Vampire Thrall

Vampires #2

by Michael Schiefelbein

He’s back. Once a Roman officer rejected as a lover by -Jesus of Nazareth, now a vampire still haunted by Jesus after two millenia of grisly revenge in monasteries around the world, Victor Decimus returns to his hometown, the Eternal City of Rome. At the Monastery of San Benedetto, "Brother Victor" continues his campaign of defiance against the Christian God, while remaining near his first love, whose apparitions have never ceased. Meanwhile, across the ocean in a small Kansas town, the gentle, sensuous artist Paul Lewis sees strange visions of a shadowy vampire. When he is hired to illuminate a new manuscript of the gospels undertaken by the monks of San Benedetto, Paul goes to Rome and falls in love with the bold Brother Victor. Sensing danger in this handsome visitor, Victor resists his attraction to Paul until the young artist witnesses Victor committing murder. Unwilling to destroy Paul, Victor transforms him into his vampire thrall. In a limbo between the living and the undead, Paul may choose full life as a vampire, but not without a price: the release of his beloved Victor to the Dark Kingdom and his own solitary existence for 200 years as stalker of the night. Complicating this choice, the strange force that caused Paul’s early visions now aims to turn Paul against his vampire creator. And Victor must defeat this powerful opponent before it is too late.

Michael Schiefelbein is the author of Vampire Vow. After spending 10 years studying for the priesthood, he graduated from the University of Maryland with a doctorate in English. He has lived in Italy and Washington, D.C., and now resides in Memphis, Tennessee, where he is a professor of writing and literature.

Genres: Vampires, Horror, Gay, M M Romance, Fiction, Paranormal, Romance

306 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Michael Schiefelbein, after spending ten years studying for the priesthood, graduated from the University of Maryland with a doctorate in English. He is a professor of writing and literature in Memphis, TN.

Reviews

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was not as impressed by Vampire Vow as I have been by the second in the series, Vampire Thrall. In this book there is more of everything. There is more of a relationship that Victor so longed for in the first book. This book has intimacy and longing in it that the first book lacked. There is still the ever-present Taboo of Jesus being a homosexual and Victor being in love with him; however in this book Victor is able to over ride his longing for Joshu, and find a love in Paul that can finally last the tests and trials that is the Vampire Victor. Although, this is a better book then Vampire Vow, I would definitely read it, as all of the same characters in the first book are also present in Vampire Thrall.

If you like to read books that has violence, vampires, ghosts, and gay erotica; then this is the book for you.

[Sharon · Rating 2 out of 5]

CW: blood, child death, murder, death, violence, homophobia, religious bigotry, child abuse, antisemitism

1. I hate Victor with a passion.
2. Paul was all right until he started to hang out with Victor and then he kind of sucked.
3. The description of ancient Judaism on page 198 felt antisemitic.

[Andy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Found this book in the basement of a used book store and KNEW it was going to be an entertaining read. 💀

I couldn’t finish it unfortunately. This story, about a vampire who was Jesus Christ’s lover, and recounts explicit rendezvous with him, couldn’t hold my attention due to the absurdity of it all. I’m not religious, but I was raised Catholic, and these scenes, along with the entourage of horny monks, and loads (literal loads) of other blasphems, had me cackling nonstop. It was kinda awesome. But I still didn’t care about the story.

Came for problematic tropes and a hell of a time, left never being able to look at rosary beads the same again.

[Cedony · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book had an interesting premise about the rules governing the world of vampires, but I found the ending anticlimactic, and I didn't find the sex scenes all that erotic.

[Pamela Langhorne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okay, I admit it, I'm enthralled. When I learned that Michael Schiefelbein had written a sequel to the excellent Vampire Vow, I was elated. Finally, I thought, I get to spend a little more time in the company of that hunky ex-Gladiator-turned-nocturnal hunter, Victor Decimus. And after the enjoyable, but somewhat disappointing, Blood Brothers, I was happy to see Schiefelbein getting back to his roots, so to speak. I'm happy to announce that Vampire Thrall is everything this fan had hoped for and more.

Continuing the story of Victor's vampiric sojourn through the beginning of his third millennia on Earth, Vampire Thrall takes up where Vampire Vow left off. Victor still has his understandable Jesus complex and he's still banging monks as a distraction from the ennui his longevity threatens to force upon him. He's also still reeling from the rejection of his beloved Brother Michael, as detailed in that first book. But this time he may have actually met a man who is worthy of his attentions. Enter illuminator Paul Lewis, an American artist working on an extended project at San Benedetto Monestary in Rome, where Victor has taken up residence. Paul has a few secrets of his own and between those secrets and the ones Victor so closely guards, the stage is set for a manly love affair with plenty of pitfalls, otherworldly and otherwise, to make this highly erotic entry a cracking good read.

Present still are Schiefelbein's mastery of language and evocative storytelling, as well as fascinating historical contexts which would make any armchair tourist salivate. So too is Victor's penchant for anal intercourse—that vampire does love to fuck! Different, this time, is the extent to which Schiefelbein goes to explain and describe the transformation one goes through in becoming a vampire. We're never really sure if Paul will join Victor in his twilight lifestyle, or destroy him when he least expects it. And with the added influence of Michael's dead voodoo priestess grandmother, Jana, as a wild card, the enthralled reader never really knows how the story will end, right up until the very last page. Vampire Vow is the kind of book that will devour time and attention for hours on end, and linger hauntingly in the catacombs of the mind long after the last drop has been sucked from its pages. Now that's storytelling, boys and girls. Whether you're a fan of the vampire genre, or not.

[Dragoonfliy · Rating 4 out of 5]

You get to read about a vampire who's really angry at Jesus because he was in love with him fall in love with an artist and they get up to some really emotional stuff about life, death, and religion. Also, vampire stuff. Strange, dark, terrible, beautiful, and very interesting.

Description of Jesus is fantastic. 10/10

[James Garman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Paul Lewis leaves small-town America to go to Rome after getting a job doing artwork for a new edition of the four gospels. There he meets Victor, who is a 2,000-year-old vampire, and the dream of Paul's life.

Will he survive? Will the ghosts of the past get revenge or will they survive. Time will tell.

Well written and easy to understand, it is a great mystery with a lot of hot sex.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

I kept hoping Van Helsing would show up and put us all out of our misery.

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

Okay. Wow, where to begin. Victor is a vampire hiding out in a monastery. He's having lots of gay sex with one of the monks, but when another gay man, Paul comes to the monastery, he begins the eye him. When Paul walks in on Victor killing his gay lover, Victor turns him into a "thrawl" a half human, half vampire slave. Okay, the first problem is, Victor is the main character, and I know with this kind of book you have to kind of root for the bad guy, but all he did was brutally slaughter innocent people (every night – you would wonder how he could manage to kill so many people and the police have absolutely no clue who is doing the murders. You could even wonder whether or not there would be any people left in the small town after he had stayed at the monastery for as long as he had), and have gay sex – lots and lots and lots and lots of gay sex. I don't have a problem with this, but it got kind of tedious after a while. Maybe I'm just not the target audience being a lesbian woman. We're treated to the most brutal depictions of him ripping apart Men, women and children- incidentally, how exactly does a vampire manage to find the jugular vein so quickly on a struggling victim in pitch blackness? It takes me several seconds to find the pulse in my own throat, so you would think it would be hard to do this – guess it's special "vampire powers" – but I digress. Despite all this, I was ready to give Vampire Thrall 3 stars because it really was kind of interesting, and it was somewhat suspenseful because you were curious, sort of despite yourself, about what would happen – but the ending was just really really ridiculous. It turns out that when Victor was alive, he was in love with Jesus. That's right, THE Jesus. He met Jesus dancing naked in the mountains (somehow I must've missed that scene in my Bible – I think I'd remember), and he and Jesus were in love, and in the end Jesus saves Victor and Paul from a vengeful ghost (the mother of one of his victims, who has a pretty damn good reason for being vengeful) so Victor (and now Paul) can go back on his merry way, slaughtering more and more people. Somehow I find it hard to believe that Jesus would facilitate the slaughter of so many unfortunate people by protecting 2 vampires. I mean, I know he's supposed to be all love and stuff, and for inexplicable reasons, likes Victor, but isn't he supposed to kind of be God, and isn't God supposed to kind of be good? I don't know, I'm not a Christian by any means, I'm an atheist – and I'm all for for edgy new interpretations of religious stories, but I just didn't buy it. Sorry. The ending just killed the whole thing for me, and the book was on pretty shaky ground to begin with

[Jimmy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A superior sequel to Vampire Vow!
The Roman vampire Victor continues to be tormented by the spirit of his one unattainable love Joshu. His apparition visiting him and inviting him to come with him. Saying that it’s not too late. Also, the spirit of Michael and his grandmother Jana haunt too, as he roams and feeds in Rome.
Victor’s retribution against Joshu continues as he hides in the San Benedetto Monastery, feeding on the holy men of Joshu’s god. Will Victor finally ask for Joshu’s help and intervention?
Victor has a casual, sexual affair with Brother Andrea, the next in command under the abbott. It is almost just like his relationship with Luke, at the previous Tennessee monastery. Andrea becomes a problem when he gets very jealous of Paul.
Paul is hired by the monastery to do the artwork on a hand-made book on the Gospels for the Catholic church. Besides Victor, Paul holds a secret as well. He suffers from seizures and has premonitions during them.
Paul discovers Victor’s nature when he walks in on the scene of Andrea’s death. In order to not be told on to the abbott, Victor repeats the same motions. Instead of killing Paul too, he turns him into his thrall.
Paul makes for a pretty good thrall, but Victor is still concerned that he will not accept his offer like Michael did, so he may pass on to the Dark Kingdom.
Paul’s emotions are extreme, violent and erratic. Rossi’s suspicion of Paul and Victor’s homosexual relationship threatens their security, and Paul kills the priest Rossi, in an act of rage.
Ultimately, they must escape from the torments of the ghost of Jana trying to tear Paul away from Victor, as Paul makes his good-byes to his family and his mortal life. However, there are rules that must be obeyed by vampires, from the Dark Kingdom.

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

When he is hired to illuminate a new manuscript of the gospels undertaken by the monks of San Benedetto, Paul goes to Rome and falls in love with the bold Brother Victor.(a vampire who lusted after Joshua before he was crucified.)

Sensing danger in this handsome visitor, Victor resists his attraction to Paul until the young artist witnesses Victor committing murder. Unwilling to destroy Paul, Victor transforms him into his vampire thrall. In a limbo between the living and the undead, Paul may choose full life as a vampire, but not without a price: the release of his beloved Victor to the Dark Kingdom and his own solitary existence for 200 years as stalker of the night. Complicating this choice, the strange force that caused Paul’s early visions now aims to turn Paul against his vampire creator. And Victor must defeat this powerful opponent before it is too late.

Througout the books as always with Victor is the ongoing debates with
'the cross', flashbacks to him and Joshua(Jesus) and the rich description of churches and monasteries and mass.

Michael Schiefelbein after spending 10 years studying for the priesthood, he graduated from the University of Maryland with a doctorate in English and so his books are rich in religion and a vampire.

I love it!

[Al.]

The author writes well. His knowledge of the layout of Rome was great. I have been there and in some of the same sites he writes about.

I loved the balance between darkness and light as if we all dance in and out of awareness to non-awareness or denial.

The ending was different. As if to say Christ loves us all despite of who we are and what we do. Unconditional love. I thought with awareness of love, there would be transformation of love into something with more compassion. I will contact the author and ask him why that particular ending.

Al.

[~riaria~ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kind of dissapointing...The first book was better, but only because of the bits involving male romance and Joshu( a.k.a. Jesus :D). This second installment was a mish mash between a travel guide to Rome, "Vampire Chronicles" wannabe-ism and a ghost story. I id not connect to any of the characters, not even to Paul, whom under other circumstances I would characterize as cute. It might have been a great read if the author had decided what he wanted to write about. Pity :/

[Giovanni Hale · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a total ride this book was for me. It was my first time reading this author, but for a ertoic mystery I would have to say I would certainly read additional books by this author. For me this book was not something that I could not put down after reading a few chapters but it is something you have to read in it's entireity to really understand the charecters. Great weekend read (even though honestly it took me a few months to finish it. )

[Pia · Rating 1 out of 5]

I only finished it because it was my first foray into M/M fiction. Written in 1st person POV, but from two different characters, it was difficult to keep up with who was narrating each scene.

The setting descriptions and the sex were flat and repetative. Set in beautiful Italy, and two men with a secret love affair, both should've captivated, but failed.

[Micha Meinderts · Rating 3 out of 5]

The ending was a little confusing, but overall it was a good read. Little lengthy maybe, descriptions too long and pointless. Characters were nicer though and despite my not liking people messing with vampire lore, this all seems logical and with the boundaries. Scratch fifty pages and it's a damn good read.

[Erin O'Riordan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like an Anne Rice vampire novel, but with sex. Gay sex and straight sex. The straight sex is rather violent and, depending on the reader's point of view, perhaps disturbing.

[EscaPe iNTo thE PaGEs · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars!

[Stéphanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I find this one a lil' better than the first. The series is still dark and sensual with yummy man on man scenes. ^^ Nice ! A good vampire story.

[Syfy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm going to have to read this again, it was THAT GOOD.

[Bobbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very unusual take on vampires. Interesting read. The characters are believable and intense. Not my usual genre but enjoyed it nonetheless.

[Brian Long · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel like you don't need to read these in order...

[Haruhi · Rating 2 out of 5]

My favorite part about this book is that I found it at Goodwill, and it amuses the hell out of me to think of it having come from someone's Grandmother's house.