Essential Vampire Fiction Vol. 2
Discover the must-read vampire books in Essential Vampire Fiction Vol. 2. Explore timeless tales, dark romances, and chilling classics that define the genre. Perfect for fans of gothic horror and supernatural thrillers!
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My Soul to Keep
by Tananarive Due
When Jessica marries David, he is everything she wants in a family man: brilliant, attentive, ever youthful. Yet she still feels something about him is just out of reach. Soon, as people close to Jessica begin to meet violent, mysterious deaths, David makes an unimaginable confession: More than 400 years ago, he and other members of an Ethiopian sect traded their humanity so they would never die, a secret he must protect at any cost. Now, his immortal brethren have decided David must return and leave his family in Miami. Instead, David vows to invoke a forbidden ritual to keep Jessica and his daughter with him forever. Harrowing, engrossing and skillfully rendered, My Soul to Keep traps Jessica between the desperation of immortals who want to rob her of her life and a husband who wants to rob her of her soul. With deft plotting and an unforgettable climax, this tour de force reminiscent of early Anne Rice will win Due a new legion of fans.
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Bloodlist
by P. N. Elrod
"Jack Fleming's thirst for beautiful women turns him into one of the undead and this vampire-newsman spends the rest of his days hunting down the person who tried to kill him."--Goodreads
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Red Death
by P. N. Elrod
In this introduction to the series, young Jonathan Barrett arrives in London in 1773 to pursue his college education. His fate among the undead is sealed by the unnaturally beautiful Nora Jones, who seduces him and consumes his blood. Unbeknownst to Jonathan, he is no longer the same man, something he soon discovers upon his return to America to join the armed forces and defend his country. Rather than an appetite for traditional fare, he has developed a strange craving for human blood.
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Image of the Beast
by Philip José Farmer
Award-winning author Farmer's epic of SF-porn comprising of The Image of the Beast - An Exorcism, Ritual One and Blown - An Exorcism, Ritual Two. Private dick Herald Childe is sent a snuff movie of his partner being hideously murdered. His pursuit of the killers leads him into a waking nightmare of sexual brutality and supernatural bestiality as he becomes entangled with sex-starved she-ghosts, libidinous snake-women, a filthy human sow and a she-creature who gives birth to the limbless, ectoplasmic simulacrum child-killer Gilles de Rais.
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Darklost
by Mick Farren
Los Angeles--City of Angels, city of dreams. But sometimes the dreams become nightmares. Having fled New York, Victor Renquist and his small group of Nosferatu are striving to reestablish their Colony in Los Angeles. They have become a deeper, darker part of the city's nightlife. And Hollywood's glitterati are hot on the scent of a new thrill, one that outshines all others--immortality. But someone, somewhere, is meddling with even darker powers, powers that even the Nosferatu fear. Someone is attempting to summon the entity of ancient evil known at Cthulhu. And Renquist must overcome dissent in his own Colony, solve the riddle of the Darklost (a being brought partway along the Nosferatu path and then abandoned), and combat powerful enemies to save the world--of humans!
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The Dragon Waiting
by John M. Ford
The Wars of the Roses have put Edward IV on the throne of England, Lorenzo de' Medici's court shines brilliantly, and Duke Galeazzo Maria Sforza plots in Milan. But this is a changed world, and medieval Europe is dominated by the threat from the Byzantine Empire. Sforza, the Vampire Duke, marshals his forces for his long-planned attack on Florence, and Byzantium is on the march. A mercenary, the exiled heir to the Byzantine throne, a young woman physician forced to flee Florence, and a Welsh wizard, the nephew of Owain Gly Dwr, seem to have no common goals but together they wage an intrigue-filled campaign against the might of Byzantium, striving to secure the English throne for Richard, Duke of Gloucester, and make him Richard III.
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Fat White Vampire Blues
by Andrew Fox
He’s undead, overweight, and can’t get a date Vampire, nosferatu, creature of the night—whatever you call him—Jules Duchon has lived (so to speak) in New Orleans far longer than there have been drunk coeds on Bourbon Street. Weighing in at a whopping four hundred and fifty pounds, swelled up on the sweet, rich blood of people who consume the fattiest diet in the world, Jules is thankful he can’t see his reflection in a mirror. When he turns into a bat, he can’t get his big ol’ butt off the ground. What’s worse, after more than a century of being undead, he’s watched his neighborhood truly go to hell—and now, a new vampire is looking to drive him out altogether. See, Jules had always been an equal opportunity kind of vampire. And while he would admit that the blood of a black woman is sweeter than the blood of a white man, Jules never drank more than his fair share of either. Enter Malice X . Young, cocky, and black, Malice warns Jules that his days of feasting on sisters and brothers are over. He tells Jules he’d better confine himself to white victims—or else face the consequences. And then, just to prove he isn’t kidding, Malice burns Jules’s house to the ground. With the help of Maureen, the morbidly obese, stripper-vampire who made him, and Doodlebug, an undead cross-dresser who (literally) flies in from the coast—Jules must find a way to contend with the hurdles that life throws at him . . . without getting a stake through the heart. It’s enough to give a man the blues.
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Black Sun Rising
by C.S. Friedman
Blending science fiction and fantasy, the first book of the Coldfire Trilogy tells a dark tale of an alien world where nightmares are made manifest. Over a millennium ago, Erna, a seismically active yet beautiful world was settled by colonists from far-distant Earth. But the seemingly habitable planet was fraught with perils no one could have foretold. The colonists found themselves caught in a desperate battle for survival against the fae, a terrifying natural force with the power to prey upon the human mind itself, drawing forth a person's worst nightmare images or most treasured dreams and indiscriminately giving them life. Twelve centuries after fate first stranded the colonists on Erna, mankind has achieved an uneasy stalemate, and human sorcerers manipulate the fae for their own profit, little realizing that demonic forces which feed upon such efforts are rapidly gaining in strength. Now, as the hordes of the dark fae multiply, four people—Priest, Adept, Apprentice, and Sorcerer—are about to be drawn inexorably together for a mission which will force them to confront an evil beyond their imagining, in a conflict which will put not only their own lives but the very fate of humankind in jeopardy.
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Live Girls
by Ray Garton
A classic novel of horror by the author of "The Loveliest Dead"--a nominee for the Bram Stoker Award--is back in print. A strip club in New York's Times Square is very different from the others--the girls there happen to be vampires.
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Vampire Apocalypse
by Derek Gunn
The war is over and the Vampires have won. The drying up of the world's oil resources leads to the fabled End of Days. Technology stagnates and communities grow ever more insular. With communication between cities lost and attention turned inward, the vampires rise from the shadows where they have survived for centuries and sweep across the globe. By the time word spreads it is far too late and Vampires enslave humanity and keep them in walled cities to breed. The Vampires are masters of the darkness but maintain control by day through the use of Thralls--humans who have been bitten but have not yet crossed over, and whose inhuman lusts make daylight as terrifying as night. In the midst of chaos, a small band of rebels lead a terrified existence, but their survival is threatened by the Vampire's new scanning procedures. John Harris is an ordinary man. Young and reckless, he is frustrated with the group's stagnation and pushes for one more daring mission. His recklessness has exposed the group--but it has also increased the size of their community. Now, as circumstances force them to take the offensive, and accompanied by a small group of professional Vampire assassins, John will make one last stand for humanity's survival in the Vampire Apocalypse.
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Those who Hunt the Night
by Barbara Hambly
Professor Asher is forced against his will to search for the destroyer of the vampires living in London at the time of Sherlock Holmes.
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Traveling with the Dead
by Barbara Hambly
Down through the deathless centuries, the vampires had drunk human blood for sustenance and for sport. They preyed where they willed, for no mortal humans could resist their unclean powers. But now came the ultimate perversion, the unthinkable: someone was conscripting the vampires into the secret services of a foreign power. No government agency or bureaucrat could control the Undead. The idea was absurd, as Dr. James Asher knew all too well. Years in His Majesty's service had taught Asher the finer points of espionage. And he knew the secrets of the vampires--a familiarity hard-won in unwilling service to Don Simon Ysidro, oldest and most subtle of the hunters of the London night. What Asher didn't know was why one of England's established vampires would risk everything to travel across the European continent at the behest of a ruthless spymaster. But he could see the terrifying potential of such an unholy alliance... "From the Hardcover edition.
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Renfield
by Barbara Hambly
A fresh take on Bram Stoker's "Dracula" focuses on the obsessive devotion of Renfield to his vampire master, embarking on a personal mission to hunt down Van Helsing that sets the stage for the ultimate confrontation between the living and the undead.
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Guilty Pleasures
by Laurell K. Hamilton
Vampire hunter Anita Blake--known to the vampires she kills as "The Executioner"--Is hired by the most powerful vampire in the city to find out who has been murdering innocent vampires.
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Dead Until Dark
by Charlaine Harris
Love blossoms between Sookie Stackhouse, a cocktail waitress who keeps to herself because of her ability to read minds, and Bill, a vampire with ties to a crowd that may be responsible for the death of one of Sookie's coworkers.
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Dead Witch Walking
by Kim Harrison
The underground population of witches, vampires, werewolves—creatures of dreams and nightmares—has lived beside humans for centuries, hiding their powers. But after a genetically engineered virus wipes out a large part of humanity, many of the "Inderlanders" reveal themselves, changing everything. Rachel Morgan, witch and bounty hunter with the Inderland Runner Services, is one of the best at apprehending supernatural lawbreakers throughout Cincinnati, but when it comes to following the rules, she falls desperately short. Determined to buck the system, she quits and takes off on the run with an I.S. contract on her head and is reluctantly forced to team up with Ivy, Inderland's best runner . . . and a living vampire. But this witch is way out of her league, and to clear her name, Rachel must evade shape-changing assassins, outwit a powerful businessman/crime lord, and survive a vicious underground fight-to-the-death . . . not to mention her own roommate.
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Blood Legacy
by Kerri Hawkins
The story of Ryan Alexander continues in this third installment of the Blood Legacy series. Although superficially resembling a vampire, Ryan possesses all of the mythical creature's abilities and none of its weaknesses. Surrounded by ancient beings who seek to dominate her by force or seduction, she has become the most powerful of her Kind. Due to Victor's continued illness, she is compelled by the Old Ones to take her place as sovereign. Ryan assumes command of the hierarchy, but is increasingly troubled by dark dreams, images that for once do not belong to any of her Kind. With growing concern, Ryan realizes the dreams might belong to one preceding her father's birth. Just as she begins to solidify power, old and new enemies appear, challenging not only her supremacy but her conception of all that she is. Once thought immortal, she is confronted with the previously unimaginable: defeat and destruction. For the first time in her life, Ryan is faced with the possibility of death. And although many of the predators of her Kind would face such a fate with horror or dread...Ryan finds it exhilarating.
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In Shade and Shadow
by Barb Hendee
Returning to the Guild of Sagecraft bearing texts allegedly written by vampires during the time of the Forgotten History and Great War, Wynn Hygeorht is disturbed when the Guild seizes the documents, several pages vanish, and the sages carrying them are murdered and, believing that the Noble Dead are responsible, launches a personal campaign to reveal the truth.
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Already Dead
by Charlie Huston
Those stories you hear? The ones about things that only come out at night? Things that feed on blood, feed on us? Got news for you: they’re true. Only it’s not like the movies or old man Stoker’s storybook. It’s worse. Especially if you happen to be one of them. Just ask Joe Pitt. There’s a shambler on the loose. Some fool who got himself infected with a flesh-eating bacteria is lurching around, trying to munch on folks’ brains. Joe hates shamblers, but he’s still the one who has to deal with them. That’s just the kind of life he has. Except afterlife might be better word. From the Battery to the Bronx, and from river to river, Manhattan is crawling with Vampyres. Joe is one of them, and he’s not happy about it. Yeah, he gets to be stronger and faster than you, and he’s tough as nails and hard to kill. But spending his nights trying to score a pint of blood to feed the Vyrus that’s eating at him isn’t his idea of a good time. And Joe doesn’t make it any easier on himself. Going his own way, refusing to ally with the Clans that run the undead underside of Manhattan–it ain’t easy. It’s worse once he gets mixed up with the Coalition–the city’s most powerful Clan–and finds himself searching for a poor little rich girl who’s gone missing in Alphabet City. Now the Coalition and the girl’s high-society parents are breathing down his neck, anarchist Vampyres are pushing him around, and a crazy Vampyre cult is stalking him. No time to complain, though. Got to find that girl and kill that shambler before the whip comes down . . . and before the sun comes up.
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Blood Price
by Tanya Huff
The Blood Books are now available in "Blood Ties" TV tie-in editions. View our TV tie-in feature page here here. Vicki Nelson, formerly of Toronto’s homicide unit and now a private detective, witnesses the first of many vicious attacks that are now plaguing the city of Toronto. As death follows unspeakable death, Vicki is forced to renew her tempestuous relationship with her former partner, Mike Celluci, to stop these forces of dark magic—along with another, unexpected ally… Henry Fitzroy, the illegitimate son of King Henry VIII, has learned over the course of his long life how to blend with humans, how to deny the call for blood in his veins. Without him, Vicki and Mike would not survive the ancient force of chaos that has been unleashed upon the world—but in doing so, his identity may be exposed, and his life forfeit.
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Wounds
by Jemiah Jefferson
This sequel to Jefferson's explosive debut, Voice of the Blood, continues the story of vampire Daniel Blum. Once imagining himself as the most ruthless savage in New York City, the thrill of seduction and murder is beginning to wear off. Until he meets Sybil, the strange former stripper whose mind is the first he's found that he can't read or manipulate. (May)
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Fiend
by Jemiah Jefferson
In this terrifying prequel to Wounds and Voice of the Blood, the origin of the vampire Ricar is told in his own voice.
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Dark Callings
by Elizabeth Jewell
Once Mark Riordan had a happy, ordinary life -- before a vampire attack left him changed. No longer human, but not quite vampire, Riordan now hunts the evil vamps who terrorize his city, giving in to the desires his vampire half needs to survive -- occasional blood and constant, empty sex. Until he meets Roarke. The centuries-old vampire fills a need Riordan can't explain. Joining forces, they battle a nemesis from Roarke's past. But when the immortal Roarke sickens mysteriously, Riordan faces the ultimate question -- how much will he give up for the man he's come to love?
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Hollywood Vampires
by Matt R. Jones
Hollywood Vampires: Unholy War is an unorthodox take on the familiar genre of vampire fiction, mixing action, drama, and romance, along with a very healthy dose of humor.
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Fantasy Lover
by Sherrilyn Kenyon
Will the love of sex therapist Grace Alexander be enough to free love-slave Julian of Macedon from a two-thousand-year-old curse?
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Blood Hunt
by Lee Killough
Homicide detective Garreth Mikaelian searches for a murderer stalking the streets of San Francisco, but when he corners her, he finds to his horror, that she is a vampire who intends to make him one of her victims
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Child of the Night
by Nancy Kilpatrick
This is erotic horror at its best... Bondage, other sexual activities, and violence permeate this mating of mortal and an immortal. Nancy Kilpatrick takes the mythos out of the sensual vampire and brings the exceptional creature to a state of haunting superiority when dealing with homo inferior.
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Salem's Lot
by Stephen King
A stranger with an evil secret harms the lives of many inhabitants of a small New England town.
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Way of the Wolf
by E. E. Knight
As the Reapers enslave human souls in an attempt to create a New Order, thriving on blood, terror, and fear, Lieutenant David Valentine, a member of an elite guerrilla force known as the Wolves, is determined to destroy the Reapers and reclaim Earth for all humankind. Original.
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The Journal of Professor Abraham Van Helsing
by Allen C. Kupfer
"In the tradition of The diary of Jack the Ripper and The Frankenstein papers, [this is] a fictional reconstruction of the personal journal of the greatest vampire hunter of them all: Professor Abraham Van Helsing"--Amazon.com.
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The Vampire Brat
by Batton Lash
Follows lawyers Alanna Wolf and Jeff Byrd as they take on the case of Buford, a teenage vampire brat.
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Fear Me
by Stephen Laws
A vampire goes out for revenge against the three women who tried to kill him.
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Bite
by Richard Laymon
It's almost midnight. Cat's on the bed, facedown and naked. She's Sam's former girlfriend, the only woman he's ever loved. Sam's in the closet, with a hammer in one hand and a wooden stake in the other. Together they wait as the clock ticks down because the vampire is coming. "If you've missed Laymon, you've missed a treat."--Stephen King.