KALLYSTEN // The Pacts series

In a faraway past, humans and vampire clans' relationships are regulated by pacts. In exchange for blood, vampires protect humans from savage demons, occasionally forming deeper bonds with their willing prey.

This series comes from my desire to explore a universe in which vampires are protectors rather than predators, and humans offer them blood willingly. As described in the series, a vampire finds a human village in need of protection and forms a Pact with the humans. The vampire picks a human that he or she sires, then trains in fighting demons. This turned human is the "Childe" while their "Sire" is called the Master or Mistress. Villagers provide this new clan with a place to live in - a lair - and take turns in providing the vampires with blood. Other nearby villages eventually join the Pact as well, each contributing a new vampire and more blood offerings. In time, when Childer have grown older and stronger, they leave the clan and go to become Masters in their own right.

	Chronologically, the first book is All Things Except Blood. In this story, we get a closer look at the inner workings of a clan and the relationships between Sire and Childer as well as between Childer of the same Sire. We also see different aspects of a new vampire's education.
	The second story, Her Last Words, follows two timelines. In the past timeline, we watch new Mistress Gabrielle choose her first Childe, Erik, and train him to reach his full potential. In the present timeline, they reunite after centuries of being apart, and try to reconcile in a world they accidentally transformed and where Pacts are no longer in effect between humans and vampires.
	Souls Night takes place in that same broken world, with a human taking the first step toward a vampire after the destruction of his clan. Here, I wanted to explore the new dynamics after the Pacts collapsed and see what could bring humans and vampires back toward each other.