To Be Damned — Kenneth Miller

Set in seventeenth-century England, at the height of the Great Plague epidemic, To Be Damned is a traditional vampire tale in the vein of Bram Stoker's Dracula. Christian Coleswitten is a priest's apprentice, summoned from his thankless job of tending to those dying of the plague by the lecherous Father Samuel Stemmons. In seeking some holy artifact or relic which would ward off the plague, Father Stemmons has chanced upon an oddity that at first blush appears divine in nature.

The small rural town of Manasseh has not reported a single death from the plague - or a single death at all - in over twenty years. Tasking Christian with traveling to Manasseh and deducing the cause of the apparent stout health of its residents, Father Stemmons appoints the Scot mercenary Cotton Smith-Patton to act as his ward's bodyguard. Together, the two encounter all manner of strange and diabolical characters before their journey's horrific end.

In the midst of an evil as old as mankind, Christian unexpectedly encounters the seductive beauty, Cassandra, who nightly stalks his dreams. Almost too late he discovers the unholy secret that lies beyond the passion in her eyes, and in his tortured soul comes to realize that she is among those-To Be Damned.