Michael Schiefelbein Vampire Transgression

Vampire Transgression

Michael Schiefelbein

St. Martin's May 2006, $23.95, 272 pp.

ISBN 0312330219

Over two thousand years ago, Victor Decimus, son of patrician parents, was a Roman soldier stationed in Judea. He knew and loved Jesus who rejected his love; with his new knowledge that he could love and be hurt, he went to a vampire and asked her to transform him. Once she did, she went on to the DARK KINGDOM, a heavenly realm for vampires. Victor lived on hating Jesus and killing many members churchmen through the ages.

Now in the present he has found love with Paul who loved him enough to want to spend eternity with him. When Victor transforms Paul, he breaks two sacred rules of the vampire world, not passing on to the Dark Kingdom and staying with Paul in a consolidation of power that goes against the natural laws of the universe. The powers that be in the Dark Kingdom are getting ready to strike at Victor, but he believes, perhaps foolishly, that he can outwit them.

Fans of Brandon Massey and Poppy Z Brite will thoroughly enjoy this new take on the vampire mythos. Paul is an infant compared to Victor and doesn't want to be separated from his lover for the two centuries it will take for him to be eligible to enter the Dark Kingdom. Victor, who never loved like this before, makes many sacrifices for his lover and in the process becomes an endearing anti-hero. Michael Schiefelbein makes his audience believe vampires actually exist.

Harriet Klausner