Vampires and Romance and Redemption – Nat Kennedy
The first vampire in fiction was written by Lord Byron’s personal physician. I didn’t realize this when I’d picked my vampire’s first name – Byron – but I feel it’s a poetic happenstance. It was written in 1819, and it was a romance. Apparently, the physician had a bit of a crush on old Lord Byron. This and other early vampires, such as Dracula, are evil beings, bent on feeding their dark needs by taking the lives of innocents. It’s an us against them theme, a human versus the predatory vampire.
It wasn’t really until more modern takes on the vampire that we get the current expectations: dark, brooding, fighting against an internal beast that drives it to kill—a vampire is a tangled ball of tension and angst. Inherently, this lends a kind of sexiness to the night-time blood-drinking (or denial of), a draw to the wounded warrior nature of a vampire wishing to be good.
Let’s examine a few popular vampires:
Dracula (Dracula), Louis de Pointe du Lac (Interview with the Vampire), Stefan Uccello (Mercy Thompson), Angel (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Stefan Salvatore (Vampire Diaries).
Dracula – He’s pretty much a bad guy who likes to drink young maidens down. His bite can turn you, and he sleeps in his native soil. He can shapeshift into different animals and has a mesmerizing gaze. In fact, he has many more powers, which are attributed to his ‘dealings with the devil.’ You can see these powers reflected in his successors in fiction. There isn’t much, if any, of the internal struggle to do good in this early pinnacle of vampirehood.
Louis de Pointe du Lac – Here is our angsty main character in Interview with the Vampire, which was my first vampire book. Ready to leave his mortal coil for the nothingness beyond, he was noticed by Lestat, who made him into a vampire to continue his unwanted existence. Angst, thy name be vampire. In Rice’s world, who the sire was, the age or how often he sired other vampires, mattered in the strength of the fledgling. But the vampires don’t have specific powers due to just being a vampire.
Stefan Uccello – The first Stefan of our list (surprisingly a popular vampire name). In the Mercy Thompson series, vampires can have different powers based on their bloodline. He’s not that morally scarred, compared to other vampires. Confident and powerful, he presents himself as a goofy guy who drives a Mystery Machine because of his love for Scooby Doo. He isn’t evil, but will do bad things if necessary. He protects those he considers his. He has the semi-unique ability of teleportation and has a connection with those who have fed from him.
Angel – It seems in the Buffyverse that all vampires are evil because they have no soul. Then Angel gets cursed with a soul. Here is a vampire who believes he is damned and wishes to make amends by helping the helpless through Angel Investigations. He’s a businessman. Other than typical enhanced physical features, he doesn’t appear to have too many supernatural powers.
Stefan Salvatore – Admittedly, I know the least about this Stefan, because I’d only just started watching the show and haven’t read any of the books. He did remind me a lot of Angel, with the brooding, mysterious nature he portrayed. He is also fighting against hurting people—hating the evil immortal thing he is—and has weakened himself by not feeding on humans. He has a long list of powers, including shapeshifting, telepathy, and weather manipulation. However, they seem to only have oomph if he has nourished himself with human blood.
There are many vampires that I have missed, but it’s evident there are many themes and arcs covering modern vampires. I personally love the angsty vampire trying to live a virtuous life, though there is a dark rider within driving him to feed.
In Blooded, my new release, Byron Domitius is a new vampire. He’s devoutly religious, and as a sorcerer, he is able to feel the magical light of the stars strobe through his body. For him, it’s akin to being in the presence of God. Then, he becomes a vampire and all of that is taken from him. He goes through the fledgling phase and has missing time, blank spaces in which he thinks he’s done something horrible. Being an evil, undead thing, separated from the stars and God, he no longer feeds and wastes away, waiting for a hunter to come with a stake for his heart.
Until he meets Nicodemus Green, then everything changes for him.
He’s a wounded warrior. A man who has such a dark past, that he doesn’t consider himself salvageable anymore. A man who wants to do good even in light of a long list of sins on the balance sheet. It’s a theme I adore. Characters like Xena, Rurouni Kenshin, Loki, Boromir, who have done bad in the past and either take a long road to redemption or make the utmost decision at the pivotal moment to make right.
If you enjoy this theme as well, check out Blooded. Long live the angst-ridden vampire (Well, if he is immortal, I guess he has the time.)
How far will two sorcerers go to save humanity? Will they give up their lives? Will they give up their hearts?
Book Title: Blooded
Author: Nat Kennedy
Cover Artist: Silvana Sanchez – Selfpub Designs
Release Date: September 25, 2021
Genre: Fantasy/Vampires
Tropes: Hurt/comfort, antagonists to allies/lovers, past student/teacher, vampire blood feeding, vampire blood bond
Themes: Redemption, Personal Acceptance
Length: 113 500 words/290 pages
It is a standalone book and does not end on a cliffhanger.
Buy Links
Blurb
A broken mage. A penitent vampire. Can they put aside the horrors of the past to save each other?
Plagued with erratic. volatile magic, Nicodemus Green focuses his entire life to stop an evil sorcerer who brainwashes or kills anyone in his path to domination. Ten years into this crusade, Nick stumbles upon his former Academy instructor in the Austrian Alps. The strict and pious Byron Domitius has cloistered himself in an isolated manor. Alone and starving, he hates the twisted, damned creature he has become.
A prophecy calls for Nick and Byron to bond by blood to finally bring an end to the sorcerer’s hidden agenda. The two are forced to see beyond their shared past, and Nick finds himself desiring more from his old instructor than just his magic. But are these emotions real, or do they come from the heat of their bond?
Stargazing
They stood side by side, almost close, looking up at the twinkling stars. Byron pointed, and Nick followed his finger to the sky.
“Perseus,” Byron said. “Do you see that, the upper right branch of Perseus? Do you know what I’m talking about?”
“I had astronomy with you two years in a row. Or did you forget?”
“I didn’t forget. I nurtured the assumption that you and your gang of goons had more important things to do than pay attention in my class.”
“Goons? We did pay attention. I know the constellation.” He didn’t remember it from Byron’s class, though. They had a Mentor of the Month who lived at an observatory near the top of Mt. St. Helens in Washington, and they’d spent hours staring at the stars. It had been windy and cold, and the sky had been clear, the stars brilliant.
“Fine. That star, the bright one, is Algol. It means Demon Head. Fitting for the constellation that is supposed to hold the head of Medusa.”
Nick hmmed to show he was listening. Byron’s voice was soothing, deep and quiet in the dark of night. Comfortable. Safe. “Algol is actually a tertiary star, but the third star is so weak, it puts off little shine. It’s used by celestials as a binary system to imbue power into obsidian.”
“A twin star.” Suddenly invested, Nick gazed up with a sense of wonder. “Is that the power that was in my obsidian, sir?”
Byron nodded, then turned to Nick, his dark eyes fathomless, his face young and smooth and illuminated from above. “Yes. There are two stars there, circling one another. Their individual gravitational pull keeps them in a perfect orbit, tethered in their eternal spin. And together, they are brighter for it,” he said softly, reverently. The air felt heavy, and then Byron faced the sky.
Nick watched his old professor out of the corner of his eyes, unmoving, like a statue, gazing upon the night sky with a depth of sorrow and yearning Nick couldn’t understand, never could understand, even after his years of wandering. He wanted to reach out, touch him, perhaps melt his cold flesh, make him come alive with contact, and then he realized he was staring and thinking inappropriate things.
He cleared his throat.
“Well, I should get back in, Byron. Enjoy your evening.”
Byron slowly looked down at him, a small smile on his lips, not a smirk, but a close cousin like he could read Nick’s thoughts. Felt Nick’s desire like a breeze on his arms.
“You as well.”
Nat Kennedy writes fantasy fiction of all kinds. She strives to create engaging, plotty romantic stories. In her worlds, Heroes abound. She lives in the Pacific Northwest where the rain keeps the world green. Find her online at natkennedy.com or on IG natkennedybooks.
Social Media Links
Blog/Website | Facebook | Facebook Group
Newsletter Sign-Up | Instagram | Goodreads
Enter the Rafflecopter Giveaway for a chance to win one of the following:
a $20 Amazon Giftcard
an ebook copy of Blooded
an ebook copy of Edge of Desperation
Thanks for sharing!
Very nice cover.
Good luck with the release!
Fantasy + Romance = Perfection!
Thank you Nat!
Sounds awesome thanks for sharing!