The first thing that struck me as I read this story was the Anne Rice feel to it. But I made the initial mistake of treating it like an Anne Rice novel, in which I can easily skip pages and not loose the thread of the story. Not with Demon Vampire, there is vital information everywhere! This brings me to the second thing I noticed, this book re-taught me to be patient, relax and enjoy the story. I 'm very used to reading books that are 250 pages or less where the plot and dialogue is developed very quickly. In this case, especially at the beginning, the characters get there when they get there, in this book there's no rushing.
First we are introduced to Zack, an awkward teen, who, even though has weird blood-filled dreams, he doesn't feel like he's anything special. Then we meet David and his daughter Kyli who are plotting to kill Zack because of what lives inside him, an ancient, evil Demon Vampire, one that can and will destroy civilizations with its uncontrollable power. At this point I thought I could predict the main plot, but I was so wrong!
As the story unfolds we meet Orhn Damascus, a vampire/vampeal that comes out of the blue to torture Zack. This torture teaches us important things about Zack and Kyli, who comes to rescue him, and we get to know Orhn's fascinating story of love and loss later on in the book. As new vampires and vampeals are introduced, we learn about their stories and relationships with each other. As it is with people, there are "good" and "bad" vampires and the thing about immortality is that if a vampire has a grudge, it will fester and grow for centuries and so far I didn't see any of them wanting to forgive and forget or move on.
While I enjoyed all the back stories, among my favorites where Del Marin's who learned how to exist among humans and even work for a living as a tax accountant before becoming an artist. We also meet Malio, who has serious anger issues! And my favorite: Salas, THE Demon Vampire. The rest of the vampires are united in wanting to kill Salas or the very least delay his return for another 300 years by killing his current unsuspecting host, Zack.
Throughout the story, the other vampires mention how evil Salas is and in this story we meet three of his hosts: Moira, Love and Zack. Each one deals with Salas in a very different way, but each one of them knows they are doomed no matter what path they take. At least in my case, I found Salas seductive and bad-ass, if I was the host, I'm pretty sure I would give in to what he wants very quickly!
Demon Vampire introduces new concepts to the vampire mythology, or at least they are new to me. We have Redgold which is the crystallized blood from a vampire taken thanks to a specific ritual during an eclipse. Vampires are categorized depending on their gifts into Focus, Psychics or Alteration. There is the ancient story on how Vampire Elders created the Demon Vampires and so much more.
The story goes from the present day where Zack is trying to figure out what the hell he is, to the past, where we get to find out the stories of the different vampires and vampeals surrounding Zack. There are several centuries-old relationships in this story, but the main one is between Zack and Kyli.
Poor kid, he never stood a chance with Kyli. Here is this super hot goth girl making the first moves, of course Zack would fall for her! Though I'm sure she didn't anticipate her eventual feelings for him. At times I found Kyli very annoying, she would get angry and hurt Zack as a way to teach him lessons, but even I never could anticipate what would make her happy or angry. Zack had to learn everything the hard way. As the story progresses, Zack will grow - literally. There will be a mental and physical transformation as he realizes what he is and what is inside him.
The ending of Demon Vampire seemed to me like the ending of the Fellowship of the Ring, you can tell there will be more, a lot more. Even in the last chapter, Kyli is still explaining things about the Vampire Elders. I'm sure all this wealth of information will be needed when the next books in the series come along. When you finish the book, one thing I can almost bet is that you will go back and re-read Chapter One!
To read my interview with author Virgil Allen Moore, please click on this link.
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