Doctor Vampire

By Margaret L. Carter

At the age of forty, psychiatrist Roger Darvell discovered vampires are real, a nonhuman species living secretly among the ordinary mortals who vastly outnumber them, and he himself is a hybrid, with a vampire mother and a human father. After learning the truth about the craving for blood that had plagued him all his adult life, he came to terms with his “monstrous” side and found love with his human professional partner, Dr. Britt Loren. In between treating their mundane patients, Roger and Britt occasionally venture into problems of the paranormal. They deal with three extraordinary cases in these stories, as they counsel a neurotic young vampire, a guilt-ridden werewolf, and a woman who owns a haunted antique desk.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Night to Dawn Magazine & Books LLC
• Release date: Jan 9, 2022
• ISBN: 9781937769710

Margaret L. Carter

Reading Dracula at the age of twelve ignited Margaret L. Carter’s interest in a wide range of speculative fiction and inspired her to become a writer. Vampires, however, have always remained close to her heart. Her work on vampirism in literature includes four books and numerous articles. She holds a PhD in English from the University of California (Irvine), and her dissertation contained a chapter on Dracula. In fiction, she has written horror, fantasy, and paranormal romance, as well as sword-and-sorcery fantasy in collaboration with her husband, a retired naval officer. Her short stories have appeared in various anthologies, including the Darkover and Sword and Sorceress series. She and her husband live in Maryland and have four children, several grandchildren and great-grandchildren, a St. Bernard, and two cats. Please visit Carter’s Crypt: http://www.margaretlcarter.com

Book preview

Doctor Vampire

Margaret L. Carter

Night to Dawn Magazine & Books LLC

P. O. Box 643

Abington, PA 19001

www.bloodredshadow.com

Smashwords Edition

Copyright © 2022 by Margaret L. Carter

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-937769-71-0

Cover Artist: Marge Simon

Editor: Barbara Custer

Published in the United States of America

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including photocopying, recording or by any information retrieval and storage system without permission of the publisher.

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Names, characters and incidents depicted in this book are products of the author’s imagination, or are used in a fictitious situation. Any resemblances to actual events, locations, organizations, incidents or persons – living or dead – are coincidental and beyond the intent of the author.

Thanks to Karen Wiesner for her always helpful critiques.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Therapy for a Vampire

Werewolf Watch

Desk Specter

About the Contributors

Introduction

At the age of forty, psychiatrist Roger Darvell had a very strange midlife crisis. He discovered vampires are real, a nonhuman species living secretly among the ordinary mortals who vastly outnumber them, and he himself is a hybrid, with a vampire mother and a human father. After learning the truth about the craving for blood that had plagued him all his adult life, he came to terms with his monstrous side and found love with his human professional partner, Dr. Britt Loren. Now, with their psychiatric practice limited by insurance regulations mostly to prescribing drugs and making referrals, they occasionally vary the routine by taking on a less mundane case.

For instance, in these three light-paranormal stories, first published in Night to Dawn magazine, the couple provides therapy to a neurotic young vampire with cruciphobia and a problem crossing water, a guilt-ridden werewolf who fears he’s unleashed bloodthirsty impulses in a fugue state, and a woman whose newly purchased antique desk might have come with a ghost attached. These stories can be read on their own with no prior knowledge of Roger and Britt.

In case you’d like to become further acquainted with these characters, Roger was introduced in Dark Changeling and Child of Twilight, now available in an e-published omnibus, Twilight’s Changelings:

http://www.tinyurl.com/TwilightsChangelings (Amazon)

https://books2read.com/u/bar0X2 (Other online retailers)

Britt appears as a major secondary character in my werewolf novel Shadow of the Beast:

http://www.writers-exchange.com/Shadow-of-the-Beast/

You can find all the available titles in my Vanishing Breed vampire universe listed in internal chronological sequence on my website. Most of them can be read independently in any order:

http://www.margaretlcarter.com/the-vanishing-breed-universe/

Therapy for a Vampire

Let me make sure I have this straight. Dr. Britt Loren, Roger Darvell’s partner in both senses of the word, lounged on the couch in his office. The Prime Elder, the leader of the worldwide vampire community—

Insofar as we have one. Roger leaned against his desk, enjoying the contemplation of her creamy skin and flame-colored hair, which thanks to their blood bond showed only the faintest marks of aging. The setting sun filtered through the window blinds to highlight the golden undertones in her hair. After a full day of listening to patients’ problems, he yearned to move closer and bask in the glow of her aura. No doubt she also sensed the headache throbbing behind his eyes. He restrained himself, though, knowing that if he got within touching distance, he might succumb to the temptation to do more than look. Organization and obedience don’t come naturally to vampires.

She waved away the interruption. Anyhow, Volnar’s head of the Council of Elders, right? Close enough approximation to ‘leader.’ He actually asked you to perform therapy on a member of your mother’s species? The same Volnar who, according to you, pigeonholes at least half of human science under ‘quackery’? Especially psychoanalysis?

Roger shrugged. Maybe he figures that since this young man’s problem was indirectly caused by human culture, a human solution may be appropriate. Particularly as applied by a half-human psychiatrist, of which I’m the only one available.

Did Volnar say whose idea this was in the first place?

It seems the prospective patient asked for help, and since he recently moved to this area—Baltimore, specifically—I’m conveniently located as well as qualified. According to Volnar, certain phobias have become outright disabling.

Britt sat up straight and crossed her long, slender legs. Oh. It’s the adolescent hyper-plasticity thing, isn’t it?

Exactly. The extreme adaptability of vampires in childhood and youth enabled them to pass camouflaged among their prey but had its negative side. With careless exposure to human culture in their formative years, some of them internalized popular superstitions about their own kind. Volnar didn’t go into details, so I don’t know whether the problem is the usual fear of religious objects or something more complicated.

Britt leaned forward with elbows on her knees, chin resting on clenched fists. You said he’s young. How young?

About forty, fully mature but definitely a callow youth by full-blooded standards.

It should help that you’re significantly older, shouldn’t it? In terms of respect, I mean.

"I can only hope. To most of our kind, someone who hasn’t lived even a century isn’t worth listening to. Depends how he feels