The Time of the Dark Heat (Book 1)
Vampires are people, too. They are not undead. They were ordinary people who got vampire blood in their body and from that moment on, they continued to live without aging. That is, if they continued to drink the blood of a non-vampire of their species. Starvation in vampires shows as ordinary aging that eventually would lead to a vampire dying of old age. Their body rejects non-blood food, as well as blood from an organism not of their species. Vampires who used to be humans can only be nourished by human blood.
Being able to turn into a bat, not having a reflection in the mirror, an aversion to religious symbols and garlic are all folktales. Decapitation, burning alive, and sharp physical trauma to the heart whether from a wooden stake or not—these would kill vampires because they would kill anybody. The one thing that was true about vulnerabilities specific to vampires was that their bodies were overly sensitive to sunlight.
Vampire civilizations developed alongside ordinary humans. They tended to be fewer in number with respected and experienced elder vampires encouraging would-be blood-binders (vampires who turn humans into vampires) to have high standards of whom they turn. The eldest vampires who sustained their ambitions through the centuries or even through millennia were able to develop a sort of self-perpetuating culture and central government that could negotiate with other central governments. Younger vampires could ally and educate themselves to the elders, stay away and live quiet and solitary lives or form covens and families that rival one another. But anything that would compromise the sustainable vision of the elders would be corrected with gradually stronger suggestions that might end in the offending vampire's death.
Then, something changed. Vampires began to discover that they could expose themselves to sunlight without harm for a period of time. At first it seemed to be random occurrences. Then the vampires figured out the secret.
Some non-vampire humans have a compound in their blood that, if ingested, allowed the vampire who feed off them to survive and even enjoy exposure to natural light. These non-vampire humans came to be known, colloquially, among vampires, as Quenchers. It became forbidden among vampires to turn Quenchers into vampires because blood from vampires is not nourishing for vampires to drink and vampires who had been Quenchers no longer had this immunity to sunlight, let alone the ability to carry it over. It became particularly discouraging to drink Quenchers dry, when it would be of a great advantage to vampire kind for these Quenchers to pass on this trait of their blood onto their children and have more Quenchers in the world.
The vampires bided their time and continued to conspire. When there were enough vampires to cooperate and enough recorded Quenchers to sustain them, they took over the human civilization. They collected Quenchers, imprisoning them and turning them into livestock and drank most other humans dry. Then, the vampires took the place of human beings. Industries continued to run but farms were no longer needed so that industry was abandoned— and the vampires hailed the Time of the Cold Sun.
This is the story of the tragic romance that almost robbed the vampires of this golden age.
Many threats had arisen to the secrecy of vampires. Their prey outnumbered them and seemed likely to consider vampires as evil, cannibalistic parasites. Often, a young vampire would struggle with an identity crisis and made the effort to tell the truth to humans with hope that he or she could be both honest about being a vampire and accepted in non-vampire society. Perhaps a vampire would become too proud of being a vampire and cause a massacre that humans could not ignore. Perhaps a vampire is cursed with a momentary carelessness. Perhaps a human is gifted with perspicacity. The list goes on. Sometimes, the elders would be alerted too late. Other times, the elders are simply unable to handle the situation wisely. All vampires are, after all, only human.
Tydus is an ordinary 18-year-old boy who had lived out some wild days of rebelling and happened to start dating an older woman. Much, much older—her name was Lily and she was a vampire. He'd begged her to make him the same way and she had obliged, but she underestimated human caprice. He and Lily broke up and Tydus spent the summer after his senior year trying to find himself again. When he hears that his human friends are going on a beach trip for the summer, he joins them on his own and only comes out at night. There, he meets Ruby who had such a crush on him at school and wants to lose her virginity to him before they start their new lives at the university. Tydus manages to drink her blood and then conflicted that he no longer has a future as a human, goes away to sunbathe when he knows that this would kill him. But it does not.
Completely flabbergasted, he returns to Ruby and suspects that his immunity to sunlight has something to do with her blood. When another vampire attacks Ruby, Tydus saves her and kills the other vampire, alerting Ruby to the existence of vampires.
When they return to their hometown, Tydus introduces Ruby to Lily. Lily bears no ill will towards Tydus, has gotten over the breakup (that she, Lily, instigated) during the summer and refuses to take any blame for turning Tydus into a vampire. She is able to explain that Ruby is a Quencher and that Ruby can seek amnesty with the vampire elders if she wants to retain consent for whom to give her blood to. The vampires do actually have quite a number of human allies.
As Ruby grows more interested and fascinated with the dark underworld, Tydus begins to see the beauty in being a vampire as well, especially among most proud vampire supremacists who insist that their time will come. However, he despairs that Ruby will grow old and be encouraged to have human children with somebody else or donate her eggs so that the vampires can be sure that there are more quenchers in the world. He fantasizes having a life with Ruby, feeding off her blood so that he can continue to live as a human, perhaps go to university and then get a steady job so they can buy a house together.
For all the gothic romance of vampire culture that Ruby enjoys, she gradually becomes uncomfortable with all the plans that the vampires, Tydus included, has for her as an individual—and, in her service as an ally to the vampire government, she finds out that the vampires have plans for Quenchers as collective people, and humankind, as slaves.
As Ruby would not allow a vampire takeover to happen, she threatens to break the silence and is arrested. Lily sneaks Tydus into Ruby's cell. Ruby has been regularly bled to the point that she is exhausted. Tydus refuses to allow the elders to keep Ruby this way. He wonders who else he can tell about the elders' plans that would believe him. Tydus turns Ruby into a vampire. Lily agrees to take Ruby's place in her cell because she (Lily) had done so many wrong things to everything and everybody she lived for. Ruby persuades Lily that Lily has done the right thing and that Lily must help them spread word around about doing the right thing. Tydus fights through the underground prison to get some of Ruby's blood back.
After Ruby is fully turned into a vampire, she and Tydus sun themselves to death in public, while Lily, who drank Ruby's blood, records a video of them burning up before turning herself in to the human police.
CHAPTERS
Chapter one: Tydus is at the beach in his hotel room declining the invitations from the friends whom he'd said he would meet there. He attempts to kill himself by touching sunlight in the window, but it burns him too painfully for him to go through with it. He mourns over his ex-girlfriend, Lily, who had changed him as a person… for the worse.
Chapter two: At night by the beach, Tydus' human friends build a bonfire and tell Ruby that Tydus is depressed because he broke up with his much older girlfriend. Ruby approaches Tydus, asking about his plans after the summer is over. Ruby herself got accepted into her first choice of university, but wants to take a year off to backpack around Europe. Tydus obliquely refers to the lifestyle he had in high school, barely passing each grade to get promoted and getting into so much trouble that he has to face now that his parents wouldn't support him. Ruby encourages Tydus that even though he might not be conventional he can take his high school experience and live his own life. That night, Ruby seduces Tydus on the beach and a starving Tydus drinks Ruby's blood.
Chapter three: The next day, Tydus overcomes his fear of the sun and basks in it—without being harmed. He wonders how that is possible. That evening, a stranger overhears Ruby telling her friends about losing her virginity to Tydus and he takes it as an invitation to stalk Ruby and attempt to drain her blood dry. Tydus rescues Ruby from the strange vampire, locking the vampire in a small boat shed that has Eastern exposure. Tydus persuades Ruby to let him, Tydus, drink some of her blood—and watch the strange vampire burn up, rather than call the police. While Ruby believes Tydus about the vampirism, she gets her proof watching the strange vampire burn up. When she notices that Tydus does not, Tydus tells her that he has a guess as to why he has remained unharmed, but he needs to see somebody else first to make sure.
Chapter four: The next evening, Ruby and Tydus return to their hometown together and Tydus introduces Ruby to Lily, who works the night shift at the convenience store. Lily receives Ruby amiably, is outraged that another vampire would try to rape and kill an innocent young human and tells Tydus that he did the right thing because a vampire who does any permanent harm to a Quencher would be punished by death according to the vampire government. Ruby is a Quencher and the rest of the vampire world should know that Ruby is to be respected. Ruby invites Tydus to hide in her room since Tydus wants to run away from his parents who do not know that he is a vampire.
Chapter five: Ruby's parents see off their evidently anemic daughter at the airport. Ruby still insists that she wants to take this trip. Lily and Tydus meet her there, Lily saying that she got funding for their trip from the vampire government, who are very interested in educating a quencher. Lily explains that the “race” so to speak, of vampires, originated in Europe and their colonies had too much at stake to gain independence. So, the seat of power among vampires remains in green and sunny Transylvania. However, Lily would advise they continue Ruby's education in some Scandinavian nation where the nights are longer so that Ruby doesn't have to keep supporting them. Lily herself loathes the sun even when she can bear it. Besides, Lily enjoys Ruby's company as a friend.
Chapter six: During their trip, Lily mingles with old friends—very old friends, other European vampires—and stays out of Tydus and Ruby's way. Tydus and Ruby continue to talk and admire one another. Tydus attempts to feed on other humans, which makes Ruby jealous because Lily says the modus operandi among vampires has become seduction. When Tydus cannot go through with it, Lily suggests that they make human friends who use artificial stimulants of some kind. Once they become incapacitated, they will then be able to drink their blood. Lily also makes arrangements with a blood bank—not for herself or Tydus, but so that Ruby can have a transfusion.
Chapter seven: Ruby is officially considered an ally of the vampires, as well as a Quencher, and word will spread among any vampires who would listen that Ruby's complaints of vampire attacks will be taken seriously. Lily, being a model vampire citizen over one hundred years of age, is named Ruby's mentor. Tydus is ignored for most of the proceedings, while Lily explains that it is like having to file adoption papers for a child that you gave birth to. When Lily goes off for another night-long party, Tydus confesses to Lily about wanting to live as a human again in a conventional manner, going to a university to get a degree to get a job and buy them a family home. Ruby tells him about the documentation about Quenchers that she read, that some vampires are encouraged to be the “wingmen” or “wingwomen” of single Quenchers, so that there would be more quenchers in the world, as well as encouraging Quenchers to donate blood so that vampires can steal it. The subtle manipulation makes Ruby quite uncomfortable.
Chapter eight: One day near the end of Ruby's trip, Ruby eavesdrops on a vampire meeting and finds out about Operation Cold Sun. She is captured and threatens to tell the world, which only has the effect of making her more permanently captured.
Chapter nine: As Tydus prepares for Ruby's return, Lily comes in panicking about what she heard about Ruby. They both go to Ruby's prison cell, where Ruby tells them about the plan. Tydus makes a plan of his own and Lily helps him.
Chapter ten: Sensing that they will never be left alone, they devise a plan to end things. Lily and Tydus go to a highly populated area during the day, embrace, and burn up while Lily records a video of their combustion to use as proof that vampires exist. Lily herself is immune for a time because she drank Lily's blood.
CHARACTERS
Lily Lanier
Age: 100+ (looks 20, but very likely grew up in the 1890's) Height: 5'8”
Hair: straight, honey blonde Eyes: brown
Lily works the night shift at a convenience store, abides the laws of the vampires, goes out clubbing and enjoys her eternal life. She doesn't see herself as ever doing any actual harm to anybody else as a vampire. She simply enjoys her immortal life and wonders why other can't enjoy it as easily. While she bragged just a little too much about how great it is to be a vampire, she understood that turning a human into a vampire was a great commitment and was very disappointed at how Tydus turned out. She expected better of him because he was seeking more and was miserable enough for her to mistake him as being a deep and wise thinker. However, the “bad boy” turned out to be, to her, just another very immature boy. When Tydus returns with Ruby, she takes it upon herself to be Ruby's mentor.
Tydus Elliott
Age: 18 Height: 5'10” Hair: straight, black, too long at the fringe Eyes: blue
Tydus was a rebellious teenager, a self-styled Prince of Darkness, who went too far to come back. He is now a vampire, utterly devoted to average, human, girl-next-door Ruby, who has been crushing on him since freshman year. She represents the human life that he could have had if only he hadn't gotten carried away with his dark emotions and arrogance.
Ruby Bernhardt
Age: 18 Height: 5'7” Hair: wavy, deep red Eyes: hazel
Ruby's blood has a particular compound that, if a vampire drinks it, they will become immune to sunlight for a short period of time. Because of this, it is against vampire laws to kill Ruby. Ruby has always been a good student and a dutiful daughter. However, she has had a powerful curiosity for the mysterious bad boy Tydus. She still retains a strong sense of conscience. She takes a year off before college to “backpack through Europe” meaning to learn more about vampire culture in Europe. She stumbles across a plan by the worldwide vampire government to take over the world. She cannot be allied to people who conspire to treat non-vampires like cattle.