Tanith Lee 
Blood of Roses 

Love, history or blood…which is the strongest?In childhood something black settled on Mechail Korhlen and drank from his throat. And later somebody pitied him enough to kill his poor deformed body when he became an adult. But then Mechail chose to return from beyond the veil to enact revenge — and to follow Anjelen, ruler of the sinister monastery sited deep in the forest. The fulfilment of his destiny had begun.