 Griot Audio presents an unabridged recording of The Living Blood by Tananarive Du, narrated by Peter Francis James. This work is copyrighted 2001 by Tananarive Du. This recording is copyrighted 2004 by Recorded Books, producer and publisher of Griot Audio. Jessica Jacobs-Wold has survived the worst tragedy any mother or wife could ever endure. The deaths of both her husband and her first born daughter. Four years later, Jessica discovers that her second daughter Fauna is the heir to a powerful legacy, preordained a thousand years ago and drenched in the powerful lifeblood that flows through Fauna's veins. As her daughter begins to display supernatural abilities, it seems that not only is Jessica's nightmare continuing, it may have only just begun. And now, The Living Blood. Prologue, Miami, Florida, December 22, 1997. A woman's cry of pain floated from the house. The house sat at the end of Hibiscus Avenue, on a web of residential streets, a half mile from the clogged in at Pro Player Stadium, where thousands had converged to watch the Miami Dolphins' Monday Night Game. The cement block house had been built in 1964, when the area had been ringed by cow pastures, and there had been no such thing as the Miami Dolphins. The little house's only striking feature was its lemon yellow exterior with neatly painted white awnings and matching railings that wrapped around a large porch, shaded by bowing palm trees. An air conditioner jutted out of the front wall, but it was a cool night, so dozens of rows of jealousy windows were open to welcome the evening breeze. A half-open rear window offered another scream to the night. Inside the house was filled with the smell of cooking gone cold. The meal was hours ago at midday, but the dining room table was frozen, as if people were still sitting in the straight-backed chairs. Four plates were littered with half-chewed rolls and tiny bones from cornish hens, strewn across shallow puddles of congealing green bean juice. In the living room, a television set blared to an empty sofa. A man had been sitting on the sofa an hour before, and a TV guide he had been reading still marked his seat. But the man had finally left to go outside and take a walk, because he didn't have the stomach to listen to Jessica's pain. Jessica Jacobs Walde had known her baby would be coming, as soon as she'd woken up at dawn, even before the slightest pains began. The mound and her bellies seemed...