Chapters breakdown

Blood Searches chapter breakdown

Blood Searches is the story of a young doctor, Thomas Levine, and his experiences raising two teenage age vampires in a world where vampirism is viewed as a communicable disease on the level of AIDS. 

Chapter 1- Thomas wakes up with memories of the previous night where he was helpless before two female vampires who drank his blood, but did not transfer vampirism to him.  Taking a shot gun with him he searches for his attackers with the intent, perhaps not to kill, but to gain some measure of revenge on creatures he believes to be on level with monsters from scripture.  Through some means unknown to him deriving from his vampire bite he is able to trace his attackers.  But they are two, starving teenage girls.  After driving them to the hospital he finds himself unable to let them simply be processed into the system given that their parents had disowned them due to their condition.  The chapter ends with Thomas accepting the two girls, Carina and Belle, into his home.

Chapter 2- Thomas is on his way home from working at the hospital when he is ambushed by a vampire who breaks through his windshield and holds him hostage until being dropped up at a local pizza shack.  Overloaded with how close he was to death Thomas is barely able to drive home before crashing into his garage.  He wakes in the very hospital he worked in, scaring a nearby nurse with his surprise.  However his professionalism sets in and he is able to calm the nurse down.  He finds himself injured but not dangerously so.  His adopted daughters separated by his sorta girlfriend are brought to see him, and Carina the oldest vows to repay Thomas's generosity and to see fit that he would never have to suffer thusly again.  The doctor managing him (And with whom is familiar), shares his knowledge of vampires with him, most importantly that he is a “Stone” a person bitten by a vampire who has not contracted Stoker's Dilemma (What vampirism is called medically).  The doctor also lends Thomas a book on the first recorded interview with a vampire which explains much about vampirism and its history, though much of the books content are not shared with the reader yet.

Chapter 3- Thomas is back on his feet and going to work again.  He wakes up and takes his daughters to school before heading to work himself.  His car breaksdown even after being maintained from the last wreck and a fellow doctor offers to take him home after his own shift since they end around the same time, which Thomas accepts.  Throughout the day Thomas deals with mostly elderly patients with various stages of dementia and stubbornest (Being a cardiologist this is because mostly the elderly have heart issues).  There is one elderly woman that he gets a weird vibe around however, accompanyed by her daughter, who upon glancing at Thomas goes mute and much of her symptoms are communicated to him by the daughter.  When Thomas asks her what is wrong she says that “I smell the scent of blood on you.”  Accessing her records later Thomas learns that this elderly woman is indeed diagnosed with a mild form of Stokers.  Before the woman leaves Thomas rushes to meet with her and expresses an unprofessional interest in learning about Stoker's due to his adopted daughters.  The woman gives him her number.  That night Thomas reads another section of “Interview with a Vampire” regarding dhampirs, “half” vampires who still have many of the traits of a full vampire but without many of the negative and positive attributes.  These attributes, which Thomas is implied to have, are increased strength and longlivity, a sense of where other vampires are or if a person nearby is a vampire called “The blood scent”.  This attribute is discussed in detail

Chapter 4- Thomas arrives home from work and fines Carina unwilling to talk with him and in tears.  He approaches Belle and she tells Thomas what happened that day from her point of view, outlining her own experiences.  She arrives at the school by being dropped off by Thomas and as usual finds that there are rumors going about concerning Belle and Carina (Though in particularly Carina) being “Vampire Sluts” and that their vampirism had come from some guy Carina had had a relationship with leading to Carina “infecting” Belle.  Although Belle had been able to retain most of her friends, many of the girls Carina hung out with have abandoned her and even developed feuds with her, spreading hurtful rumours and even being aggresssive to her in the hallways.  One girl today had said to another girl in her range of hearing “She looks like a girl alright, but what happens when I make her bleed?”  Thomas than approaches Carina about the day only to find that she had mostly come to terms with it and achnowledges all that Belle had said.  However she adds that there's a boy she likes that she had meant since this situation had started and who she's nervous won't ever like her now that she's a vampire.  Thomas has nothing to stay directly, save to say that “If you show him you're human he's bound to relate, I promise.  The chapter closes with a page on the history of Vampire and Human relations.

Chapter 5

Thomas, his girlfriend Hope and Carina and Belle all go to the park to eat a picknic lunch.  One of the boys playing however spot Hope's fangs and tells his parents.  The father approaches Thomas to tell him to “Get the hell out, there's children here.”  Thomas declines saying that everyone has a right to the park.  Thomas is surprised to be notified of an article written about his situation in the form of a gossip collomn.  Given that Thomas has been named “Top Doc” the previous year the reporter reflects upon his career in contrast with adopting “Whore children.”  Although sensitive to Thomas's plight believing him to simply be “misguided” she warns of the health risk of a notable doctor being at risk of contracting Stokers.  Some patients cancel their appointments and Thomas gets worried.  Having a bright idea, he approaches the same paper to write a response piece on his experiences raising his two vampire adopted children.  That evening his house is broken into with his daughters having been kidnapped.

Chapter 6-  Working with the police Thomas is able to remember key details to the police to identify the men as belonging to the moonlight gang, an organization flourishing in a local crime ridden slum.  Due to the relatively high death and injury rate from vampire to human “conversions” the criminals had read the article about Thomas and his daughters and decided since Thomas hadn't become an infected that the girls's blood is “Pure” and thus would be perfect for the gang members themselves becoming converted due to the increased and durability of a successful conversion.  Thomas and the police come closer to the Moonlight gang's hide out as Carina and Belle wake up.  After being forced to throw-up and thus becoming hungry enough to enter a blood lust all of the gang members present volunteer themselves to be bitten.  When the police storm the area however the gang members are found to have developed negative symptoms of Stoker's with one member in particular expressing much resistances to bullets though he himself is quickly gunned down.  Belle and Carina are found alive but barely concious, feeling ill from drinking blood that in many cases was laced with drugs.  The chapter closes with Thomas reading a passage of “Interview with a Vampire” concerning vampires being taken advantage of in war environments.