Through the churchyard, headstones broken, through boggy places — mud squishes. Footfalls, not a word spoken. Gates slam like lost wishes. Through rows of graves, now have done with amazement.

Be still, don’t fail him. Don’t break his spell. Casket borne as a snail would. The unreal man’s coffin trails him —”

The great Russian writer, Marina Tsvetaeva lights the flame of her tale in a small village, where Marusya is the belle of the town. A mysterious fellow shows up and shows off at the young people’s dance.

The ties of love, the ties of death, mysterious fires, spiritual crossroads and moral failings weave through the tale.

The characters and their bonds will return in the novel’s second part. There the lovers find one another again in new lives, this time as part of Russia’s nobility. More ethical choices, more seeking, more love, and then: a cleansing way to live on the way to redemption.

A Russian Vampire, Eternal Love, & Eternal Life.