The Reluctant Vampire and the Awkward Witch
Middle Grade Series
Book One:
Caveran of Corpes
Exile, that’s what happens to thirteen-year-old boys who become monsters. At least that’s what happened to Drake Tepes when he inherits a rare form of hemophilia—the same disease that plagued his famous relative, Vlad the Impaler.
Drake’s incompetent parents relocate him to the isolated mountain-town of Luray, Virginia. Exiled to live in a time-forgotten house with his great-great aunt Ioana who shares his vampiric disease, Drake hopes she is his key to understanding the hyper-pubescent changes his body’s suffering, but Ioana only speaks Romanian.
Abandoned and alone, Drake must now maneuver the hostile environment known as seventh grade. Alone, that is, until the odd girl next door, Belladonna (Don) Danue, forces herself into Drake’s life, creating a blessing and a curse of a friendship. Don's harsh deminour is off-putting, but she's relatable since she's not an ordinary tween either. She's a witch (well, she will be if she can complete her dedication ritual). Don’s mother, Mary, is a reputed witch, but even though the townspeople accept the Danue family, Don herself is bullied by the ‘mud puddle’ crowd of popular classmates. Don’t worry, now paired together, these two awkward souls have each other’s back—even as a grisly mystery begins to unfold.
When Don urges Drake to wander from the trail during a fieldtrip of the famous Luray caverns, they discover a carved wooden box containing the heart of a missing girl. Someone in town is using powerful black magic. Now Drake and Don will need all their gifts if they are to survive and save humanity. In a town filled with odd characters and dark secrets, everyone is a suspect.
Book Two:
River of Resurrection
The story continues with Drake and Don spending the summer on Blue River Ranch, a cattle ranch owned by Drake's uncle located in the remote sandhills of Nebraska. What started off as a somewhat normal summer vacation, takes a sharp turn when a chupracabra with a taste for grandma's chickens starts hunting larger prey.