V.C. Andrews enters the world of vampires for the first time in this
all-new novel, Daughter of Darkness.
Lorelei Patio, 17, is the adopted daughter of a two-hundred-year-old
vampire, Sergio Patio.
He, a nanny named Mrs. Fennel, her older sisters Ava and Brianna and
her younger sister Marla are the only family she has known. She was
adopted as an infant. Mrs. Fennel was responsible for her early
upbringing with Sergio giving her as much normal fatherly love as
possible. For most of her youth, she never fully realised who and what
her father was, nor what her sisters were brought up to do for him, but
one day, that all changed.
Mrs. Fennel prepared her for it, as did Ava, but the initial
realisation came as a shock. Sergio's 'daughters' serve a very
important purpose. They are all beautiful young ladies who can easily
attract men. Sergio uses them to lure young men into the house so he
can feed on their blood. Daddy expects Lorelei to be the obedient
daughter he needs and bring him new victims.
But Lorelei is, above all else, a teenager. When she meets a shy,
handsome young man named Buddy in school, she quickly falls in love
with him. He feels the same way, but wonders why she doesn't want to
take him home to meet her father. Lorelei knows what will happen if she
does, and tries desperately to keep her two worlds apart, but she can't
keep it up forever, and can never truly escape her fate as a daughter
of darkness.
About The Author
Virginia C. Andrews (born Cleo Virginia Andrews) was born on the 6th
of June, 1923, in Portsmouth, Virginia. The youngest of three children,
Virginia was the only daughter of William Henry Andrews, a tool-and-die
maker, and Lillian Lilnora Parker Andrews, a telephone operator. She
spent her childhood years in Portsmouth, Virginia, and lived briefly in
Rochester, New York. The Andrews family returned to Portsmouth while
Virginia was in high school.
While a teenager, Virginia suffered a tragic accident; she fell down
the stairs at her school and incurred severe back injuries. Virginia
bravely suffered through the pain that her doctors would not
acknowledge. Arthritis and a failed spinal surgical procedure forced
her to spend most of her life on crutches or in a wheelchair.
Virginia excelled in school--she skipped both the third and sixth
grades. At fifteen, she won a scholarship for writing a parody of
Tennyson's Idylls of the King. She proudly earned her high
school diploma from Woodrow Wilson High School in Portsmouth. After
graduation, she nurtured her impressive artistic talent by completing a
four-year correspondence art course while living at home with her
family, where she recuperated after undergoing more surgical attempts
to correct the damage to her hip and back.
William Andrews died of a sudden heart attack around 1957. Virginia
and her mother left Portsmouth to live near one of her brothers in
Manchester, Missouri. Later, mother and daughter moved again, this time
to be close to her other brother in Apache Junction, Arizona. Virginia
helped to support her family through her extremely successful career as
a commercial artist, portrait painter, and fashion illustrator.
