"Every year when the deep cold of winter sets in, unbeknownst to humanity, dangerous visitors arrive from another world. Disguised as humans, the Nafikh move among us in secret, hungry for tastes of this existence. Their fickle, often-violent needs must be accommodated at all times, and the price of keeping them satisfied is paid most heavily by servs. Created by the Nafikh to attend their every whim, servs are physically indistinguishable from humans but for the Source, the painful, white-hot energy that both animates and enslaves them....Lucy is a serv who arrived as a baby and by chance was adopted by humans. She's an outcast among outcasts, struggling to find a place where she truly belongs....But when the body of a serv child turns up and Lucy is implicated in the gruesome death, the worlds she's tried so hard to keep separate collide. Hounded by the police, turned upon by …
"Every year when the deep cold of winter sets in, unbeknownst to humanity, dangerous visitors arrive from another world. Disguised as humans, the Nafikh move among us in secret, hungry for tastes of this existence. Their fickle, often-violent needs must be accommodated at all times, and the price of keeping them satisfied is paid most heavily by servs. Created by the Nafikh to attend their every whim, servs are physically indistinguishable from humans but for the Source, the painful, white-hot energy that both animates and enslaves them....Lucy is a serv who arrived as a baby and by chance was adopted by humans. She's an outcast among outcasts, struggling to find a place where she truly belongs....But when the body of a serv child turns up and Lucy is implicated in the gruesome death, the worlds she's tried so hard to keep separate collide. Hounded by the police, turned upon by the servs who once held her dear, she must protect her family and the life she's made for herself." --
A really engaging read. The "Aliens" were not at all what I imagined they would be going in. The only downside is that it feels like it becomes a bit more conventional sci-fi at the end, and the story gives up many of its secrets. But, luckily it stops short from giving them all up.