A Minor Ruckus in Transylvania, A Big To-do in Savannah

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Did anyone hear about that little vampiric uprising that was held back in 1422 in Transylvania?  It made all the newspapers at the time, and the town criers were yelling about it from one street corner to the next.

Seems Baslo Rigla, Domnitor (that’s leader, to you English-speakers) of the nosferatu had to put down a revolt by one of his fledglings.  They met in Transylvania, in a little place called, appropriately enough, Vale lui Destrugere (Valley of Destruction) and believe me, it was.  All the rebels were killed, except one, and he—the upstart who started the whole mess, one Vlad Chemare by name—suffered the most extreme punishment of all.  While his followers were burned to ash by the morning sun rising over the valley, Vlad was buried alive in an unmarked grave.

Rigla laughed all the way back to his castel and a long time afterward, as he sipped from a good dark wine, vintage Romanian Nobility, 1399.

Unfortunately for Rigla, he forgot that Vlad had a very faithful thrall who was determined to find his master no matter how long it took…

So, in 2012, when a certain Marius Racleta flew out of Aeroportul International Bucuresti Henri Coanda from Bucharest, Rigla had no idea what was going to happen.  Had he known, perhaps he wouldn’t have been so complacent, sitting there in the ballroom-converted-into-an-audience-chamber in the abandoned mansion in Savannah, Georgia.  For that plane carrying Marius also carried a coffin in its luggage hold, in which a certain still-rebellious but now very much older and wiser nosferatu rested, in his sleeping heart a desire for revenge a-simmering…

…until he reached the Land of the Free and the Home of the Prey and ran into very much Undead Valerie Swanson and her equally alive twin, Meredith, and got slightly sidetracked.  But not for long.

After all, a woman is just a woman, but revenge is a dish best served cold.  And 700 years can make for some mighty chilly morsels!

The Last Vampire standing was released from Class Act Books on October 15.  www.classactbooks.com

EXCERPT:

(Vlad is introduced by Valerie to her sister, Meredith)

“So you’re Valerie’s boyfriend?” as he nodded, I went on, “At least her tastes have improved.” I decided I’d better act like a hostess. “Can I get you anything? I’ve got coffee, some homemade wine, and milk.” I knew vampires could tolerate the first two. Milk I wasn’t so sure about.

“I never drink…milk,” he intoned solemnly but I swear those fantastic eyes were twinkling.

“Of course you don’t,” I murmured. And apparently you also watch vintage Universal horror movies. “So how about a glass of wine? Homemade,” I repeated, as if enticing him. “132-proof.” Actually I had no idea what proof it was or alcohol by volume, either. But I’d discovered that the guys I occasionally dated went for it if they thought it was particularly alcoholic.

He laughed, revealing the expected pointed incisors. “In that case, perhaps not. I doubt you’d want a tipsy vampire floating around in your living room, knocking things off tables with his wings.”

That conjured up a picture that made me laugh. So vamps can get drunk? On alcohol?  How about blood? That brought another, less comical picture. I shivered slightly and turned toward the fridge.

“Are you chilled?” It came out so solicitously.

“No. Why do you ask?”

“You were trembling.”

“Don’t worry about it.” As if he didn’t know.

“Perhaps I should. If I was the cause.”

So he did know. That conceited smile said a lot. “You certainly have a lot of self-importance if you think you can make me tremble.”

“My dear Meredith.” His voice dropped to a whisper and he sidled closer. Slowly, not that quick-as-a-wink movement Valerie’s so fond of making because she knows I hate it. More a shifting. “I’d do more than that…” He brushed a stray strand of hair from my face, tucking it behind my ear. “…if you’d let me.”

“Back off, buddy.” Nevertheless, I was the one who moved away, untucking the hair as I did so. “There’ll be none of that.”

“Whyever not?” He gave me a wide, transparent, and totally ingenious stare but didn’t follow me.

“Duh! Because you’re my sister’s boyfriend.” Really. Did he have to ask?

“So?”

This guy was unbelievable. He sincerely looked as if he didn’t have a clue. “So I don’t poach on Valerie’s property.” Though she’d certainly done it to me enough. So why not turn the tables? The thought flashed through my mind. I shoved it back out before it could park itself and cause trouble because Vlad was definitely looking as if he were interested… Stop it right there, Meredith. You don’t do that kind of thing. That’s Valerie’s department.

“I’m no one’s property.” It was said so quietly that it sent another chill through me. I’d insulted him by referring to him that way. “I’m the one who does the possessing.” He cocked his head to one side, as if viewing something fascinating. Could he read my thoughts? Damn, I’d never thought to ask about that. Valerie had certainly never volunteered the information and I doubted if she could. You have to have a mind to read one. “And I’m wondering who claims you.”

Geography and the Plot

In 1988, Hildebrand, the most successful rock star of that era and an actor who had brought to life one of the most famous horror characters ever created, disappears from his beach house, never to be heard of again. In 2009, while on a Carribean cruise, Savannah librarian Melissa Powers discovers herself being stalked by a mysterious cowboy. Agreeing to a midnight rendevouz with the man calling himself Travis Brandt, she discovers his real identity—Hildrebrand, coming out of his self-imposed exile after twenty years of hiding in the sand hills of Nebraska. Before the cruise is over, Melissa and Travis are involved in a frantic love affair ending in a hasty marriage, and the Nebraska cowboy takes the Southern spinster back to his ranch as his wife. In the midst of her happiness, however, Melissa feels as if Travis isn’t telling her the whole truth about why he left Hollywood. What is he hiding and why is he lying?

When I decided to have Hildebrand simply drive away from his Malibu beach house and disappear, I asked myself: To where?

Most people agree that if you want to lose yourself, go to a big city, but Travis is a Midwesterner. So I decided that, in spite of having lived in Hollywood for nearly ten years, and also touring the United States, when he decides to chuck it all, he goes home. Not back to Lincoln, necessarily, but to Nebraska, the Sand Hills, specifically…that fairly isolated north-central section covering a quarter of the state.

Typifying the classic prairie of the Great Plains, the sand hills are located above the Ogallala Aquifer, supplying shallow lakes to the area. Dunes may reach as high as 330 feet, and contain a variety of animal and plant life, ranging from several types of prairie grass to 314 species of fish, deer, wild canine, and birds. Although there are no native trees on the Great Plains, there are 720 mostly native plants.

The sand hills were long considered a desert and most of the land has never been cultivated, until around 1870, when ranchers began to utilize the area for grazing longhorn cattle.

Ambiguously for such a flat countryside, in this area are many buttes eroded by cutting winds, biting snowfalls, and torrential rains into fanciful shapes with even more exotic names: Chimney Rock, Courthouse Rock. Stretching across and rising above the bleak flatness, Chimney Rock rises 300 feet above the surrounding North Platte River Valley, its peak is 4,226 feet above sea level. When pioneers traveled the Oregon Trail, it served to landmark their journey halfway there.

It is this area of geographical isolation to which singer Hildebrand—horror star actor, rock idol, drug addict, and demon worshipper--escapes, to begin his transformation to Travis Brandt, rancher and lover of Melissa Powers, the one women he feels can restore him to complete humanity. And it’s in the stark and primitive beauty of the sandstone buttes, raising their jagged spires to the sky, that he begins his fight to save that humanity when the horror of his younger days resurrects itself to threaten his newly-found happiness.