A trip to grandmother's house that rapidly becomes a descent into an underworld community of vampires and a frantic rush to save Heaven and Earth. Lumi Laura is a Romanian author who now lives in Edinburgh, Scotland. You can learn everything about her on her blog: LumiLaura.com.Teenager Alexandra Eidyn never suspected that her annual trip to Grandmother's house to spend the summer would this time destroy her plans to attend Oxford University in the fall and instead propel her into the World of Vampires and eventually to the gates of Heaven and Hell. On the way, she'd fall in love — something she'd come to think wasn't even possible for her — with two people, become a fugitive from justice, and be a casualty of the Church to which she'd turned for help. She withdraws into a vampire society she never knew existed but that has been waiting for her the last ninety years, and learns that the Divine World has prophesied of her coming for millennia. All this following her grandmother's revelation of a family connection to royalty that has been kept secret for generations.

This short story is narrated by the antagonist of my novel Carpathian Vampire. It contains much of the mythology behind the race of vampires. The events of this story occurred within the same time frame as that of the novel.So it was that one day just after sundown she was in a meadow caring for a lost bunny rabbit, when a nasty old vampire happened upon her cooing to the cuddly creature. She was all bent over on the ground making over it when she looked up and saw me standing over her. Such a fright I've never before seen, and since I was still going through my cruel stage, this delighted me no end. I let her run, only getting close enough to encourage her panic so that she might renew her futile effort to outdistance me. I drew up behind her as she faltered from fatigue, and when she fell, I was upon her before she could resign herself to her fate and her panic was still in full bloom, her heart racing beyond itself. She was hot and sweaty, her neck salty and oily and smoother than a newborn's. I suckled her first, just to taste the deliciousness of her femininity, and then my teeth crashed through to the warm nectar, and all her life flowed from that gorgeous little body into old Alu, disgusting corruptor of all things fair.