Blood and Gold

Marius de Romanus, the ancient vampire first met in The Vampire Chronicles, tells his own story. It begins when Thorne, a Northern blood drinker woken from long sleep beneath the ice, comes to him.

Marius recalls his youth as a Roman patrician, his journey to the Mediterranean world with the royal vampires Akasha and Enkil in his care, and his love for the mortal Pandora. The narrative follows him through the shift of power from Rome to Constantinople and later to Renaissance Venice, where he takes the boy Amadeo as his ward.

Eighth in the Chronicles, it is a long, introspective account of a vampire's centuries of devotion to art, beauty and the people he loses.