side of the city or even the globe. I can read minds; I can bind
  with spells.
  
  
  
  
  
  I'm immortal. I've been virtually ageless since 1789.
  
  
  
  
  
  Am I unique? By no means. There are some twenty other vampires in the world of
  whom I know. Half of these I know intimately; one half of those I love