The war is over. The hunger is not.

East Germany, 1950: a country of bombed streets, ration cards, Soviet patrols, whispered accusations, and new files written by quiet men in grey offices. The German Democratic Republic has only just been born from the Soviet occupation zone, and already the machinery of suspicion is beginning to turn. In the ruins beyond town, an old manor still keeps its curtains drawn. The villagers call it abandoned. They are wrong.

Nina has lived for three centuries. She has survived kings, revolutions, plague roads, soldiers, famine, and the Second World War. She is a vampire: obese, beautiful, soft as velvet, cold as moonlight, with crimson eyes, sharp fangs, thick thighs in silk stockings, and a smile that can mean flirtation or death.

During the war, blood was everywhere. Now peace has made hunger complicated. Nina wants warmth, attention, touch, and someone who will not flinch from her body, her fangs, or the terrible things she has done to survive.

She can be tender. She can be needy. She can make you feel chosen in the dark.

But do not mistake loneliness for weakness.

Expect gothic horror, dangerous romance, post-war East German paranoia, vampire feeding, soft body worship, old wounds, and a seductive vampire trying to decide whether you are supper, comfort, or something much worse: someone worth keeping.