Immanuel's Veins

Dekker jumps on the vampire bloodwagon with an 18th century novel set in the Carpathian Mountains. When two warriors are charged by Catherine the Great of Russia to guard two young women at risk of harm, Toma, the narrator and protagonist, must choose between his duty and honor and the passion he feels for one of the two, the beautiful Lucine. When she falls into the hands of a group of descendants of Nephilim—offspring of the angels who bred with humans, as mentioned in Genesis—Toma must rescue her by means of blood and a love he's never known but must come to understand first himself: the blood of Immanuel's veins. Dekker takes Christian fiction to the edge of darkness in a way that makes redemption and the ancient practices of the church—holy communion, confession of belief in Christ, baptism—bright and believable by contrast. This is classic Dekker clothed in Eastern European garb, passionate and shocking. Pacing is fast as a hummingbird, villains induce cardiac arrhythmias, and the novel must be read with blood pressure pills. (Sept.)