Vampire Stories are Human Stories

“Once again...welcome to my house. Come freely. Go safely; and leave something of the happiness you bring.”
― Bram Stoker, Dracula

I think the reason I've always loved the paranormal genre is because it's one that is rife with possibilities. And of all the paranormal creatures, vampires have always been my favorites. Like all book and movie monsters, they serve as dark looking glasses through which to view the human psyche; a way to examine our own wants, needs, hearts' desires, and even kinks in a way that is shocking, thrilling, and, in the case of vampires, monstrous and monstrously charming. In the vampire, we have a being who is both as refined and cultured as we could hope to be - and as base and violent as we sometimes fear we might be. There's a cleverness to good vampire stories, a perfect blend of suggestion and explicit statement, the erotic and the horrifying. 

In her introduction to Dracula, Brooke Allen writes, "If there is a moral to Dracula, it might be that simple goodness is not adequate to fight evil. One must bring brains and moral strength into the arena as well." This is true, especially given the context that in Dracula, and all resultant fiction inspired by it, as well as earlier works, the vampire is not presented as a mindless, slobbering beast, but something mostly human, with the ability to reason, to lie, to seduce, and confuse. 

Though we'll meet a variety of paranormal beings in my new Sons of Rome series, I was most excited to explore vampires and vampirism, and to create my own mythos about them. So much beautiful work has been done in the genre already, and I wanted to make sure that my spin had its own flavor, while paying homage to the original legends. I wanted to write stories that, at their hearts, are saying something about human nature, and the ways longevity and experience can shape and, sometimes, warp it. 

There are several central characters in the series who are vampires (including Vlad Tepes!) but my favorite would have to be Valerian, who we get to meet for the first time in White Wolf, and who will be the focus of the third book.

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"This is about one thing: power. Everyone craves it, and only a few can hold it. It’s the one lasting tenant of this world that survives century after century: the craving and pursuit of power.”

Sasha swallowed the rising lump in his throat. “You’re wrong.”

“Am I?” He arched a single brow, smile mocking.

“Why would you tell me all of that anyway?”

He shrugged and sat back. “I’ve always liked wolves, myself. Couldn’t stand the mages – crafty liars, all of them. But wolves have a certain rough honesty to them. They’re emotion, and instinct, and so rarely have machinations of their own.” He smiled up at the sky, almost wistful. Then glanced back at Sasha. “Consider it my good deed of the day.” He snorted. “Better make that decade.”

“Are you a vampire?” Sasha asked.

“Yes,” the prince answered, just as simply.

“Is [redacted] like you?”

“He’s nothing like me.”

In the silence that followed, Sasha heard his wolves approaching, their breath and heartbeats, felt their curiosity and wariness. They couldn’t smell the prince either, but could sense their alpha’s distress.

Finally, the prince got to his feet and dusted off his pristine breeches. “I better be going, then.”

“Wait!” Sasha said, and it came out a shout.

The prince gave him an amused glance.

“What’s your name?”

That earned him another fang-flashing smile. “I always tell my friends to call me Val,” he said, winked, and then was gone. Vanished into thin air, as if he’d never been there at all.

White Wolf

Copyright © 2017 by Lauren Gilley