Blood Alone
By Elaine Bergstrom, 1990
Series: Austra Family

"Blood Alone was written after Shattered Glass but the events in the story take place 20 year before those of it's predecessor.

The year is 1938 and Paul Stoddard has come to Portugal to be trained by the master artisans at Austra Glass. He discovers that the Austra family are an inscrutable lot; they are powerfully attractive, wildly talented in a number of the arts, and have an almost parental relationship with the community of workers at AustraGlass. But the closer Paul gets to the Family, the more he finds them involved in intrigue and espionage; despite the avowed neutrality of the company. AustraGlass deals openly with the Nazis, despite the objections of some of their other important clients. Yet several members of the Family are working actively to foil the plans of the Reich.

The Austras are not human-- they drink blood to survive, heal incredibly quickly, shun direct sunlight, and the older members of the Family possess the power of telepathy, and influence over human minds. They learn from infancy to blend in with their human neighbors-- to hide their unusually long arms, their needle sharp rear teeth. Their secret is revealed to Paul in a darkened cell, with both of his knees shattered by an enemy's bullets--a harsh introduction into the nature of the Family, whose allure Paul cannot resist." (from the Official Elaine Bergstrom Web Page)

Paperback Info: ISBN 0515103802, Jove Books (out of print)

More from Elaine Bergstrom: Baroness of Blood, Mina, Blood to Blood