"Long Before Dawn" Cover
A 2009 vampire novel by James V. Viscosi.
After demolishing a group of vampire hunters, Martel the vampire sets his sights on an attractive woman he sees pumping gas and follows her from Pennsylvania back to upstate New York, where he amuses himself by stalking her. He makes it pretty obvious that he plans to eventually turn her into a vampire, which doesn't sit well with his current vampiric paramour. But what can SHE do about it?
Tropes present in this work
- Bittersweet Ending Roxanne lives; Barry dies. Ken is reunited with Lauren moments before blowing her up with a suicide vest.
- Collapsing Lair: Right at the beginning, the vampire hunters burn down a coffin factory where Martel has been hiding out. Later, Ken blows up the factory where Lauren and her vampires have been living.
- Death of a Child: Lauren seems to like killing babies and children, and one of the first things Christian does after getting turned into a vampire is microwave Roxanne's puppy.
- Rasputinian Death: Christian gets shot in the face, has his bowels blown out with a shotgun, gets burned by the sun, and has his genitals bitten off, before finally exploding due to overexposure to sunlight.
- Our Vampires Are Different: Because they sleep in cocoons made out of blood and only react to holy symbols from their former religion. Otherwise they're pretty much standard regular vampires.
- Underestimating Badassery: Martel doesn't take Lauren seriously as a threat until much too late.
- Viral Transformation: Martel generally arranges it so his victims don't come back as vampires; Lauren wants to raise a vampire army.
