The book I read was I, Strahd: The Memoirs of a Vampire by P.N. Elrod.  A gothic horror novel, it details the rise of Strahd Von Zarovich to the throne of a country after leading an army against its bloodthirsty warlord.  He takes possession of the castle and begins a reign of harsh punishment for those who obey his law.  He takes great pride in the fact that there is virtually no dissention to his command, except for the whispered threat of an assassin in his midst.  He sends his loyal second-in-command, Alek, to search throughout the land and determine the loyalties of all his noble houses.  In addition, he has a standing desire for Alek to purchase any books of magic that he finds.

            As Alek is out among the nobles, Strahd summons his younger brother, whom he has never met, to live with him at his castle.  Sergei, destined to become the next High Priest of the nation, exhibits a naiveté that annoys Strahd, though he loves his brother dearly.  Despite his priestly vows, though, Sergei falls in love with a local orphan, Tatyana.  He plans to marry this young girl, much to Strahd’s distress.  However, as soon as Strahd lays eyes on the lovely flaxen-haired girl, he desires her for himself.  Unfortunately for him she only thinks of him as a respected elder and future brother, having eyes only for the erstwhile priest.  Strahd, desperate for her affection, pours over his books, seeking a way to bend her love to him and eliminate his younger brother as any competition.  He finds what he wants in a complicated ritual that would help him obtain his heart’s desire.  As he finishes reading, he looks back over to find the ritual completely changed, and throws the book across the room - only to hear a voice laughing at him.

            A voice he is very familiar with, as he has known Death for many years on the battlefield.

            Strahd makes a deal with Death himself to obtain cease his own aging and remove Sergei.  The deal is struck, the preparations are begun.  As he finishes speaking with the shadowy creature over his shoulder he knows what he must do.  He must drink the blood of an innocent.

            Alek chooses that unfortunate moment to enter the room.  In a fatal fight, they both receive mortal wounds.  Strahd, however, has an ally in Death himself.  He looks on as his only friend lies dying in his arms.  As Alek mutters that an assassin is trying to kill Strahd, Strahd begins to drink the blood of the servant who has served faithfully for eighteen years.

            The next night, before the wedding, Strahd kills and drinks the blood of his brother.  Thus he becomes a vampire, neither aging another day nor having any competition from his brother.  As he comforts Tatyana, though, she goes insane and throws herself from the parapet of the tower they stand.  As she falls into the mists surrounding the castle, Strahd hears a cold laugh and knows he has been betrayed, just as he betrayed his friend and his brother.

            As the years pass, Strahd must learn to cope with his undead nature, feeding off the criminals and miscreants of his society that he himself had declared to death for their crimes in the years before his unholy transformation.  Centuries go by, and he cannot purge his beloved Tatyana from his memory.  Then, on a dark night as Strahd is visiting a village tax collector, he sees her.  His beautiful Tatyana had been reborn.  He begins to try to bring her memory back, and starts her transformation into a creature of the night like himself, so that they may love each other through eternity.  However, the pious tax collector, who is serving as her adoptive father, finds out about her change, and drives a stake through her heart as Strahd sleeps his profane sleep through the day.  With her last breath she calls out a name: Sergei.

            Thus a long string of tortures begins for Strahd, every few decades he finds his love only to have her die a horrible death.  Such is his curse for the ultimate betrayal he committed.

            This tale shows how that a harsh yet noble man can turn into a monster when he lets himself become fascinated by an object.  Strahd, in his obsession to possess Tatyana, casts aside his loyalties to friend and family, stealing their very lives to grant himself an eternity of torture.  A hybrid of Dracula and Dr. Faustus, this story is a look into how easily a man may become perverted by desire and turn into something that he despises more than anything else.  This is a story of a tragic antihero, caught in the throes of his own dark passions, who loses his humanity to possess that which on man can- the woman he loved.