Children of the Vampire (The Diaries of the Family Dracul, #2)

From Publishers Weekly Both a prequel to Bram Stoker's Dracula and a sequel to Kalogridis's own Covenant with the Vampire (1994), this second novel in a projected trilogy suffers by comparison to both. Arkady Tsepesh, the protagonist of Covenant, flees the castle of his great-granduncle, Vlad, Count Dracula, but he can't elude the influence of the vampire bite that has bound him to his sire, as it has the firstborn male of each generation of Tsepeshs for the past four centuries. Meanwhile, Arkady's wife, Mary, who has given her husband up for dead, moves to Amsterdam and marries Doctor Jan Van Helsing. Neither Stefan, her son by Arkady, nor Abraham, whom the Van Helsings have adopted, have reason to suspect they are not blood brothers until the family curse draws Stefan to Vlad's castle in Transylvania. Gratuitous scenes of sex and violence perpetrated by the merciless Vlad and Arkady's hedonistic vampire sister, Zsuzsanna, fail to alleviate the tedium of the narrative, told in diary format through a number of voices. Notwithstanding its occasional plot twists, this novel does little more than rehash the plot elements of Covenant with the Vampire while setting the stage for events that will occur in the last book in the series. Translation, performance rights: Scovil, Chichak, Galen Literary Agency. Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. From the Publisher The second book in a vampire trilogy from the acclaimed author of Covenant With The Vampire , Children Of The Vampire is a dark, stylishly erotic prequel to Bram Stoker's Dracula ; it is the haunting tale of a struggle to end Dracula's control over his human descendants. In this terrifying, brilliantly imagine novel, Jeanne Kalogridis returns the same dark, sensual territory she visited in Covenant with the Vampire. Once again she explores the breathtaking battle waged in the hart of the Family Dracul—as the innocent take up arms against the monster.In the flickering gaslights of Vienna a brother watches—as a woman of alabaster beauty, his sister, takes two lovers at once. Then she pours her passion into the most forbidden act of all... In the streets of Amsterdam a young man, the secret lover of his brother's wife, is whisked into a waiting carriage for a long journey into darkness and reunion with his father... They are a family bound my an ancient curse, one generation pitted against another, taboos shattered, their firstborn's blood sipped from a silver chalice. In his stony fortress waits Vlad the Impaler, while his heir, Arkady, cries out to his sons: “Let the curse end with me!”“Jeanne Kalogridis has launched a vampire hero who will haunt my nights for decades—or lifetimes—to come.”—Jacqueline Lichtenber, author of Those of My Blood It is Amsterdam, 1871, twenty-five years before the start of Stoker's novel, and twenty-five years following Arkady Tsepesh's flight from his family's ancestral castle with his wife and young son, Stefan, after learning that he and his family are bound by an ancient covenant to serve their ancestor, Prince Vlad Tsepesh, who is also known as Dracula. For Vlad is a vampire, and the fated firstborn sons in every generation must bring him the victims he needs to survive. Arkady had tried to break the covenant and failed. He is now a vampire, separated from his beloved wife and son, with one all-consuming desire - to destroy Vlad before he draws Stefan into eternal service through the blood ritual. But Arkady has come too late to Amsterdam. Vlad kidnaps Stefan, and spirits him away to the castle in Transylvania to undergo the blood ritual. Arkady enlists the help of Stefan's stepbrother, Abraham Van Helsing, in his thrilling battle against Vlad, as he seeks to free his family and put an end to the age-old blood covenant - even if it means he must destroy his own son.

The story begun in the acclaimed first novel in the trilogy, Covenant with the Vampire, continues in the second novel, as the heir of Vlad the Impaler tries to put an end to the Dracul family's horrifying legacy. 

The battle waged in the heart of the Family Dracul continues, as the innocent take up arms against the monster. As his loved ones indulge in forbidden crimes with a legendary passion, Vlad the Impaler's heir, Arkady, cries out to his sons" "Let the curse end with me!"

A relative of Dracula attempts to destroy him before Dracula draws his son into service through blood ritual