Q&A #2:

(1) How do vampires cease to exist? Both Cassie & Dori say that it is either direct sun exposure or the combined staking/decapitation. Yet Cassie said that Sal and Nicu died because they fell off the 20th floor.

Cassie and Dory were both discussing sure-fire methods. But enough damage to the body will also do it–like being turned into mush from a twenty-story fall! After all, that would also destroy the head and the heart, wouldn’t it?

(2) How do vampires survive in Fairy, since Dori has said that they do not drink fairy blood?

They either (a) find one of the humans the Fey keep as servants and feed from them, or (b) they get the heck out of Faerie!

(3) In “The Gauntlet” Marlowe refers to Walsingham as “my master”. Does he mean Sir Francis Walsingaham and that the latter was a vampire, because historically Francis Walsingham predeceased Christopher Marlowe?

Marlowe doesn’t mention Walsingham in “The Gauntlet.” I think you must be thinking of the sequel, “The Queen’s Witch.” Marlowe mentions Walsingham twice in that story, and both times it’s made clear that he is deceased.

(4) Are there going to be any more Kitt/Gillian, Claire short stories?

Yes, on Kit and Gillian. Maybe on Claire. Claire is also in the Dory novels, so she gets a bit of an outing there.

(5) Silly question but it’s in relation to one of last week’s answers. It’s about the 3 bite rule for turning vamp. When it was answered, the rule did not really apply correctly for Dory because Dory didn’t ask to be drained, just to be turned. The vamp in question got a little too enthusiastic, leaving her lightheaded the next day. It got me thinking a bit, Cassie asks Mircea in the first book if she were to taste bitter. I guess all creatures have a different taste to a vamp.

• Was Dory too ‘tasty’ for the vamp?

No, he was trying to make sure that the disease “took”. In my universe, vampirism is a metaphysical disease, and the Change is, in essence, the infection of a new person with it. And being the first to Change a dhampir would have been quite an accomplishment for him.

• What would Cassie taste like?

Read Hunt the Moon and you’ll find out!

• Also feeding consistently from the same person forms a bond…are there withdrawal symptoms when stopped?

No, but the bond will fade over time, if the feeding stops and the person in question isn’t Changed.

(6) What exactly did Pritkin and Jonas argue about in Curse the Dawn while Cassie was in the garden? We get a general idea but the actual escalation to a shouting argument happens off screen.

Pritkin didn’t think Jonas should have broken the news about Cassie’s parents the way he did. He didn’t object to her hearing what was common knowledge in the Corps, but thought it could have waited for a better time. Jonas thought he was mollycoddling her. If she was strong enough to be Pythia, she was strong enough to hear the truth–or at least the Circle’s version of it. That was usually Pritkin’s view, too, but this particular issue hit fairly close to home for him, and he was not happy about it being dumped on her like that.