Malefic giants, baleful specters, hideous were-jaguars. A parade of vile abominations. Ho-hum. As guardian at the gate to the Realms, Charles has seen it all. He would rather spend his pre-dawn hours chatting with Lindsay, the waitress at a run-down diner--a place where words like "vile" are reserved for the soup and "abomination" for the meat loaf. But his growing feelings for Lindsay are making it hard to resist certain long-suppressed urges. Vampiric urges. When a creature abandons a crate full of hungry baby wombats at the entrance to the Realms, Charles finds a twinge of his long-suppressed humanity and takes them home to raise as his own.