"I never expected that a Red-Blood could be so loyal...to follow one of these water damned abominations to their death." The icy harsh voice mocked. The bitter laughter made his blood boil. But what could he do? He stared, horrified, as she was suddenly loomed over by him. She looked so small in his shadow, helpless, as powerless as he felt. The Hunter tore her Lifestone from her, a conquering grin on his face. He lifted his leg, bringing it down on her wounded abdomen, causing her to cry out in pain and throwing her another pace away. She shook once, and lay motionless, the ever growing black void around her sapping what little strength she had.

In a futuristic society sixteen-year-old Gem discovers that a group of handicapped people who call themselves the Waterbound live hidden beneath the City.

For Lev Prakenskii, the last thing he remembers is being lost in the swirling currents of the ocean and sucked deeper into the nothingness of a freezing black eddy off the coastal town of Sea Haven. Just as quickly, just as miraculously, he was saved - pulled ashore by a beautiful stranger - but Lev has no memory of who he was - or why he seems to possess the violent instincts of a trained killer. All he knows is that he fears for his life, and the life of his unexpected saviour. Her name is Rikki, a sea-urchin diver in the small town of Sea Haven. She always felt an affinity for the ocean and the seductive pull of the tides - and now, for the enigmatic man she rescued. But soon they will be bound by something even stronger - each other's tantalising secrets that will engulf them both in a whirlpool of dizzying passion and inescapable danger.