Vampire Genetics

“Vampire Genetics” is the classic vampire tale as introduced by Bram Stoker brought to the modern age. It is intended to be a vampire story for the “rest of us,” bringing the original terror of vampirism back, if you will pardon the expression, from the dead. In my mind there are two components to the horror of the vampire. First is the vile nature of the beast, feeding on the innocent, terrorizing their region; they are soulless creatures abandoned even by God. The second part must lie in the ability of the vampire to turn us into these despised creatures as well. In this story, a newly created vampire is trying to do just that with the heroine, unless her friends can stop him.The story opens up with a child facing a problem. She is frail, allergic to the sun and anemic. After a series of doctors are unable to help her, a sample of her blood is sent to the local University where a strange gene sequence is discovered, a sequence that gives rise to the retrovirus responsible for vampirism. After creating and isolating the retrovirus, a mysterious and tragic death on campus raises suspicion in the minds of a small group of graduate students that a vampire may be on the loose, but it is clear that their fears are so fantastic that nobody will believe them. But, if they are correct, who is the vampire, and how can he be stopped?Cover Design by Miranda J. Peterson. Miranda Jae Designs.