A Dowry of Blood: THE GOTHIC SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

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There wasn't enough air left in my body to scream. My only protestation was silent tears streaming down my cheeks, my body a rictus of rigid pain as you drank your fill of me. So determined to live," you breathed, as though you were witnessing something holy, as though I was a miracle. "I should call you Constanta. My steadfast Constanta."

Drops of grey rain tumbled from the empty sky, splattering across my cheeks. I could barely feel them. I tightened my fingers into a fist, willing my heart to keep beating. A lot of writers give endless thought to the logistics of vampirism: the who and where of killing, of moving around, of the laws the limit or enhance the vampiric life. Not so here. Constanta and her lovers never seem to fear discovery or vengeful mortals, or feel hemmed in by their nocturnal lifestyle. They kill with abandon, travel freely, interact easily with whatever humans they so choose. External forces rarely do more than displace them; only forces internal to their shifting relationships challenge and threaten them. War is never valiant, only crude and hideous. Any left alive after the rest have been cut down do not last long exposed to the elements. Saved from the brink of death by a mysterious stranger, Constanta is transformed from a medieval peasant into a bride fit for an undying king. But when Dracula draws a cunning aristocrat and a starving artist into his web of passion and deceit, Constanta realizes that her beloved is capable of terrible things. Fully-Embraced Fiend: Dracula enjoys being a vampire and killing his victims, having embraced being a beast. Notably his harem indicate he could feed off the guilty or not kill his victims, but he chooses not to and preys on innocents because he likes it.

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I will do you a twofold kindness," you said. "I will raise you out of the dirt and into queenship. And, I will give you your vengeance."

A delectable jewel of a tale, shimmering with dark, beautiful prose’ Tori Bovalino, author of The Devil Makes Three You need to cut your teeth or they'll become ingrown," you announced. "And you need to eat, properly." I never believed her tales of the dead who crawled out of the earth to sup the blood of the living. Not until then. An Eastern European peasant named Constanta finds herself dying and is sired and turned into a bride by Count Dracula himself. Dracula later adds two others to his harem, with Constanta realising that Dracula is far more vicious and evil than she's been led to believe. I gasped for air, a sob bubbling up inside me. I didn't know why I was crying, but tears bore down on me like an oncoming storm.Letters are often written by those hurt in a relationship. This is a story that starts out romantic and transforms into something else. Like the beginning of a lot of relationships, secrets unfold and behaviors reveal themselves. Many that have been through hurt write a letter we don’t intend to send so we may go through all our feelings. I flinched when you knelt at my side, my body using what little strength was left to jerk away. Your face was obscured by the blinding sun, but I bared my teeth all the same. I didn't know who you were. I just knew I would claw out the eyes of the next man who touched me, if my fingers didn't seize up and betray me. I had been beaten and left for dead, and yet it was not death that had come to claim me.

Serial-Killer Killer: Constanta, upon becoming a vampire, decides to dedicate herself to killing and feeding off the most odious or evil of society. Her victims range from rapists, killers and war profiteers to just general Asshole Victims like people who would spit on a beggar or harass and grab a woman. You tipped my face and pressed your thumb down against my tongue, peering into my mouth. An urge to bite swelled up within me, but I smothered it.

I think it would be perfectly natural if Constanta were to struggle with polygamy or being in a polycule, but I also think it’s perfectly reasonable that she doesn’t. She slaughters humans like rabbits; even for an erstwhile churchgoer like her, what’s an open marriage to the toll of her dead? Her casual embrace of non-monogamy is refreshing, and I like very much that Gibson did away with the hand-wringing. Rice already did the tormented vampire, and the unrepentant one. We already know—oh, do we know—vampires under threat from hunters or from their own guilt. Here we see the vampire at home, at rest. Their natural habitat is luxury, and it turns out their natural inclination is to form groups, albeit rather dangerous ones.