One glance at the sexy, blood-red cover, and I knew that I had found the right book for the month. And unlike the short down-to-earth intermission in Blood Brothers, Vampire Thrall is a true sequel to Vampire Vow.
This book picks up not terribly long after the ending of Vow. Victor is in a new monastery and has a weak and bitchy boyfriend, but is still reeling from the events that kept him from transporting to vampire heaven, and he’s taking it slow.
Enter Paul, a gay epileptic artist who does what any self-respecting gay man would do after spending a few minutes with Victor...he falls in love. Madly. Their courtship is awkward as you might expect; Andrea, the current boyfriend, is a sworn-to-celibacy, madly-in-love monk unable to fight his jealousy, and Victor remains attached to him for fear of exposure. Eventually they break up without a peep of protest from Andrea. (Uh huh.)
The larger question is, why do men behave badly after exposure to Victor? He remains one of the least romantic men in all of gay literature, even though I might agree that he is a sympathetic character. It could not have been Schiefelbein’s intent, but every time Victor said “I love you” to someone, I was immediately suspicious. Why did he say that? What’s the ulterior motive?
I particularly liked the whole thrall thing, an intriguing new dimension to vampire physics. You’ll recall from Vow that one becomes a vampire by drinking blood from another vampire’s breast. To become a thrall, one drinks from his wrist. Is the blood different? Or is it a question of quantity, and the wrist provides better control over that? These pertinent questions were not addressed, sadly. At least Schiefelbein defines what a thrall is in some detail, such that when you ask a guy if so-and-so is his boyfriend, and he says, no, that’s my thrall, you’ll know exactly what he’s saying. Very good stuff.
Is Victor mellowing/emasculating in his old age? In a couple of places, he drinks the blood of his victims at mealtime but does not kill them. I assume they recover, else Victor is a monster. Marcos was the first, and since he was given a name, I expected to see him again, pointing to the vampire scars on his neck and causing problems for Victor (or offering the other jugular, as would be more appropriate for the men who cross paths with Victor).
In one scene, Victor allows Paul to top him. Romance? True love? I wasn’t able to assess this because I was busy with a vampire physics point of order: One assumes that most of the sex portrayed in this book is unsafe, since a good monk wouldn’t want to be caught with a stash of condoms. We know that Victor tops unsafely, which isn’t really unsafe because his ejaculations are dry, as his only bodily fluid is blood. I’m led to believe that Paul topped unsafely too. Since Victor cannot even drink wine without retching it up, what would his body do with Paul’s deposit? Another pertinent question; another sad omission.
Then there’s Joshu, the true beloved, sweeping in at the last minute like Glinda the good witch, performing a deed that might finally offend the few remaining unoffended Catholics who managed to keep their cool through the first two books. Shortly thereafter the book concludes with yet another twist in vampire physics that I just cannot give away, a spoiler, you know. It did make me wonder where Victor (and Schiefelbein) will go from here. Vampire Thrall is a blazingly fast, provocative read. Enjoy!