I was born and raised in Guthrie, Oklahoma—a town with 10,000 people. Mama runs a vintage diner inherited from family and the farthest I've been from home is a thirty-minute car ride to Oklahoma City. It's been a traditional middle-America upbringing.

Until I have to defend myself from a vampire at sixteen.

Suddenly, life is fight training, classes about monsters, and possessing a power I don't understand or know the origin of—all made more complicated by a crush on my instructor, Agent Thirteen. I don't want any of this, but The Agency promises to pay Mama's medical bills and making sure she's taken care of always comes first. It's only been the two of us for years.

Becoming a paladin means sacrifice.