"Deftly blends classic vampire lore with Gothic romance, mystery, and thrills." --Dacre Stoker, author, great-grandnephew of Bram Stoker

In 1881, an innocent young Englishwoman who ventures into mysterious Baron Dalca's Romanian castle may lose her life, her soul...or her heart.

Miss Michael Cargrave is desperate when the death of her bookseller father leaves her in a dire financial state. When she finds a letter from a mysterious foreign aristocrat, Baron Dalca, requesting that her father come work for him, she decides to risk everything by traveling to the Carpathian Mountains and claiming the position herself.

Vasile, Baron Dalca, expected an elderly gentleman scholar. Instead he finds on his doorstep a vibrant, courageous young woman who stirs him in a way that no woman has since the long-ago death of his wife. But for her sake, he can't fall in love. He can bring nothing but danger to Michael Cargrave.

As Vital as Blood combines gothic suspense with a haunting love story in the exciting setting of the Carpathian Mountains. And be sure not to miss the next Victorian Vampires novella, As Strong as Earth, in which carefree vampire Bianca travels to Bath, England, and becomes entangled with Ned Alter, a mortal whose family has a legacy of hunting vampires.