Blood And Gold

This is the stunning and eerie tale of Marius, a scholar by choice and a patrician by birth, making him one of the oldest vampires of them all. It takes place from his beginnings in ancient Rome under the reign of Emperor Augustus until his encounter with a monster made of ice and snow in the current day. As a Northern vampire, Thorne is on the hunt for Maharet, his "maker," the ancient Egyptian vampire queen who has chains fashioned of her red hair, "bound with steel and with her blood and gold," which enslave him and others. Marius is present when the Visigoths take over his city; he is there when Rome's splendor returns, continuing to look for his long-lost love Pandora, but he is also captivated by Botticelli, the Renaissance beauty Bianca and her sinister secrets, and the boy he calls Amadeo (also referred to as the Vampire Armand). The most amazing and astounding of all is the story of Marius, the self-proclaimed protector of "those who must be kept," who is hunted by the Talamasca and plagued by Pandora and his alter ego Mael. His tales intersect with those of other vampires from Rice's magnificent Pantheon of the Undead.