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WFA nominated novella. It originally appeared in the anthology Shadows 3 (1980), edited by Charles L. Grant. It can also be found in the anthology Vampires (1987), edited by Alan Ryan. The story is included in the collections The Saint-Germain Chronicles (1983) and The Vampire Stories of Chelsea Quinn Yarbro (1994).

Since 1978, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro has produced about two dozen novels and numerous short stories detailing the life of a character first introduced to the reading world as Le Comte de Saint-Germain. We first meet him in Paris during the reign of Louis XV when he is, apparently, a wealthy, worldly, charismatic aristocrat, envied and desired by many but fully known to none. In fact, he is a vampire, born in the Carpathian Mountains in 2119 BC, turned in his late-thirties in 2080 BC and destined to roam the world forever, watching and participating in history and, through the author, giving us an amazing perspective on the time-tapestry of human civilization. In Hôtel Transylvania Saint-Germain makes his first appearance in a story that blends history and fiction as Saint-Germain is pitted against Satanists to preserve Madelaine de Montalia from ruin.

They say his palazzo is to be a magnificent work of art-a dazzling edifice to rival the most opulent in the city. Its owner is a stranger to Florence, a wealthy foreigner who dresses in black silk and practices the age-old secrets of alchemy. But the man who calls himself Francesco Ragoczy da San Germano conceals his own dark secrets that have exiled him to a life of blood-filled torment and eternal wandering.

Yet in the sensation-craving Estasia, cousin to Botticelli, San Germano has found a woman whose unquenchable passions could exceed his own. And in the fanatical monk Savonarola, he has found a powerful enemy: a dangerously obsessed ascetic who exerts a hypnotic power over the citizens of Florence.

Savonarola is embarked on a reign of terror that will not end until every thing of beauty is destroyed and every heretic burned at the stake. As the city becomes a hotbed of religious fervor and escalating violence, San Germano is faced with an impossible choice that could doom those he loves forever... and transform his own existence beyond recognition.

Since 1978, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro has produced about two dozen novels and numerous short stories detailing the life of a character first introduced to the reading world as Le Comte de Saint-Germain. We first meet him in Paris during the reign of Louis XV when he is, apparently, a wealthy, worldly, charismatic aristocrat, envied and desired by many but fully known to none. In fact, he is a vampire, born in the Carpathian Mountains in 2119 BC, turned in his late-thirties in 2080 BC and destined to roam the world forever, watching and participating in history and, through the author, giving us an amazing perspective on the time-tapestry of human civilization.

In Blood Games, beginning during the reign of Nero, Saint-Germain finds his way through the political turmoil of the time, and becomes the lover of the incomparable Atta Olivia Clemens.

The willow bends and does not break, but the wind that blows from the west has a name...and that name is Khan--Jenghiz Khan. It is to the north of ancient China where lies the greatest danger and no one is safe, especially foreigners.

The man known to the Chinese people as Shih Ghieh-Man faces the greatest danger. He is an enigma--a man of strength with no perceivable vices. To survive the coming storm, he allies himself with the beautiful T'en Chih-Yu, a woman warrior desperate to save her people from the Mongol horde.

But the man who offers his help has another, older name-and a terrible secret. For he is the Count St. Germain... and the greatest gift he can bestow can be bought with blood... or death.

Austria during the 1920s is the setting for the fifth of Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's novels about the elegant and mysterious Count Ragoczy Saint-Germain. In Tempting Fate, the Count becomes guardian to a spirited and talented young girl named Laisha, a Russian war orphan. Traveling frequently to the great cities of Europe, the pair move in a world whose days are numbered, as the landed nobility of Europe face the shocks of the future. Saint-Germain must come to the aid of three women: a Russian duchess who has to make a new life for herself in Paris after the revolution, a beautiful young widow who sees her family fortune squandered and her centuries-old home menaced by a new order of violence, and Madelein de Montaila, the entrancing Frenchwoman who shares Saint-Germain's long memory and his secret.

After a horribly cruel crime, Saint-Germain decides on a desperate course of action that could lead, even for him, to a lasting death. Tempting Fate is the richest, most passionate, and most poignant of the Saint-Germain series.

A collection of short pieces featuring the Count of Saint-Germain

Table of Contents:

• "The Spider Glass" (novelette)
• "Renewal" (novella)
• "Art Songs" (short story)
• "Seat Partner" (short story)
• "Cabin 33" (novella)
• "My Favorite Enigma: The Historical Comte de Saint-Germain" (essay)

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's immortal vampire, the Comte de Saint-Germain, is one of the most popular characters of his kind ever created.Publishers Weekly has called him a "veritable Prince Charming of the darker arts."

In Darker Jewels the Count is sent by the King Of Poland to the court of Russia's Ivan IV, to use his alchemical skills to craft unearthly gems for the mad emperor. there he finds not only dark intrigue and heart-stopping danger, but a breathtakingly beautiful woman to whom he loses his heart.

Here at last is a long-hinted-at chapter in the undead existence of the immortal Count Saint-Germain: the story of Ranegonda of Saxony, one of the three great loves of Saint-Germian's life.

937 A.D. The Saxon fortress of Leosan is under the almost unheard-of rule of a woman. The Gerefa of the fortress has become a monk, leaving his sister, Ranegonda, to rule in his name as best she can--and to deal with his embittered, headstrong wife as well. Into this tense and dire situation comes Saint-Germain. Shipwrecked on the Baltic shore, near the true death, he is found by Ranegonda, whom he will come to love for the gift of blood she gives him, and for her own indomitable spirit.

Arriving in the Viceroyalty of Peru, San Germanno makes himself useful as a healer; at the request of the Presidencia he escorts Acanna Tupac, one of the last surviving Incan aristocrats, with whom he becomes involved. His failure to prevent her suicide sends him traveling north to Mexico where with the help of the blind linguist Oaxatli, he ends up in the hands of Dona Azul, the head of a group of Aztecs with their own brand of Christianity. They crucify San Germanno, who is finally rescued by Rogerian.

Ambitious in its scope and provocative in its content, the saga of the undying Count Saint-Germain is a monumental feat of the imagination.

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's novels have powerfully captured Saint-Germain throughout his long existence, from the temples of Ancient Egypt to our present century.

Now, on the verge of the First World War, Saint-Germain accepts a top-secret assignment from Czar Nicholas of Russia to deliver one last proposal for peace to the crowned heads of Europe. But powerful men plot against Saint-Germain--and may use his love for a talented young artist against him.

The Comte de Saint-Germain is living in relative peace and prosperity in the village of Orgon in fourteenth-century France. He has won a grudging acceptance from the local populace, who are uneasy with his strange and foreign ways but appreciative of his generosity. But a new threat has upset the precarious balance: Plague has come to France, and the people's fear turns to xenophobia. To avoid the scrutiny that could reveal his true nature, Saint-Germain must flee. However, his travels drive him deeper into the heart of the Black Death--and danger.

In the Count's latest adventure, Communion Blood, Saint-Germain finds himself on the way to seventeenth- century Rome, the center of power for the Catholic Church. Niklos Aurilios, the long-time servant of Olivia Clemens, may lose Olivia's estate to a young German who claims to be the son of Olivia's fictional husband. Saint-Germain must use all of his wiles and diplomatic skill to preserve Olivia's will without revealing his true nature.

Come Twilight begins in eastern Spain in the early 600s, when Saint-Germain makes a vampire of the headstrong Csimenae. In the next 140 years, as Spain is controlled first by the the Visigoths and then by Moors, Csimenae becomes a mother of vampires. Though he will regret it for centuries to come, Saint-Germain must act against her.

A Feast in Exile draws readers back to the time when the Mongol hordes of Timur (known in the West as Tamerlane) swept across fourteenth-century India and Asia. Delhi's civilized veneer crumbles along with its walls. Foreigners, which the vampire Saint-Germain-here called Sanat Ji Mani-surely is, lose their positions, homes, wealth, and sometimes their lives, if they cannot escape the falling city.

Before he can flee Delhi, Sanat Ji Mani must ensure the safety of Avasa Dani, his beautiful ward, who has been abandoned by her husband. Sanat Ji Mani's love has awakened Avasa Dani's every sense; even she will become a vampire upon her death, but she finds no terror in this fate.

Avasa Dani and Rojire, Sanat Ji Mani's servant, successfully make their way out of Delhi, but Sanat Ji Mani himself is trapped. His life is bought by his skills with medicine, but, at Timur's command, he must travel-by day, and exposed to the sun-with the conqueror's army. Crippled and unable to escape, he knows that his vampire nature will soon be revealed, and then...

Avasa Dani, with a worried Rojire at her side, considers her options as a woman without a visible male protector in a land and time ruled by men. While one of Sanat Ji Mani's allies searches desperately for the missing vampire, Saint-Germain and a young acrobat, with whom he has escaped from Timur's forces, make their slow and painful way to freedom. The journey changes them both forever.

At the forced invitation of 8th century Germanic king Karl-lo-Magne (Charlemagne), Hiermon Ragoczy de Santus Germainius, a dark and strange man rumored to have traveled to many far places, makes the dangerous journey to France. He is called to validate the authenticity of the king's newly purchased maps, but unbeknownst to Karl-lo-Magne, Ragoczy's knowledge stems from centuries of being chased from these countries, rather than traveling through them. Despite his longing for peace, he yields to Karl-lo-Magne. What he does not expect, though, is to meet the albino woman, Gynethe Mehaut, who shares his curse of solitude. Showing signs of stigmata, she seeks peace from the church. But when she is taken to Rome, accusations of witchcraft fly, and she is left with a difficult choice-one that even Ragoczy cannot deny.

Fleeing Spain at the beginning of their Civil War, the vampire Saint-Germain arrives in California to reunite with the older and wiser Rowena Saxon, who is considering following the Dark Prince into an eternal life. Meanwhile, Saint-Germain is unaware that a ruthless assassin is pursuing him--one of the most charming killers ever to grace the page: Cenere. Unbelievably smooth and utterly inhumane, Cenere has trailed Saint-Germain across oceans and continents, killing anyone in his way, including those under Saint-Germain's protection. But will Saint-Germain finally awaken to the danger that threatens him before all he loves is lost?

It is the 6th century of the common era. The vampire Saint-Germain, known in this time as Zangi-Ragozh, is peacefully doing business in Asia when the island of Krakatoa explodes in a massive volcanic eruption. Tidal waves swamp harbors hundreds of miles away, destroying trade ships and their cargoes; tons of ash and dirt are flung into the air.

In the months to come, the world grows colder and darker as the massive volcanic cloud spreads across the globe, blocking sunlight. Sea trade is ravaged. Crops fail. Livestock, and then people, begin to starve. Disease spreads. Panic rises.

As always in times of trouble, foreigners-and the vampire is always a foreigner-become targets. Fleeing toward the West, where he hopes to find safety and sanity, the vampire travels with a nomadic tribe led by Dukkai, a female shaman who soon becomes Zangi-Ragozh's lover.

But Zangi-Ragozh's problems are far from over. His vampire nature is discovered by an enemy; he begins to starve; he is betrayed by one he cared deeply for; he loses everything, even his last sack of his native soil.

With the True Death looming, Zangi-Ragozh tries to reach sanctuary in his ancient homeland.

Transylvania.

Franzicco Ragoczy di Santo-Germano is a successful merchant in Venice. His lavish lifestyle and rumored cache of magnificent jewels have attracted the wrong sort of attention, and without Santo-Germano's noble--and papal--connections, he might be imprisoned, his property confiscated. Also under surveillance is the vampire's mistress, the lovely and talented musician Pier-Ariana Salier.

Elsewhere, Ragoczy's publishing business is being investigated by the Inquisition. Erneste van Amsteljaxter, a writer whose intelligence Ragoczy finds attractive, is tarred with the brush of heresy. Ragoczy is trying to help her, when he learns that Pier-Ariana has disappeared.

Back in Venice Santo-Germano finds that his fortune has been embezzled, and that he is accused of kidnapping, and possibly murdering, a young man who had been spying on the vampire and his mistress. Another spy has discovered Santo-Germano's true nature and intends to kill him before he can feast on all of Venice!

In the unsettled time when Imperial Rome totters on the brink of collapse, the vampire Ragoczy Germainus Sanct' Franciscus--the Count Saint-Germain--finds himself targeted by a corrupt Roman official and accused of bribery, tax evasion, and treason.

The storm that hovers over the vampire grows darker when he is accused of corrupting Ignatia, a young virgin. Her brother, a zealous covert to the new religion of Christianity, threatens to purify Saint-Germain with fire. And fire can destroy even the undead.

Borne in Blood is the landmark twentieth volume of the Saint-Germain cycle. Historically accurate, these deeply emotional novels have a devoted readership.

he year is 1817. In Switzerland, the Count has become intrigued by the work of an Austrian noble who is investigating the properties of blood, a subject always of key interest to a vampire. But when the noble's beautiful young ward fixates sexually on the Count, the vampire fears that it is his blood the Austrian will be most interested in!

Focusing on Saint-Germain—one of the genre's most memorable vampires—this collection follows the dark immortal from ancient Greece to the present as tales of his timeless life are recounted. Also included is a brief essay by the author about her world-renowned vampire, with an Introduction by Sharon A. Russell.

Table of Contents

• Introduction - essay by Sharon A. Russell
• Harpy - (2007)
• A Gentleman of the Old School - (2005)
• Intercession - (2003)
• Lost Epiphany - (2008)
• Tales Out of School - (2008)

The vampire Count Saint-Germain, disguised as a missing Hungarian nobleman, is on a spy mission in the heart of Czarist Russia. Almost by the power of his will alone, it seems, Peter the Great is wrestling the city that will one day be St. Petersburg out of swampland. Representatives of the heads of all European states are living in tiny, frigid, wooden homes as they jockey for power and influence over the Czar. When a man shows up claiming to be the Count Saint-Germain, the vampire must figure out how to protect his title and wealth without revealing either his true identity or his True Nature.

Two decades strong, the Saint-Germain cycle is one of the most compelling works of dark fantasy and horror of our age. Historically accurate, these deeply emotional novels have a devoted readership.

In Burning Shadows, Yarbro looks at the legendary Huns from the perspective of the people who faced the brunt of their attacks. The vampire Saint-Germain seeks sanctuary at an isolated monastery, unwilling to abandon the hundreds of terrified villagers he has led in flight from the Huns. A few Roman soldiers and some village Watchmen are the monastery's defense force—and they are undermined by the religious fervor of some of the monks, who argue that since everyone's fate is in God's hands, it is foolish to defend themselves. In the hothouse atmosphere of the high-walled monastery, Saint-Germain must take special care when slaking his vampire thirst, for discovery of his True Nature will result in his True Death.

More than two decades strong, the Saint-Germain cycle is one of the most compelling works of dark fantasy and horror of our age. Historically accurate, often involving key events or figures from throughout world history, these deeply emotional novels have a devoted readership. Each novel is written as a stand-alone and they are not chronologically consecutive, so readers may enter the saga with any book and move backward or forward in time as they choose, from Pharaonic Egypt to Paris in the 1700s, from the fall of the Roman Empire to World War II Europe.

In An Embarrassment of Riches, the vampire Count finds himself a virtual prisoner in the Court of Kunigunde in Bohemia in the 1200s. Rakoczy Ferncsi, as Saint-Germain is known, passes his days making jewels to delight Queen Kunigunde and trying not to become involved in the Court's intrigues. In this, the vampire fails. Handsome, apparently wealthy, and obviously unmarried, he soon finds himself being sexually blackmailed by Rozsa, an ambitious lady-in-waiting. If he does not satisfy her, she will denounce him to the priests and he'll be burned at the stake, resulting in his True Death. Despite his care, the vampire makes more than one enemy at the Bohemian Court, and by the end of An Embarrassment of Riches, the Count can see only one road to freedom... through death.

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's modern classic, Hotel Transylvania, introduced the Count Saint-Germain and his beloved, Madelaine de Montalia. The Count is one of the most critically acclaimed vampire characters ever created, with dedicated fans who have followed his adventures through more than twenty novels, dozens of short stories, and thousands of years of human history. But of all the women the Count has loved, the most popular is the beautiful, ever-youthful Madelaine.

In Commedia della Morte, Saint-Germain learns that Madelaine—now a vampire—has been arrested by France's Revolutionary Tribunal and is soon to lose her head. Desperate to rescue her, the Count sneaks into France with a troupe of actors led by the glamorous Photine, who soon becomes Saint-Germain's mistress. Photine's teenage son, driven by jealousy and revolutionary fervor, betrays the Count. Now Saint-Germain's life, as well as Madelaine's, hangs in the balance, in this darkly romantic historical vampire novel.

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's first Saint-Germain novel, Hotel Transylvania, was recently nominated as Vampire Novel of the Century. Her Saint-Germain cycle, now comprised of more than twenty-five books, is a masterwork of historical horror fiction. The vampire Count Saint-Germain has crisscrossed the world many times, seeking love and the blood of life and seeing humanity at its best and worst.

In Night Pilgrims, Saint-Germain is living in a monastery in Egypt when he is hired to guide a group of pilgrims to underground churches in southern Egypt. The vampire finds a companion in a lovely widow who later fears that her dalliance with the Count will prevent her from reaching Heaven.

The pilgrims begin to fall prey to the trials of travel in the Holy Lands; some see visions and hear the word of God; others are seduced by desires for riches and power. A visit to the Chapel of the Holy Grail brings many quarrels to a head; Saint-Germain must use all his diplomacy and a good deal of his strength to keep the pilgrims from slaughtering one another.

The vampire Count Saint-Germain protects Americans fleeing persecution--and becomes trapped in a web of betrayal, deceit, and murder in post-WWII Europe in Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's SUSTENANCE

The powerful House Un-American Activities Committee hunted communists both at home and abroad. In the late 1940s, the vampire Count Saint-Germain is caught up in intrigue surrounding a group of Americans who have fled to postwar Paris. Some speak out against HUAC and battle the authorities.

Saint-Germain swears to do his best to protect his friends, but even his skills may not be able to stand against agents of the OSS and the brand-new CIA. And he has an unexpected weakness: his lover, Charis, who has returned to Paris under mysterious circumstances.