Masquerade

New York's elite teens are back with more mystery and intrigue at the Duchesne School. In the first book of the series, Schuyler Van Alen finds out that she is actually a vampire, along with many of her classmates. They are asked to be junior members of the prestigious New York Blood Bank Committee, the human front of their organization. With the exclusive Four Hundred Ball on the horizon, Schuyler and her best friend, Oliver, are determined to uncover a killer who lusts for the blood of vampires.

Although Oliver is a red blood (a non-vampire), he comes from old money, and is a Conduit for the Van Alen family. The practice of keeping a Conduit has died out among most other blue blood families, but the highly traditional Van Alens value their assistants, and have shunned the opinions of most of the other members of the Committee.

More teens have been attacked, and a few have even been murdered since the first in Blue Bloods. The Committee refuses to acknowledge the return of the dreaded vampire-killers known as Silver Bloods, but Schuyler's grandmother insists that they take action. So Schuyler and Oliver head to Italy, accompanying Oliver's father on a business trip, to search for Schuyler's grandfather.

Lawrence Van Alen was in charge of the Committee until the disaster at Roanoke, where an entire colony of vampires disappeared. He asserted the colony was killed off by Silver Bloods, but the Committee believed the Silver Bloods to be nearly extinct and incapable of such a massacre. Lawrence was ousted and replaced with the current leader, Charles Force.

The idea that vampires are actually fallen angels is a completely new take on vampire lore. Particularly that the two most powerful vampires are the 'Uncorrupted,' Gabriel and Michael, the only two vampires to become so out of choice. This isn't the first time vampires have been tied to Biblical stories, but most tie them to Judas Iscariot. Living through the opulence of the Four Hundred Ball and the mystery of the Silver Bloods, Masquerade is a worthy continuation of the 'Blue Bloods' saga.