Happy World Dracula Day

 

“It is not my place to have an opinion on the matter, sir.”

A chuckle that was like the scrape of metal over stone. “Where has the disobedient Vlad Dracula gone? Replaced instead with a mannerly boy of temperance, eh?”

“Sir.” The real Vlad, the disobedient dragon’s son, was alive and well. But he’d grown patient in his captivity, at the urging of his friend. He’d learn to rake dirt over his furious coals and let them smolder; he trained, and he learned, and he dedicated himself to knowing all that he could about his captors.

And he waited.

Murat studied him, head canted to the side. “It’s a shame,” he drawled, “that you and my son could never be friends. He could have learned from you – you have something which, despite all his wonderful qualities, he lacks.”

“Sir?”

That almost-smile again. “My Mehmet is made of fire. But you. You are made of steel.”

Behind his back, Vlad’s hands curled into fists. 

May 26th is World Dracula Day! Bram Stoker's masterpiece was first published on this day in 1897, and his fictional count remains an integral figure in both horror and romance fiction to this day. Dracula is one of my favorite novels of all time, and, well, obviously, I find the man himself - the real Vlad Dracula - an endlessly inspiring figure from history. 

Of all my books - 40+ at this point - my novel about Vlad Tepes, and his brother Radu, remains my very favorite, and the story of which I'm the proudest. If you're after a blend of real Romanian history and vampirism, and you don't buy that Vlad was the villain of his own story, allow me to submit Dragon Slayer for your consideration, book three in my Sons of Rome series.