Maids, Mothers, and Crones

Professional crone Sophronia finds herself still in California trying to prevent younger witches from being murdered by unscrupulous vampires who want the skills their blood can bestow. She would love some help from her own kind, but so far the only other witches she's met in America are Charlie, her young protégé, who is in love with an inexperienced vampire, and Nell, Charlie's grandmother, a crone and an alcoholic whose one interest in life is staying permanently drunk. Her only real ally is Hagen, the 2000-year-old vampire lord with an agenda of his own, but despite developing a dangerous attraction for him, Sophronia doesn't trust him an inch. And there's another vampire on the scene who has his own reasons for wanting both Hagen and Sophronia dead...